Manifestation / blurred edges between now & then

Premiere: March 2, 2021. Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC, USA.

Sound sculpture by Stephen Skorski Music by Steven Landis Performance by Erik Schmidt

Manifestation / blurred edges between now and then is a collaborative work created by artist Stephen Skorski and Composer Steven Landis.  Manifestation is a series of 10 sound sculptures that together form an abstract image of a mythical mountain range. The blurred edges between now and then is a composition reflective of the mystical qualities represented in the sculpture.         

Program notes: Manifestation (2021) Sound sculpture by Stephen Skorski

Mountains in Korea are either just out of reach or too close to know them as anything but stone and wood.  The ones most distant – the ones that fade into the morning haze are where I want to be – but whenever I arrive, they’ve changed.  The haze has lifted - the mysteries are gone.  The protective veil vanished.  Too far or too close. 

When I first heard the Buddhist bells and drums, they echoed through trees, bounced off rocks and were absorbed by the soil.  The rhythmic river of sound flowed in and out of space, twisted time, and blurred the edges between now and then.  The drumming called out to all beings; alive, dead, the yet to be.  Listen, focus, feel – manifest - not with body, not with mind – but the space in-between.   Absorb energy through energy.  All things being redeemed – emerge and allow the sounds to clear the way.  Follow the vibrations to the beginning.  Cultivate consciousness and create a new day. 

The blurred edges between now and then (2021) Music by Steven Landis

The blurred edges between now and then explores subtle shifts in the envelope, timbre, resonance, and pitch content of the bells, as well as the wooden structural element of the sound-sculpture, Manifestation.

Composed in five continuous sections, each section focuses on the activation and development of sound with specific implements and a specific family group of bells. Through the course of the work each family group and individual bells within groups are used. Groups are then mixed until the entirety of the sculpture is activated through performance.

The work reflects the calm and distant mountains embodied in the sculpture, while suggesting the meditative atmosphere the sculptor experienced at a Buddhist temple.

Lithographs [series of four]

Premiere: December 28, 2018. K-UP Gallery, Daegu, South Korea.

Lithographs by Stephen Skorski Music by Steven Landis

This collaborative piece first debuted at the "Story Telling: Found Images" Skorski solo exhibition in Daegu, South Korea. These 4, 2-minute (each) compositions are composed of recorded sounds captured from the creation of the lithographs from which these soundscapes are based. Once the sounds were collected, a series of 16 unique lithographs were completed. From this set, four were chosen that had a visual progression that could drive musical composition. The versions played at the 2019 Spring UNCG Faculty Composers Concert were remixed from their original form to accommodate the larger performance space.     

From the program notes of the UNCG Faculty Composers Concert (Feb. 27, 2019: “The process of lithography as used by UNCG artist Stephen Skorski inspired these works.  I recorded Stephen at work in his studio and the resulting samples became the source material for the piece(s).”