Happy new year everyone, how time flies!
In 2019 I intend to bring you:
- The Call of Oma album and launch event, including the film clip for Come Back
- The video of my play from two years ago By the Mandate of Heaven.
- Two singles if I can swing it Standing There & Resurrected
I have been busily slogging away at the video audio edits, and boy what a process it has been. As well as working on the album. A one person production company is a lot of work, especially for the love of! we do the best we can with what we’ve got right?, whether time, finance, contacts or means. One day I would love it to transform into financial reward. Till then community arts work and teaching are it. The odd paid gig does not sustain one. Most artists are in the same boat, we do not produce works solely for money, if we did everyone would be starving.
SUMMER GIGS
So what is happening? A few summer gigs. There are another two coming up, check the facebook events page for details. Doing some stripped back guitar based tunes on Wednesday 16th January at Whole Lotta Love in Brunswick, go here https://www.facebook.com/events/205613127043434/e
I will be doing this tune Emergence amongst others
And also the last Live at the Horse in my home town on 30th January. check out the event page on facebook here https://www.facebook.com/events/940355062822163/
SONIC SANCTUARY WORKS
I started the year delightfully invigorated by meeting a creative compadre and writing a new song I hope to have fleshed out by a band. Written old school on the guitar, with chord progression and lyrics. Simplicity is often best. It’s a rocking solid tune called ‘Resurrected’– about rebirth and overcoming the burdens of the past essentially. I do hope my new collaborations with my compadre’ work out, it is very promising and a band is my life long dream, it just ain’t happened yet! As I have said before even just a bassist and a drummer would be enough, it is hard to find people! Time will tell. I facebook ‘lived’ the song the day I wrote it. I hope this to be one of the singles I release, looks like it will be an expensive year for production! I may be asking for your help.
BY THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN
You can read earlier posts about the Mandate of Heaven here or do your own search from within my website if interested. https://www.catherinemeeson.com/creative-process/mandate-of-heaven/
The text by the narrator starts:
“Welcome to the Mandate of Heaven a devised play in 3 Acts by Catherine Meeson. It is a spiritual, philosophical, environmental social commentary that looks at and critiques our current civilizations modus operandi- through interactive audience address and audio visual performance method”.
“It is a timely message, a plea for and on behalf of all souls including the earth herself. Infused with the echo and essence of timeless wisdoms and the vision of life today, The Mandate of Heaven calls on the will of the people to act. It reflects on the ethics of human dominance, governance and ownership, the economic imperative, worth and the foundations for life. It speaks for the community of life from the perspective of the intercessionary principle. It challenges current models in light of universal inter-species ethics and directly prompts persons to contemplation and action. It proposes future karma and the need to reassess the founding structures upon which our civilization stands. It calls to account. It asks the participant to contemplate many things. It is an intercession, a point of departure to a future as yet unwritten”.
As such it is a form of ‘social justice art’, which hopes to act to be ” a catalyst to engage community members to take action around a social issue. Social justice art consequently allows people to develop agency to interrupt and alter oppressive systemic patterns or individual behaviours” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice_art . With roots in ancient philosophy, ancient memory, deep feeling and the state of the world affairs today. It is influenced by a wide range of systems of thought, disciplines philosophies and ideologies. It is a unique synthesis through the muse and artistic process of poetic critical thought, but the sort that is open ended so you may find your own answers as you contemplate the topic and content. You will have to wait and see. The editing process involves multiple timelines of video and audio, samples, and narration. It is nearly finished! It will be launched on Youtube next month, maybe with a watch party? Undecided as yet. Plans for the year are not fully set to timetable. Stay tuned for the launch link around 20th February World Social Justice day. Till next time, returning to the ‘Composers Thoughts Series on Craft’ soon, with love Cath