“This sound composition is easily the most challenging, noisy and difficult piece I’ve ever made,” writes multimedia artist Charles Edward Fambro in the notes to his latest sound composition Dream Recovery. The prolific and enigmatic artist has produced a harsh, unforgiving 24-minute study of Betty and Barney Hill. The married couple earned a degree of celebrity for claiming to have been abducted by aliens in the early 1960s.
The piece was recorded straight to CD. “The process was truly experimental, having no fixed destination; only some pre-recorded ‘concrète’ material, a violin, zither and synth: 2 a.m., Harlem, NYC, USA, Malcolm X Boulevard,” writes Fambro.
“Responses so far have ranged from extremely intrigued, beguiled, seduced, frightened and mystified. … All of which I think are worthy responses.”
Unsurprisingly, passive is not on that list. Like much of Fambro’s sound composition work, Dream Recovery is boldly demanding. By relying heavily on found sounds, violin and zither – the latter two played abrasively – the piece is almost all sharp edges. It is unrelenting, and yet entirely listenable.
For more on Mr. and Mrs. Hill’s experience, John Fuller’s The Interrupted Journey – Two Lost Hours Aboard a Flying Saucer is available as a free download.
Fambro is an equally fascinating character. He’s an award-winning artist who describes his work as “dedicated to creating a foundation for a new understanding of Creative Black Music – this encompasses work in the fields of Sound, teaching and writing, visual art, potlatch and ritual; including new nomenclatures, revised ontologies, aural psychogeography and sonic terraforming; and post hip-hop and neodarkglamambient soundscapes and mixes.” (The Hills were an interracial couple.)
Visit delhfbotanicax.com for more.