Last Mountain is the final release of our trilogy featuring piano samples and voice. It is derived from our personal experiences with parental loss, the awakening of memories on the land with our family who were homesteading settlers and the implications of colonization, changing landscapes and genocide.
Album 3 approaches this knowledge carefully and aims to reconcile past and current wrongs, and to remind us to share love with our loved ones openly while they are still here with us. The foundation tracks for this album were recorded by sampling the ambient sound from the inside of the family piano. The piano, a colonial instrument, could represent the failed attempt by the settlers to wipe out a culture already present. This instrument was intentionally reduced down to its’ most basic sounds and then reimagined through sampling and processing. The recorded reverberance is the piano’s main contribution to the project.
Lisa’s vocals were then improvised and recorded using only the first take. Her sound is captured by a ribbon microphone popular during the mid century that is both honest and revealing. Her stories, are improvised from a theme and do not follow a song structure. Imperfection is rampant and intentional in this recording and we celebrate it for its’ rawness, truth and vulnerability. This album is both a land acknowledgement and a personal pledge to participate in the reclamation movement.
Artists: Lisa Butel, Brent Cross and guests Johanna Hauser and G.Scott.
Contributions of raw sound and clarinet playing by Johanna Hauser and 2 of the pieces are sonic collages created by collaborator G.Scott from studio outtakes.
Photo credits: Carol Sawyer (photo of both of us)
Brent Cross (arty photo)
Lisa Butel and Brent Cross 