June 20th

Thing Music

“Listen until you are still. Find your breath, slow, placid. As you exhale, draw circles, and hold on tightly.” — Tim Feeney, from Leviathan 

This month we bring you into a world created by instrument maker and Thing Music creator, Erin Demastes and composer and river rock enthusiast, Tim Feeney. For her performance, Erin interprets Tim’s Leviathan, a piece inspired by Thomas Hobbes’s model for ideal governmental power (which suggests that people cede freedom to a central commonwealth) and, paradoxically socialist songwriter Hamish Henderson. The piece was originally composed for percussion quartet, but for this performance Erin has created a group of tiny instrumental automatons, including toy record players, an electric soup stirrer, a jewelry display stand, and other small, everyday objects. The automatons work independently at repetitive tasks while Erin gently guides them and shapes their song with her own found sounds. Our postcard this month is created by artist Pau S. Pescador whose actions, gestures and performances deal with issues surrounding social disconnection and communal space. The title for their piece comes from the root of “Leviathan”, levah, to couple, connect, or join.