SHINE

“There is in natural things a certain truth which cannot be seen with the outward eye/ear, but perceived by the mind alone… In this [truth] lies the whole art of freeing the spirit from its fetters…” Carol Jung

Video artwork: Stephen Bradley, Performance, Lisa Cella, Publisher: Chen Li Music, Album: SHINE @2017

Lisa Cella performs the flute works of six contemporary composers and provides a sonic framework for Stephen Bradley’s time-lapse video work that explores a meditative perspective of quotidian events. By slicing time into precise visual moments, the video presents the listener/viewer with an illuminated focus on the familiar.   Interweaving Bradley’s visual “curiosity of motion” with Cella’s musical interpretations, this collaboration engages our capacity for deep listening and seeing.  It opens the “doors of perception” and reveals a pattern language comprised of fractals and synesthesia, leading us to apprehend the ineffable.

https://vimeo.com/showcase/3854572

The music on this DVD represents a joyful coming together of dear friends.   Five of the seven compositions were commissioned by Cella. The works showcase the expressive qualities of the flute family, spanning Bass to Piccolo.  They are varied in style ranging from the relentless layering of rhythms (010 machine states), much like the seemingly chaotic activity of modern life, to an homage of courage and dignity in the face of disaster (Ripples), to a musical representation of mathematical processes (knot theory).  These collaborations celebrate the beauty of light in the natural world (Shine, Light in Each One) and end with an exuberant recollection of early technology (Flute Code).

The video portion for Shine and Light In Each One becomes a critical aesthetic and reference point for the rest of the visuals throughout the music performances.  Though each piece is unique, the common thread connects the subtle content and treatment of the video creating a filmic synthesis of image and sound.  The content staggers between the conceptual and the actual.  Bradley’s goal is to create a compelling relationship with the music that does not distract from the power and subtlety of the sound compositions.  The listener/viewer of these works may experience a synesthetic immersion in these visual and sonic spaces by perceiving a multidimensional aesthetic.   

“Shine” is funded by a generous grant from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), created by composers, flautist, and media artist.