Solar Garden Party 2
written by birthday girl and guest author - Ellen Dryad
About my birthday concert, for Begonia’s blog.
--Ellen Dryad.
Having experimental music concerts for my birthday is a beloved tradition. In fact, 2 of the performers at this year’s Rose Garden concert on Sat 9/27 had performed at one of my 3 birthday month concerts in 2019 with and alongside me.
In the beforetimes, I used to host a monthly Experimental Music Night at a combination cafe and yoga studio in the Whiteaker, and 4 of us who performed at this show were regulars at those events. So it really felt like a family reunion, and yet at the same time, it felt entirely new, for all the following reasons.
While we’ve known each other a long time, and have made a point to go see each other perform, this was the first concert at which Spring and I both performed, and I am certain it won’t be the last. Spring is a singer-songwriter who also plays ankle/foot percussion and guitar. She’s accompanied on bongos by Leaf, whom I only just met for this event, but with whom I’ve become friends. There was someone who had asked to perform, but then something came up that they couldn’t make it, so I gave Spring and Leaf double the time, and they really filled it!
I danced most of their set -- and I went around the park and recruited people to come join us and groove. One of those people surprised me by choosing to give me a birthday present, mere minutes after meeting and dancing with me, and we shared one of the most profound spiritual moments I’ve ever had with anyone, let alone someone I only briefly met and might never see again (though I hope I do).
This was the first time since before Lockdown that “I Died” and I performed together as our band, Bast Awakening. This name honors the roles in our lives of our feline familiars, and also is word play on Vast Awakening -- the aspiration that all may become enlightened. I’d describe us as existential and savvy lyrics over improvised analog noise, drone, and ambient sound. Every time that we have performed -- and every recording we have made, before, during, and after Lockdown -- has been my lyrics over “I Died”’s music. But this was yet another first: Our first-ever set with my incanting only his lyrics. Some of his friends came just for this set, which was also special because of some of the reasons it’s been a while since we performed.
[view] is one of the artists who performed at both one of my prior birthday concerts, and at multiple of my monthly events. We met at the Corvallis Noise Fest -- just like you two met there. I call him “my favorite mad scientist,” because he constructs his own noise gear, in ways that are really mind-blowingly cool. He’s also close with “I Died” and my other bandmate, and again, that part really felt like a family reunion.
As you know, and again I thank you so very much for this, while this was the third show at which you and I performed alongside each other, this was the grand debut of our collaborative effort, Begonia Bush, other than one private rehearsal. Our name combines your name, of course, with Bush from the band in which I was performing the night we met: My Burning Bush, which I’ll get back to in a moment. Our 3 songs were a lovely little mini set, with my lyrics specifically chosen to be upbeat and have people smiling, and your improvised beats that you have down to an art form. One was a celebration of ash trees; one was embracing body-positivity (with words in 2 languages); one was about a forthcoming seasonal holiday. In all of them, I felt fully supported by you.
I know nothing about how to run sound, and it’s familiar to you like the back of your hand, and it shows! This entire concert, and the one before it which featured My Burning Bush, we were only able to perform in the sacred space of the Rose Garden Gazebo because of your generosity and expertise with your solar generator. You’ve convinced me to buy one for next season! I do hope and genuinely believe we shall perform and/or record together again soon.
Before getting to the part with me and my primary bandmate, I’m going to just give thanks to both you and Jaycee (aka Worm Chewer) for video recording. I’m so grateful! Also huge thanks to everyone who came and watched, listened, danced, and/or joined in -- whether I had ever met you before or not.
Now as for me and Will. So, we met through my monthly events, at which he performed for Drone-Cember (a night focused on drone music), and for Fe-BREW-ary (a night focused on home-brewed instruments). We took to each other like fish to water, just a really natural, mutual, symbiotic and synergistic flow from the very beginning of us meeting. Then during the years when I was almost entirely isolating, Will was still making music as his long-term musical entity, My Burning Bush. In 2022, he was working on an album that ended up being called, “be still,” and he extended the wonderful honor of allowing me to vocally and lyrically contribute, and it helped me feel close to someone creatively for the first time in 2 years, so I don’t think he even fully understands how eternally grateful I will always be for that. I provided the opening incantation to both the first and the last track on that album. Here is a link to that album, he authorized me to provide some links to our collaborations on Bandcamp:
So, then this year, Will sent me some musical tracks he was working on for My Burning Bush, for an album to be called “parables xix,” and he asked me what I thought of them. I listened to them laying in my bed with my eyes closed and channeled what they elicited from me. I provided him with a variety of spiritual vocal tracks, and he just loved them. So he invited me to come rehearse with him and decided that, rather than just use my tracks, he invited me to come play at the Campbell Club when an artist from North Carolina offered him a slot. That was the show where I met you and got to see your amazing set with Eelyza. Then you invited us to come play in the Rose Garden with you, and that was utterly sublime as you can see in our serene and blissful smiles in this photo right after our set.
Will shall release 2 albums as My Burning Bush, one called “parables xix” that is our collaboration, and another that is him solo.
- Everything was gelling so brilliantly and spiritually that we evolved into having another band, “repair”, which we refer to as “spiritual drone.” We had our grand debut at a church, at a benefit for 2 causes, both of which related to my personal professional past, and it was breathtaking -- oh, and I performed my lyrics in **three** languages, while Will improvised and looped and provided music so sublimely, he is both a natural talent and an accomplished professional, that made me simultaneously want to cheer and brought tears. I’m authorized to provide a link to an album of that material -- my and Will’s first-ever full-album release, and my first-ever live-recording release: “toward” by “repair”:
However, for my birthday concert, we spontaneously chose to do something completely different. We invited every artist and every attendee and every passerby to join us in one big jam. I’d asked friends to bring musical instruments, and they really lived up to that! Someone brought an accordion; someone brought a banjolele -- a banjo/ukelele hybrid I never even knew existed! Someone brought a healing metal drum. I brought sonic tzotchkes that others played -- Wow! Sonic Tzotchkes would be a great name for a jam band! I’m going to have to mention that to Will, haha! Anyway. So in addition to artists jamming out, with Will on his keyboard and pedals, I was on my glockenspiel and shaker, plus my whistles and vocals, which you put through some effects. I’m hoping you’ll teach me how to do that! I brought another shaker and a tambourine and an ocarina that various folks picked up and played. Instruments were passed around. My voice through your pedals became another instrument blending into the sonic stew, rather than a driving force as it was in Bast Awakening and Begonia Bush, and that felt like such a gift.
Overall, I must thank each and every one of you -- but especially you Begonia because I think you’re the only one with an outdoor sound setup, and originally this was your idea, and you let me evolve it into my birthday show -- for yet another of the very most spiritually bonding and creatively fulfilling experiences of my life. I am really looking forward to every time I get to collaborate with any of you from this show! Thank you for the opportunity to contribute a Guest Blog. I’d be happy to any time. I love you all! --- Ellen Dryad
@elliekayleeeddie on Insta.
