For the Gray Stones

by Noah Campbell

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This is an experimental improvisation in reaction to the recent rebellions in RVA and the US in response to state oppression, particularly regarding local leaders and politicians. This piece is a part of a brief series I was working on, inspired by my walks around Richmond and observations of protest graffiti. The image here is from the steps of the Lee monument at Marcus David Peters Circle.

lyrics

The gray stones remain the foundation. The bloody crowns of men have been lifted, pulled by the forces that need to be and should have been. Let the crowns go to rust in waste, wash them in filth. One crown remains, the defender of social death, but a layering of imaginations and realities now cover him. Tyrants of all kinds are always sick with a constant illness that blinds them of humanity and liberation, all in the name of false pillars of freedom. Despite suppression, liberation has been creeping through, rumbling along the ground, rippling through the air. The sonic rebellion against the gray, the assembling against the stone, the light that throws vivid colors and imaginations both new and old.

Do we need to get rid of the stones that upheld the crowns, or can we use their foundations for more? We salvage the new art, but does this still salvage the foundation? What do we make of a new work on an old canvas? I want to ascend to the top, plant something new, even overturn what I planted, but what needs removal? Can we prevent all sentiment to sediment? How does rock sustain or overpower the batterings of wavelengths, the barrage of colors, the wash of new and old images? While we ask these questions, the stone protects what it thinks is itself, the gray looks for a way in, both cut from the same stone. The pebbles guard their fractured fathers. A fissure is coming.

credits

released August 17, 2020
Tenor saxophone (with modifications), looping pedal: Noah C.

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Noah Campbell Providence, Rhode Island

RVA/PVD jazz saxophonist

Sound sketches and personal projects

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