Chris Campbell

Things You Already Know

Innova 860

01_Form = Emptiness              1:50                                                    

02_Lord Byron                        5:43                                                    

03_Torso of a Bodhisattva                  8:52                                                    

04_Things You Already Know             2:05                                                    

05_Water Mirror                     4:43                                                    

06_Water Variations                9:01                                                    

07_Emptiness = Form              1:32           

Total: 33:47                                         

When I was creating the music that you hear here, I kept bumping up against the idea of absorption.  That metaphysical equals sign (=) where there’s no separation between self and other, inner and outer, general and particular.    I kept asking…

How does something become a part of your life? 

How do you bring that integrated, non-dual state of mind into the messy reality we live in? How do you express that through the very specific lens of self?  

There I go with abstract-speak.  I guess this is why I mainly write wordless music.  Let's try it a different way:

Things you already know.  That’s what Aristotle thought learning was on some level.  Discovery doesn’t introduce new information, it just triggers the memory of what was already inside us, ready to resonate.  In any case, they must chime, these inner and outer worlds.

This music that I sat with for so long that it seemed to become my bones and marrow needed the right players to make it resonate.  Finding the people to bring everything to life was as much a creative synthesis as the sounds themselves.  Luckily, the Twin Cities is a smorgasbord of imaginative musicians and I teamed up with a few different musical camps.  I brought together bands Zoo Animal and Aaron and the Sea with top players from the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra alongside other friends.  The recording process came to embody the bridging of certain distances between people, communication styles, and to an extent, musical styles.

Personal music demands personal musical tools:  I brought in instruments like propane tank drums, contact mic’ed bowed psalteries, singing bowls and other unusual objects to work besides more familiar bowed instruments, drum kits, keyboards and guitars.  Running all of this through amps and pedals further melded the sounds with each other and the people that made them.  The music opened up its own space where we played together for a short while, enjoying the great company.  I hope you, the listener feel that space, spend some time there and trust enough to let a little absorption happen.

With deep gratitude to everyone involved,

Chris

Players:

Bowed, Struck, and Plucked stringed instruments:

Steven Copes stevencopes.com

Erin Keefe erinkeefeviolin.com

Andrei Tchekmazov andreytchekmazov.com

Jessica Bodner parkerquartet.com

Ben Ullery laphil.com

Pitnarry Shin minnesotaorchestramusicians.org

Ruggero Allifranchini thespco.org

Nina Fan thespco.org

Chris Campbell composerchriscampbell.com

Voice:

Holly Hansen zooanimal.bandcamp.com

Aaron Rice aaronandthesea.com

Chris Campbell

Claire Tiller

Keyboards:

Chris Campbell

Percussion:

Aaron Rice

Joe Johnson

Jay Walters

Brian Gollnick

Guitars and Bass:

Mort Swinetooth

Chris Campbell

Homemade instruments:

Holly Hanson

Aaron Rice

Recorded at Big Alcove and the Hideaway Studio (thehideawaympls.com) with Joe Johnson

Thanks to the innova team. Thanks to David Wolff (deergrovepress.com) Thanks to friends and family.

Cover art: Alec Soth. littlebrownmushroom.com

Composerchriscampbell.com