if by sea:sound-poetic walk for angel island
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  • introduction essay
  • sound poetics
  • sound transcriptions
  • souvenir postcards
  • map

sound poetics

Each piece includes site-generated field recordings that act as interpreters of the landscape and are fragmented echoes of the charged atmosphere that surrounds Angel Island. The story-line elements are compiled from historical research. I have invited three readers to contribute their voices as reiterations of the diverse and complex personage that has made passage to this island.

prologue

narration: Leora Lutz
accompaniment: Ocean of Sounds (fragmented) by John Cage; ocean of Angel Island


stops along the walk    (map)

#1 la isla

voice: Ricardo Alzati (English and Spanish)
content: journal entry of Father Vincente Santa Maria, chaplain for the ship San Carlos, 1775.
accompaniment: boats on Ayala Cove dock, footsteps on wood, leaves, birds, ocean 


#2 tasted wind

voices: Leora Lutz (English), Dimeng Brehmer (English and Mandarin)
content: narrated lines from several Immigration Station poems recited in succession to create one long poem
accompaniment: Immigration Station bell, footsteps on Immigration Station floors, Immigration Station door opening and closing, gravel footsteps surrounding Immigration Station, ocean


#3 lineage

voices: fragments from various island locations
content: minimalist syncopated sound
accompaniment: ambient music from Fort McDowell visitors center, echoes in solitary confinement quarters, birds, acorns falling on wet oak leaves, footsteps on wet leaves and ground 


#4 sailor's lament

voice: Gibb Schreffler, PhD Musicology (English and German)
content: confinement letter, Immigration Station poem in Morse code, Magelhan Sailor Shanty
accompaniment: electronic personae, drum and flute segment from Rights of Man by unknown source, fog horns, ocean


epilogue

narration: Leora Lutz.
accompaniment: Ocean of Sounds (fragmented) by John Cage; field recordings of ferry dock and crowds, ferry and ocean