Joni Clare - Vocalist

    Here is the first step of my project from my art-in-residence this fall at the Wormfarm Institute.  Uplifting from Wisconsin and wandering along the West Coast allowed time and space to process and to not think at all sometimes.  I am more in tune with myself than ever and notice how life fluctuates in each stimulation. I haven’t closed anything from my time in Milwaukee, WI because I’m not sure that’s how it really works. I see so much use in what I’ve gathered thus far. This EP was necessary to edit and post because it’s a print of where I was, similar to the purpose of my first album in 2012. The music is greatly evolving and I have no hesitation to let you in on its development.

  The environment I worked in each day was highly connected to the sounds I produced and I'd like to discover more angles to what it all means. I’ve got many photos from the farm that I took and lyrics will get transposed over the images. Perhaps some will speak for themselves, but my idea is to create a composition that lets us in on a little more than what's already been realized. Like I said, perhaps the images won’t need my layering, but that’s the experiment of art and curiosity.

During my stay as an artist-in-residence at the Wormfarm Institute, I had the opportunity to write for the local CSA (community supported agriculture) newsletter. It was nice way of connecting to the community and reflecting on some things I had learned:

Three weeks ago I arrived at the farm to search and unveil the relation between farming and art as well as reveal this through my artistic work. Eager for the answer, I went about my art and wrote a song that reflected personal meaning (it’s my way of working through things). Using what was available, I installed lyrics over the farm by drawing out words with mud-paint, wooden scraps, and rocks while hand-painting on walls of old farm structures.

My song became a daily practice as I traveled through the still poetry. Places like the hollowed granary and the spacious pasture became the music’s atmosphere. After days of overlooking the land from the hill, I started noticing how many levels of life existed on the farm together. This was evident particularly with the crops in the gardens. Beans were (always) ready for picking, heirloom tomatoes were ripe only with a tease, and broccoli was slowly working itself back into the soil for decomposition. Even though each in different stages, they were all together feeding one another as a community.

As the song continued to deconstruct, I realized my concept had intellectual layers. Working restlessly through the past, finding stillness in the moment, and listening patiently for the next step were all associated. The lyrics were being harvested for meaning just like the gardens had been for months and graciously continuing. Seeking the answer turned into receiving many answers that fed my music an opening and growth.

Poetry with mud paint and rocks around the Wormfarm Institute. 

Sunday Debate (Joni Clare) April 2015

Sunday Debate is a composition that uses poetry and improvisation to reflect bartending experiences. I match all kinds of moods and paces while the company fulfills a collection of needs. I question the power of materials and how one can reach that “special” feeling.  After a countless amount of Sundays thinking behind the bar, I’ve decided to transfer the “people pleasing” attitude into music.

Coffee, Chocolate, Fire is a composition based off of cravings and luxury working with graphic notation and improvisation. I have taken three highly used substances from the Pfister Lobby lounge and transferred them onto abstract art scores. Coffee, chocolate, and fire carry warm and earthly qualities as well as energy or anxiety depending on its treatment. The piece demonstrates a dynamic relationship between pleasure and consequence with luxury.

The City Pines recorded all original music up on Planting Ground Lake over last weekend. We spent at 12 hours recording and got 5 hours of material.  What the heck were we doing up there for all that time if we only documented not even half of the time spent?

Recording music is rich in activity: playing music, thinking, experimenting, communicating, listening, laughing, and making mistakes. All of these are a part of a large process that has been brewing for a year and a half.  We broke away from daily routines because distractions make it very difficult for everyone to reach this wide attention together.

I stepped away from the piano and began vocalizing into a loop pedal this year. This electronic device records live material and presents it back endlessly for as long as I wish. Interestingly, this type of repeated vocal material doesn’t feel so stagnant as I find in music-making moments at the piano. I trust a single idea and explore everything that lies between noise and silence. Thinking simply with this instrument has taken me far into discovering many unique sounds and I constantly walk away noticing change.

The independence and liberation I am interested in allows me to experience music on my own. More importantly, I have begun to unravel tension and chatter that often clouds me at the piano. I l forget unintentional manipulation or dependencies and leave the voice alone. There is no other instrument I trust more than the voice. Whether on piano or loop pedal, compositional ideas will spiral and transform. Personal experiences are the root of inspiration, but how and why original ideas take off into something else is the trickiest and most exciting point in art making.

I was completely suspended in music yesterday as I experienced two very different performances. One was a solo, self-composed piece using the voice and loop pedal. It was held at a lunch hour in the spacious, bright lit UW-Milwaukee music recital hall filled with a student body and others thinking about pursuing musical career. The other was in a tiny, ecstatic music club tucked away in the Riverwest neighborhood.  Crowded and cozy, we, The City Pines, played an entire set of original music, surrounded by supporters and new faces. It was perfect! Though, I can't help but to realize how different these two musical adventures were that took place within a 12-hour time frame.

When I first started studying music, blending academics into my street style seemed impossible.  Well, after almost four years of staying true to my musical intentions, these 'separates' now have a very unique relationship to one another. I've established a circle of music in which I have developed not by choosing one over the other, but by walking my intuitions through discipline and choice.  

Exercising music with 100 percent presence, I have begun to notice some changes in the way I hug my musical experiences. By hug, I mean the way I treat it; taking a look at what is happening before and after musical moments. The week of, day before, or moments before a performance, I see an easier anticipation. There can be less attack or expectation that I place on myself. When I step off the stage, let thoughts roam before falling asleep, or sit in a coffee shop the next morning, I experience a much more rich reflection. This doesn't include reliving the music from the past, but focuses more on my senses in the now.  As far as the bigger moments had, I let those brew around in me as those always take some time to process.    

Improvising with Linda Binder on violin last night was fantastic. I really enjoy sounding with stringed instruments as I find such closeness to their timbres and vibrations. Unrehearsed MKE welcomes all walks of life and music into the Jazz Estate every first Sunday of the month. What a great gathering of musically talented, intelligent, and open-minded people!