Hey, thanks for visiting my Patreon page and my project to write up my adventures in music with accompanying sound files, poetry and back stories. I've been meaning to do it for years, but it took COVID-19 cancelling all my work to push me over the edge and be brave.

Sculpted Silence is the title of this project, and with your encouragement and feedback – I will share one blog, one piece of music, one video snippet, one poem at a time.. I am hoping that you will assist me by telling me what is interesting to read. Which pieces you enjoy... or not... With your input I aim to create a body of material which may be used to create a "book." Sculpted Silence was originally going to be the title of an album of music, but social distancing has stopped me from travelling to a studio to finish that album, and to be honest, there is so much more to share.

I'll be sharing back stories to my concerts, tours and compositions… illustrated with scores, poems, recordings and occasional photographs. A platform for sharing experiences from a life of travel and many fabulous encounters through improvisation and performance on shakuhachi (bamboo flute). I plan to give you glimpses of my compositional process, works in progress, a look into the art of improvisation and insights into the joy of sharing through performance. I am hoping that my philosophy of music, as acquired in different lands from different peoples, will be articulated in the process.

Sculpted Silence is a celebration of our interdependence
and interconnectivity through music and poetry.
Everyone, everything, everywhen, everywhere… every now.

To give you a taste of what lies ahead, I have added a poem at the end of this intro… which leads to a back story… which leads to a piece of music. If you’d like to enable me to continue jotting down my recollections, gathering together my unpublished poems and music, then please subscribe for as little as $3 AUD per month. That’s less per annum than the price of a concession ticket to one concert! In this COVID-19 climate of no gigs, no touring, no income… and perhaps no work for you too… I am wanting to keep it affordable for all folk experiencing tough times.

I am hoping that you will listen, read, laugh, cry, ask me curly questions, give me feedback, and encourage me to continue writing and sharing. I will share snippets of new music as I write it, and I might ask your opinion on lyrics if I am feeling stuck... I might even read aloud excerpts from my slightly insane out-of-print book Curiosi-tea by Camellia Cha (the nom-de-plume who insists she is tea personified...)

I have a backlog of unpublished eco-poems to share; photos of my wood sculptures; and I'll be posting mini video clips of me attempting to address your collective questions… Who knows what each week will bring? This is totally new for me – a new way of connecting and sharing. But each week you will get something precious.

Since writing this intro blurb, I have taken up doodling, which one of my Patreon Peeps assures me are not "doodles" but master-pieces... well, lets just call them pencil drawings, and they have become an important part of my mental health strategy during this excessively long LOCKDOWN in Melbourne. It seems our movements and activities (and work!) have been restricted for way longer than anywhere else on the planet. So, I will keep on doodling. (I mean, producing master pieces... oops).

Why do this, and why on the Patreon platform?
Firstly, I need to share my art. Music, poetry and stories are for sharing, and I am a performer at heart, and here I am in lockdown at home in Australia (I am still allowed to escape for a solo walk to the beach, thankfully), not spending time in company, not performing, not on the road visiting new places. Most likely you are self-isolating or social distancing too during this global pandemic, and so… here we are.

Secondly, I could do with your financial support, even if it is miniscule. And if you like what I am creating, perhaps you could help me by letting others know and inviting them to join my Sculpted Silence family. Many minuscule amounts might add up to paying my bills one day… enabling me to keep on creating and sharing. No matter how much you are able to contribute, you all have access to read and hear the same material, and give me feedback. I want to make this a real community of ideas and interaction. Those in the top tiers are also able to access consultations or lessons if they choose.

And remember, you are not locked into one tier for ever more. You can go up or down as your finances dictate, or drop out - of course I hope you don't... I think that would be called PatreOFF. Better to stay in PatreON if you can, and switch to another artist. We all need to help one another. Once I have a number of patrons I intend to plough a bit of that back into sponsoring other artists and learning from them.

I look forward to lively feedback and interaction with you all. This is one big improvised collaborative adventure.

So Who am I?
For more than three decades I have performed, composed and improvised on shakuhachi (bamboo flute), as a soloist and in collaboration with a wide range of musicians and artists. Following studies in classical flute at Melbourne Conservatorium, my shakuhachi journey began in Kobe in 1986 under Nakamura Shindo, continued in Osaka under Tajima Tadashi and then Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music with Yamaguchi Goro in the early 90s. Since then I have been based in Australia, growing my musicianship and expanding my shakuhachi repertoire through creative liaisons and influences from a wide range of musos, dancers, actors, artists and the Australian landscape itself. I tour overseas every few years to give concerts and to take lessons with various masters in Japan.

Right now, I am getting my recent and past scores into a civilised format and submitting them to the Australian Music Centre (AMC) to be made available globally in the hope that others will perform them as well. I will use my Patreon site and support network as a place to share the process, share recordings and tell the back-stories of how each piece came to be. You will see elements of my scores first, before I submit them to the AMC. And any new recordings put out there in the world from this point on will be shared with you first. Maybe we can have occasional virtual listening parties. And one day, when we can all leave home and venture back out into the world, I’ll let you know about any upcoming concert tours. Perhaps we might even meet. A nice thought.

I look forward to sharing, and to receiving your feedback and questions.
May you stay well. May we all stay well!
Anne
***
Before you go, here is the gratis poem I promised, entitled... wait for it…

Sculpted Silence

I wrote this poem in 2014 and cleaned it up into this manifestation in 2015. I fiddle with my poems and compositions for a quite a while before I am happy with them. It’s like sculpting wood. Throw a whole lot of words on a page and then slowly whittle them back. If you choose to hang out with me, you will see my wood sculptures as well and hear how each one came into being. But here, the sculpted medium is words, whittled from three rather remarkable life experiences playing my shakuhachi.

Read it aloud. Read it slowly. Leave silences in there. Take time to savour.

blowing through bamboo
i wander
in the realm of sculpted silence

notes waver
phrases linger
deep inhalations punctuate perception

a celebration of the essence of being
in one dying,
dipping note

two eagles circle high above
a raven cries out
clouds release their velvet rain

coursing down the weathered flute
water drips from bamboo roots
melody becomes urgent

breath divides on bamboo’s edge
wind stirs the grasses
forest whispers

thunder shouts
a final arc
of sonic brush stroke

a pause
and the world returns to stillness
there is no rain

bowing to the elements
wet hair clinging to my forehead
i move my sodden feet

wrapping my bamboo flute
a sculptor packing her tools
the song is now internal

There are three back stories to this poem, and all are magical, unforgettable experiences that may sound unreal... they were real. To find these back stories, click on my first Blog entitled “Yokohama • Guwahati • Flinders Island”
From there you will be given a link to a sound file of me performing the shakuhachi piece that conjured up these magical elemental encounters. I look forward to reading your reactions.
Joy and health to you.

Anne
April 29th 2020