Thirst

About

Thirst counterpoints tension and serenity, swinging between Grand Central at rush hour and sculptor Simone Fattal's memories of her grandparents' courtyard in Damascus - a place of sensory richness, wholeness and peace. Such memories create a refuge for the mind from the pervasive noise of crisis surrounding us. A Serbian song sung by Kristin Norderval, Jutros mi je ruza procvetala, threads through the piece. I am most grateful to Simone and Kristin, to Bruce Odland for his Baschet Structures Sonores samples, to Paul Geluso and Stephan Moore with whom I worked on this six channel mix, and to William Voelkle, the curator of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts at the Morgan Library, for the opportunity to record there.

Thirst was commissioned by Issue Project Room with funding from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust; it was also supported in part by the Henry Cowell Award, made possible by the Henry Cowell Estate and administered by the American Music Center.

Annea Lockwood