Rachel Beetz is an American performer-composer-improvisor on flutes, various electronics, and an Arp 2600. Beetz considers sound as touch and is particularly influenced by natural and mechanical environments, the life of objects, interpersonal collaboration, and deep listening. Combining experimental field recordings and electronically modified flutes, her works examine community, environmentalism, emotions, and somatic processing.
Hello! I’m Rachel Beetz, a flutist and composer. I’m sharing some sounds made by people who I cherish. Their work inspires me both as a musician and as a human. Please enjoy!
One last walk with the wind of my past by Patrick Shiroishi
From Forgetting is Violent album, I love this moment. It is a slow, wise pace with complete vulnerability. To me it is the sound of constantly processing the past in the present, the “re” of re-memoir (to bring to mind). There is a sad hopefulness that in this processing, we’ll find a new way forward. With so much space in this piece, we face our own memories while listening.
location.echo by Chris Williams
There is a great atmosphere built here out of trumpets and pedals. This track could be a bog or an abandoned factory. It is the sound of dreams, spacious and blurred, just out of touch. I got to see Chris play recently and we had inspiring conversations about the practice of living through art making. I recommend listening to his whole album, Odu: Vibration II for a complete hearing of Chris’s wisdom.
Is This The Land I Wish Death to Find Me by mattie barbier
Recorded with microphones attached to the outside of The Tank in Colorado, this piece explores how resonance through objects. I can’t help but think of this as a metaphor for our own bodies. How memory encodes into our own fiber as we walk through our existence.
Vibra by Alma Laprida
Alma plays a tromba marina (a bowed string instrument with medieval origins). “Tromba,” represents how the instrument focuses on its overtones. She made additional ones recently that I got to play in a quartet with her. Listening for overtones in this way solidified how I hear sound as a spectrum, rather than individual notes in relationship. Here, it goes through a subwoofer, expanding to an ominous lower range.
MVHS by Raven Chacon
This is made from recordings of Navajo high-school students learning a supposed ‘Indian’ flute in ‘classical’ music class even though the instrument was not a part of their own culture. Listening to this, I remember I’m not only teaching ‘the flute’ but a particular orientation to culture and art.
“Veröld fláa sýnir sig” by Berglind María Tómasdóttir
Berglind has been a huge influence on me. As an artist, she continues to surprise us. With Joe Mariglio, she built a kind of spinning wheel/bike instrument while she sings an Icelandic folksong which loosely translates to, “The deceitful world reveals itself.” She’s re-making a cultural history that reflects our changing world.
Reflection: Up/Down by Julie Herndon
I got to go on several tours with Julie where I heard her play this piece many times. It was a rare experience to hear someone’s art through repeated, live listenings. In this piece, I love how she transforms from an intimate piano in a living room into a glittering outer space. Eventually, the piano is very far away and I almost float away with it.
night birds by Heather Stebbins
I listened to this album a bunch before meeting Heather. Now I get to collaborate with her and continue to learn from how she approaches creativity with curiosity and an open heart. These “Night Birds” are large and loud with bow extremely high and low calls. As they wash over my ears I see them cover the sky above.
Feedback by Rachel Beetz
This flute is completely closed by a microphone on one end and a tiny earpiece in the other. I ‘play’ the flute with my hands only, closing and opening the keys to create sonic feedback that goes through effects. I came up with this scheme after a fit of rage when someone explained feedback to me. Anger can be one of the most difficult emotions to process. Here I managed to move through it creatively.
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