Bamboo Sunset by Meryl Lefkovich

Crafting a Sound Response
Produced by Michael Joly

Listen in Real Audio G2 or MP3

I turned off the TV on the afternoon of September 11 and went outside to a Cape Cod day - to do something.

What I do is make flutes from sturdy reeds and record music with them. These reeds are easy to work with. I can make a flute quickly - less than an hour - and create a powerful focusing instrument for emotions.

Holding the reed in my hands and scraping off the outer bark with a pen knife dispels disbelief because I see and feel that I too am holding a knife and attacking a body, the body of the reed. My intent is constructive, not destructive, but the knife in my hand forces acknowledgement and belief. These terrible acts of violence against human bodies did occur.

When words fail me, crafting and playing a reed flute focuses all my senses - I literally try to "make sense" of what happened and move through stages of emotion with sound.

Shock, disbelief, anger, fear, vengeance, on to acceptance and finally, Hope.

Belief becomes anger as I ram a threaded steel rod down the inside of the reed and remove the nodes separating one hollow section from the next. Steel rods, building reinforcement material, now they lie in heaps on the ground in lower Manhattan. The thought of steel reduced to rubble makes me fear for the safety of those I love.

I cut a blow hole into the hollow reed, and for the first time my gathered emotions are expelled with breath to produce sound.

I taste the dusty woodyness of the reed and my sighs of sorrow turn vengeful. I blow the flute's lowest note, a soft A below middle C then forcefully, overblow.

Three notes, rising, then falling back - a vengeful sound blowing down the walls of the city of terrorism again and again and again.

Catching my breath, inhaling life again brings acceptance and the energy to continue. To continue making the rest of the flute, to live, to do what I do - to put holes in reeds and modulate breath sound around wordless ruminations.

The finger holes are located and cut quickly to capture the energy and emotions of the moment.

With the finger holes in place, only now do I feel Hope - Hope accessed through modal improvisation.

This September 11 flute, made so soon after the event, is for me a doorway to a room of emotional rumination - a place I'll revisit again and again as I continue to craft a personal response through sound.

Michael Joly

I'm a Cambridge-based sound artist and musician. I've created site-specific sound installations and done some soundtrack work for film, video and videogames. I released my first CD "Reed Flute Solos" in 1998 (search Amazon or MP3.com) and I'm working on new material - "ancient electronica" where I'm striving to bring together my reed flute work with electronics and guitars.

I stopped watching TV when I was twelve (in 1968) when I got hooked on radio growing up in N.E. Connecticut (French-Canadian/Acadian - another story)- I could get FM stations from Boston, Providence, Hartford, New Haven, Springfield & Amherst not to mention late night AM skip from NY and Chicago.

In the late 70's I played in punk bands in San Francisco and did some radio production for KPFA via Haight-Ashbury Community Radio.

In the early to mid 90's, I was a community broadcaster at WMBR ("88.1 first on your FM dial!") with a weekly cyberspace-themed talk and ambient music show called "ElectricSpace" - sandwiched very attractively between "Gender Talk" and a long-running Brazilian show.

I was a practicing audio design engineer for many years - working with the founders of dbx, Inc. at their film industry offshoot - Kintek. I designed noise reduction systems, loudspeakers and surround sound processors. I really owe my sound engineering chops to David Blackmer (db in dbx) and my old boss Jim Townsend - a fine film mixer from NYC -who were both kind enough to mentor me as a young pup.

I currently work for the radio division of Greater Media, Inc. as Director of Internet Strategies and provide business analysis and training for NTR new business development teams in our four markets - Boston, Philly, Detroit and Central NJ.

Learn more about Michael's work at his Website: www.electricspace.com

Cover Design by Dave Joly

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