Levitation Practice in the High-Order Modal Stasis of Sema
A long-duration ensemble work exploring impermanence, non-attachment, and drifting form through voice and sustained drone.
First Presentation:
June 13th, 2019, Studio Ma, Seattle, WA, USA
June 14, 2020, Apophyllite Recordings, Seattle, WA, USA
Credits:
- Performed by Ensemble Dhikr Allah
- Jocelyn Beausire — voice
- Joey Largent — voice, composition
- Katrina Wolfe — tanjore tambura
- Noel Kennon — viola, voice
- Russell Christenson — harmonium, voice
- Taehyung Kim — shruti box, voice
Levitation Practice in the High-Order Modal Stasis of Sema was performed on June 13, 2019, the anniversary of Pandit Pran Nath’s death, as part of an evening honoring his life. The program also featured a two-hour work for sine tones and voice by Noel Kennon.
This first Levitation Practice functioned as a test case for a way of working that would continue through many later projects. The ensemble included only a small number of technically trained musicians alongside artists with little or no formal musical background. Performers were selected primarily for heightened intuition and sensitivity rather than instrumental mastery.
The work was written for two to six voices, viola, tambura, harmonium, and shruti box, and unfolded without fixed direction for timing, dynamics, or movement. While the tambura, voices, and viola formed pure harmonic relationships, the inclusion of harmonium and shruti box intentionally disrupted those intervals, producing a custom modal system characterized by slow wandering and controlled instability.
The piece was conceived as a meditation on impermanence, non-attachment, equanimity, and sustained states of not-knowing. Audience members and performers were invited to remain within the sound long enough for form to loosen and perception to shift, rather than seeking resolution or climax.
