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Ghostly Psalms

by Philip Blackburn

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John Atkinson
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blythe sheldon
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  • Streaming + Download

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Four panel digipak with 8p folder and one CD

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghostly Psalms via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Duluth Harbor Serenade 08:06 video
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2.
Ghostly Psalms: Jungle Litany 13:20
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3.
Ghostly Psalms: Draw On, Sweet Night 02:11
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4.
Ghostly Psalms: Roots of a Magic Square 04:55
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5.
Ghostly Psalms: The Shadow of My Shadow 04:56
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6.
Ghostly Psalms: Non Judgment Day is Nigh 04:01
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7.
Ghostly Psalms: Now, More or Less Than Ever 04:26
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8.
Ghostly Psalms: Beyond and Above 03:51
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9.
Ghostly Psalms: Scratch I-Ching 06:48
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10.
Ghostly Psalms: Hymn to the Solar System 05:53
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11.
Gospel Jihad 05:10 video
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about

Some say that an artist’s output is necessarily autobiographical. This set of three substantial works by UK-Minnesotan Philip Blackburn does nothing to disprove that; they have his visionary DNA all over them. They show his deep concern for space, people, and ideas discovering each other through sounding and listening in the moment of performance. And what performances they are! From a city-wide organized industrial soundscape to a virtuoso Cambridge choir, from a brainwave-generated laptop solo to Ellen Fullman’s 80-foot long string instrument with cloistered nuns blowing on organ pipes, these live events are as audacious as they are unrepeatable: Community-based experimental music at its most raw and refined, fun and profound.

Blackburn’s Duluth Harbor Serenade is a giant soundscape composition for the entire sounding bodies of the busy port city on Lake Superior: bridge alarms, steam train whistles, boat and fog horns, bells, brakes, and sirens, not to mention a flash-mob band of dozens of local performers parading around with loud outdoor instruments. The site ultra-specific performance was heard over several miles, coordinated to celebrate the unique sonic signature of the place and re-orchestrate its elements into new textures and combinations.

Ghostly Psalms, a 50-minute live performance for large chorus, organ, and unusual instruments, is equally grand in scope, psychologically if not geographically. It transports the listener through stages of a dream, one that Blackburn had in 1982 that sprang from his days as a Cambridge chorister. Ruined abbeys, watery/windy streams of consciousness, and planetary motions feature prominently. The music is immersive and dense, intimate and cosmic, from vulnerably exposed solos to intensely orgasmic clusters. It’s as much a trip as a journey. Once again, it fills space, only this time in your head.

Psychodrama is central to Gospel Jihad too; an a cappella work for two rival choirs, one distant and tranquil, the other spitting fire and brimstone based on beloved (yet vicious) gospel hymn texts. (Blackburn’s ancestors include hymn writers George Stebbins and Isaac Watts, so he felt his contribution to the tradition should offer another perspective.) The unresolved musical standoff (with choreography viewable on the Youtube version), stunningly performed by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, brings the disc to an end with an unearthly yelp.

Philip Blackburn studied composition with Kenneth Gaburo and has roots in the Oliveros, Partch, Brant, Ives, Ligeti experimental tradition (not to mention English Tudor music). After producing nearly 400 albums for the innova label, this is the first disc devoted to his own music. His work as an environmental sound artist has made plants, sewer-, and eco-systems audible, and has animated harbors, science museums, children’s festivals, parks, parking lots, and deserts with extra opportunities for community listening.

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released March 27, 2021

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Philip Blackburn Saint Paul, Minnesota

Philip Blackburn was born in Cambridge, England, and studied music there and at the University of Iowa with Kenneth Gaburo. He is a public artist specializing in sound — a composer/environmental sound-artist. Blackburn’s works have been heard in ships’ harbors, state fairs, forests, and coming out of storm sewers, as well as in galleries, parking lots, and on concert stages.

philipblackburn.com ... more

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