Summer of Listening

Happy summer everyone. Thanks for opening this email and at least skimming the first line šŸ˜‰

I had an amazing time in Europe these past two months. I did a 3-week tour with William ā€œBilwaā€ Costa which took our Un/Natural Fields project to Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Austria and Poland with support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. After that, I did another set of shows with singer Katrine Faber in Germany and Denmark. Iā€™m still waiting on some documentation to be posted, but I will share some live recordings and videos soon. I have plans to collaborate on more projects with both artists in 2019.

Faber McDermott performing at Spektrum in Berlin. Photo by Carl KrĆ¼ger

Iā€™ll be back in Berlin for a three-month residency at GlogauAIR working on and (finally) presenting a version ofĀ Echozoo this fall. Until then Iā€™ll be in Philadelphia and Iā€™m doing a series of workshops and concerts in the coming weeks centered around mindfulness and listening.
Ā 


COURTS

Photo by Shawn Theodore, a fellow Artist in Residence

Before I get into the workshops, if you’re in Philadelphia this week, please check out the closing party for an amazing photo and sound installation I was honored to be a part of. I was an artist in residence at the Village of Arts and Humanities SPACES program. As part of that residency, I created music and sound design (along with the band Ill Doots) using people’s voices and basketball court field recordings from the Hartranft neighborhood in North Philadelphia exploring the culture of the past, present, and future of the courts for the show, Home Court: The Hartranft Basketball Court Revival. Check out the SPACES website for more info. The closing party is Wednesday, July 18, 6-8pm at The Village of Arts and Humanities gallery space.
 


Art of Listening Class

The Art of Listening
Springboard Studio
530 Carpenter Ln, Philadelphia, PA 19119
Sunday, July 22, 11 am – 4 pm
Suggested Donation/Danā $20
Event Info

A day-long class exploring meditative states of listening consciousness led by composer and dharma teacher Michael Reiley McDermott. Through listening, we can develop an intimate connection to our environment, each other and ourselves. In this day-long retreat, Michael will take us through listening exercises, periods of silent meditation, Dharma talks, performance scores of singing and sounding and a sound walk. The practices of Listening Consciousness are rooted in Theravada and Zen Buddhism, vipassana meditation, the Deep Listening techniques of Pauline Oliveros, Thich Nhat Hahn and the music and philosophy of John Cage.

No meditation or musical experience necessary. Beginners are welcome.


Healing Frequencies


Healing Frequencies
with Maraliz Campos and Michael Reiley McDermott
Magick City
37 Box St. Brooklyn, NY
August 4, 9pm-11:30
$15 / pre-show // $10 / door
Facebook Event | Tickets

A night of healing frequencies and intentional dialog about listening, time and consciousness. Maraliz Campos and Michael Reiley McDermott, sound practitioners/musicians, present a discussion and concert and sound journey across aural landscapes with filtered and reimagined field recordings from Michaelā€™s recent travels and artist residencies in Thailand, Myanmar, India, Germany, Latvia, Iceland, United States and Brazil.

Part two is a meditative ambient journey from Paraguayan-American artist Maraliz with crystal/Himalayan bowls, rattles, original samples, synth, vocals, tuning forks, etc.


Listening Bodies


Listening Bodies
with Monica Gentile (Lake Studios Berlin) and Michael Reiley McDermott
Mascher Space Cooperative
155 Cecil B. Moore Ave. Philadelphia
August 11th, 11am – 3pm
$10 / Before August 1 // $15-20 / After August 1
Tickets | Facebook Event A workshop exploring states of consciousness and embodiment. Open to dancers, musicians, artists, yogis, and meditators.

Dream Concert and Album Release

Hello and Happy Halloween! Iā€™m back in the US for a few months and I have some new albums (new and old) and concerts coming up I wanted to tell you all about.

MAGICK CITY DREAM CONCERT

Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State

Saturday 11 Nov, Iā€™ll be doing an overnight dream concert at Magick City in Brooklyn. As a concert experience these durational soundscape performances last from night until early the next morning. These concerts are an immersive, supportive sonic environment. A gentle sea of ambient found sounds and soft tones unfold over an evolving eight-hour concert. Limited tickets remain, purchase here. View some footage from a overnight concert below:

Also this will be an album release show for my new album Dissolve coming out on NOREMIXES. Anyone who buys a ticket to the show will get a free download of the hour-long album. More on this soon…


LANDSCAPES 3: ICELAND

Landscapes 3: Iceland

During my recent residency at Listhus in Olafsfjordur, Iceland I spent a lot of time hiking and taking in the auditory and visual splendor of the land. At night I would work in the recording studio, editing, augmenting and treating the recordings. The third in the Landscapes series was released this week on Bandcamp (with a cover photo by fellow resident Alfredo Esparza). 

Thereā€™s an ancient magnificence in the landscapes of Iceland, I hoped to convey that through sound. I recently heard a quote from Irish poet John Oā€™Donahue on the podcast On Being that captures the essence of my recent interest in landscape recording.

Whether you believe you are walking into dead geographical location, which is used to get to a destination, or whether you are emerging out into a landscape that is just as much, if not more, alive as you but in a totally different form. And if you go towards it with an open heart and a real watchful reverence, that you will be absolutely amazed at what it will reveal to you. And I think that that was one of the recognitions of the Celtic imagination: that landscape wasnā€™t just matter, but that it was actually alive. What amazes me about landscape, landscape recalls you into a mindful mode of stillness, solitude, and silence where you can truly receive time.


:DIBBA-SOTA, QUIESCENT & VXVII ON ITUNES & SPOTIFY

Lastly, I recently remastered some of my most popular albums (including the 8-hour long sleep music album Quiescent) and reissued them to iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Google, etc. So for people for that don’t use Bandcamp you can now stream or purchase these albums on your favorite platform.

Just search for “Mikronesia” in your favorite music platform and melt into timelessness…