2023
John Duncan – vocals
Anastasia Markelova – vocals
Ivan FU Pjevcevic – fretless bass, orchestrations, Ondes Martenot
Eiko Ishibashi – analogue synth
Produced by John Duncan & Ivan FU Pjevcevic
Mixed by John Duncan & Ivan FU Pjevcevic
Mastered by Ivan FU Pjevcevic for Short Straw Studios
Cover art by Anastasia Markelova, designed by Ivan FU Pjevcevic
https://johnduncan.bandcamp.com/album/lucid-calm
Dedicated to Eduard Artemyev
@anastra says: Eduard Artemiev believed that every human aura has its own sound and composers can turn that sound into music. ⠀
⠀
One year ago on the hills of Bologna me and John were recording our voices, again and again, exploiting the acoustics of the studio through the process of re-amping. ⠀
After the 5th iteration we heard some otherworldly voices, an angelic hum.⠀
The same night sitting in the car on the way back, I learnt Alvin Lucier had passed away few hours before, while we were recording. ⠀
⠀
✦ ✦ ✦⠀
⠀
Many years ago some friends of Eduard found him bound to the earth in the forest of Valaam . He was deafened by the sound of the universe. ⠀
⠀
«It was autumn when we arrived again. Nearby, there was a small white stone church. There were twenty of us, mostly musicians. I said, “I’ll go around the church”. I went up to it and stood with my back against it to look at the taiga. Suddenly I felt something like a breath coming from the forest. After a while, it seemed to me that the wind changed its tone. Then suddenly, gradually, I was flooded with a huge, strong choir of a million male voices. Voices of the monks. I knew it was them. This sound threw me to the ground. When they found me, I was bent, bowing to the ground – I didn’t remember that. They asked me: “What happened to you?”.⠀
⠀
We boarded into the ship, it was already dark, neither the sun nor the moon could be seen. And suddenly it seemed to me that the golden domes of the temple sparkled in the distance. We came home, then we had dinner and went to bed. At night I heard some kind of commotion. People were running around, an ambulance has arrived. Then it turned out that one man, an Armenian artist, died from a heart attack. I believe that he was a wonderful person, and the monks were mourning him. I can’t explain it any other way.»⠀
⠀
✦ ✦ ✦⠀
⠀
Lucid Calm is for you my friend. I am grateful for your words of support and inspiration. Now I am sitting in the room different from the one you are in now, listening to the wind of changes, missing your kindest soul.⠀