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Book/Magazine + Digital Album
Fragmented Wilderness of the Calumet Region is the companion book to Mike Weis' sixth solo album Ring the Bell for the 10,000 Forgotten Things. During his residency with the Calumet Artist program in 2019, Weis made hundreds of photographs of one species of native grass, Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). He then superimposed the shapes of maps of protected nature preserves in the Calumet Region on the Little Bluestem images and then cut and copied these shapes onto a diptych panel to emphasize the cut up and fragmented practice of land use in the Calumet Region and how little of land portion is preserved in its natural state. Fragmented Wilderness of the Calumet Region collects these panels in a catalog-style photo book designed by Common Name.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ring the Bell for the 10,000 Forgotten Things
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Mike Weis is the percussionist for the two decades-long Chicago ambient-rock band, Zelienople and an accomplished improviser with projects that include Slow Bell Trio, Good Stuff House, Simon Scott/Mike Weis duo and others. Weis has trained with master drummers from ritual music traditions such as West African Ewe music and Korean Shaman and Buddhist music. Ring The Bell for the 10,000 Forgotten Things is Weis’ sixth solo album, following releases on Type, Barge, Notice, Monastral and Granny.
Weis is also a photographer, a landscape ecologist, and a member of the Midwest Society of Acoustic Ecology and this album marks the moment when all of these varied disciplines come together in one project. The process began in the Fall of 2019 when he participated in the Calumet Artist Residency program at Miller Woods (the western property of the Indiana Dunes National Park) in Gary, Indiana. During his residency, Weis observed and studied the ecological succession of Miller Woods, a process that has historical roots dating back 10,000 years of stewardship by various indigenous tribes and formal academic study beginning in the late 19th century.
Weis noticed that sound was the most obvious alteration to the landscape. Modern human-created sounds have crept into the natural acoustic ecology of the area creating a dizzying multi-layered soundtrack that at times blurred the distinctions between the sound sources. Was that a weed-whacker or a katydid? Are those Lake Michigan waves or blast furnaces from the steel mill? Weis documented these sounds by making field recordings of the different stages of the succession (beach, foredune, interdunal pond, ridge, marsh and oak savanna) at different times of the day (dawn, dusk and night) and combined them on one 35-minute track. By documenting the sounds of the preserve in this way he realized that the microphone doesn't discriminate, it reveals just how squeezed in nature is against man's interests.
Fast forward two years - out of the field and into the studio - longtime friend and collaborator P.M. Tummala recorded Weis performing solo improvisations in the Monastral studio. Tummala then superimposed these studio recordings onto the successional field recordings, blending “collected found sounds” with “created sounds.” These recordings are intended to be an audio companion to the visual portion of the project. During his residency Weis made hundreds of photographs of one species of native grass, Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), which can be found in nearly every preserve as well as outside of protected borders in the region. He then superimposed the shapes of maps of protected nature preserves in the Calumet Region on the Little Bluestem images and then cut and copied these shapes onto a diptych panel to emphasize the cut up and fragmented practice of land use in the Calumet Region and how little of land portion is preserved in its natural state.
Weis explains, “I see this species as the interconnecting bond between the fragmented wilderness areas and the human-dominated landscape of the Calumet Region - a symbol of hope that one day this landscape as a whole can be repaired and joined together again to be functional for all beings, not just the few with the largest tools.”
Ring The Bell for the 10,000 Forgotten Things will be released on Monastral as a digital download alongside it’s companion limited edition catalog-style photography book entitled Fragmented Wildnerness of the Calumet Region.
credits
released May 6, 2022
Percussion and field recordings by Mike Weis
Objects: dholak, dumbek, bass drum, ride cymbal, homemade glass jar drums, chopsticks, prepared tabletop guitar, tabla, cello bow, Tibetan singing bowls, metallophone, tongue drum, paper towel rolls, Chinese gongs, vibrators, mala beads, wire brushes, various mallets, various Kaiser Electrical Instruments, looping pedal and contact microphone
Produced by P.M. Tummala
Mastered by Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio
Field recordings edited by Matt Christensen
Design by Common Name
Special thanks to Corey Hagelberg and the Calumet Artist Residency program
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