Andrew Drury
A Momentary Lapse
Innova 581
1. The Schwartzes 10:51
2. Salal 5:48
3. Växjö Kollektiv 9:06
4. Copalis 7:15
5. Geek’s Revenge 4:38
6. Some Powerful Women/Why 10:07
7. Anniversary of a Non-Marriage 4:38
8. Guanajuato 5:07
9. Keep the Fool 4:45
total 62:50
Eyvind Kang
violin
Briggan Krauss
alto saxophone & clarbone
Chris Speed
tenor saxophone & clarinet
Myra Melford
piano
Mark Dresser
bass
Andrew Drury
composer, drum set
Salal runs along both sides of the path from the highway to the ocean at Iron Springs. It’s unusually tall, up to our eyes, though maybe that’s not saying much since we’re a short family. The path winds around roots and rocks every few paces, impossible to see at night. We mind our feet. We feel our way. We never know where we are until the end: one last turn and suddenly space and light — the coast, the ocean, the sky.
Winter is when we like the ocean best. The permanence of rain in December, a zillion degrees of green and gray. The air temperature raw, the wind unyielding. The elemental collision of land, water, and sky is essential to this feeling I get. This shape I see. Maybe the ocean has something to do with it, the knowledge that Asia lies in that direction if one is persistent. The knowledge that it has always looked like this, to anyone who ever cared to look. Sand, packed by the force of surf, waits. The sky is a blank. The town without features. It makes you feel small, but in a good way.
Which reminds me of some other salal further north. Especially how low it lies and how the pillars of fir trees rise from its carpet impersonal as cement. We climb a rope ladder to get there from the beach. But that’s not it. Not all of it anyway. It’s the space, the still air of the forest filtered green. Salal berries are ripe. A bird curves to a limb, tracing a need for food or home. Salal and trees define a volume. In theory space is infinite, but to the eye every vector terminates at the trunk of a tree like a room full of closed doors. That it’s a medium seems certain, and also that time is hungry, but for what?
Andrew Drury has recorded two CDs—Polish Theater Posters and A Momentary Lapse. A former student of Ed Blackwell, he has performed in the streets of Central America, led junk percussion workshops across the US, and photographed 25 "Earth Solos" in outdoor settings west of the Great Plains. For six months in 2000 he was Millennium Project Artist-in-Residence with the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin. Originally from Seattle, he now lives in New York.
Eyvind Kang, violin
Briggan Krauss, alto saxophone & clarbone
Chris Speed, tenor saxophone & clarinet
Myra Melford, piano
Mark Dresser, bass
Andrew Drury, composer, drum set
Executive producer: Philip Blackburn
Co-producers: Jamie Saft & Andrew Drury
Engineer: Michael Marciano at Systems Two, Brooklyn
© p Andrew Drury, 2003. (BMI) All Rights Reserved.
Paintings: Sonia M. Friedman "Cyclamen Series: Fire" (covers) and details from "Cyclamen Series: Foliage Fading" (inside).
Photography: Alissa Schwartz “Earth Solo 6”
Graphic design by Philip Blackburn
Text: Andrew Drury “Salal”
innova> Director: Philip Blackburn; Artists and Product: Chris Strouth; Assistant: Chris Campbell. Innova is supported by an endowment from the McKnight Foundation and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Thanks again and again and again to Chris, Briggan, Eyvind, Mark, and Myra. Also to Jamie Saft. Michael, Nancy, and Joe at Systems Two. Philip Blackburn & Innova. Sonia M. Friedman, Alissa Schwartz, Maximillian, Mom & Dad, April & Alan, Jenny Scheinman, Sheri Cohen, Geoff Harper, Craig Flory, Christian Asplund, Steve Moore, Troy Grugett. Brent Arnold, Fred Chalenor, Tim Young, Jessica Lurie, Jean & Artie & the neighbors.
More gratitude goes to The Seattle Arts Commission Seattle Artists Program, the King County Arts Commission, The Artist Trust Foundation GAP, the Bossak/Heilbron Foundation, and the American Composers Forum—without whose generous support this music would not have been realized.