In late March 2014, a crew from Found Sound Nation traveled to Knoxville, TN to capture spontaneous music, sounds, and stories at the third annual Big Ears Festival. Setting up a Street Studio in downtown Market Square, Found Sound Nation created a spontaneous meeting space to record and connect musicians, fans and locals.

The first touch of a Nord keyboard by ambient music pioneer Laraaji is set alongside autobiographical stories from Big Ears Founder Ashley Capps; Ceramic Dog bassist Shazhad Ismaily reads zen-like poetry excerpts over bluegrass tunes played by old-time musician & ethnographer Matt Kinman; writer and Knoxville historian Jack Neely tells the story of Market Square over haunting melodies from local musicians Laith Keilany & Jodie Manross.

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Notes on Sun Shelter

by Elena Moon Park

In late March 2014, a crew of Found Sound Nation (Ezra T, Nandi P, Chris M, and I) traveled down to my hometown of Knoxville, TN to lead a weekend of Street Studios that would capture spontaneous music, sounds, and stories at the third annual Big Ears Festival.  We set up our Street Studio in front of the Tomato Head restaurant in Market Square, downtown Knoxville.

For the past 15 years, I’ve been keeping a close eye on events in East TN, and in particular, in Knoxville. I’ve watched from afar with rapt attention, because I am rooting for it: rooting for this place where I spent my formative childhood and teenage years to blossom and flourish.

I grew up in a small town outside of Knoxville called Oak Ridge, founded “secretly” (so the legend goes) in the early 1940s by the government to house workers on the Manhattan Project.  As I was growing up, I took many trips to Knoxville, our nearest actual “city,” often driving for miles across its expanse to this thing or that.

Knoxville can be described as a quintessential “edgeless city,” which means that it is subject to endless sprawl.  Since I can remember, it has continued to creep further and further Westward, away from its downtown center, dotting Highway I-40 & the adjacent Kingston Pike with endless shopping centers, malls, restaurants.  Meanwhile, like many small and mid-sized American cities, the old and historic buildings downtown remained largely empty for decades.

It is a subject of great scrutiny why walkable downtown centers in American cities historically became abandoned in favor of suburbs and sprawl, but it does seem that the tide is beginning to turn throughout the country. Knoxville is no exception. The city has a quaint but lovely downtown area, anchored by pedestrian-friendly Market Square, which, up until the time I left East TN for college, remained largely uninhabited. If memory serves, the only establishment that braved Market Square in the mid-90s was the Tomato Head restaurant. Because of this, the Tomato Head has been synonymous with the movement towards revitalization and has remained close to my heart to this day.

Now, 15 years later, downtown Knoxville is full of life, people, good food, music. Cool happenings — concerts, farmers markets, festivals — flourish in Market Square.  A few years ago, AC Entertainment launched Big Ears, a festival that drops an incredible mix of experimental, classical, rock, electronic, and improvisational musicians into the city for a weekend, offering a chance for these cutting edge musicians from around the world to contribute to the region’s musical tapestry and to experience the goodness that Knoxville has to offer.  It is this synergy that we came to document and explore through our Street Studio.

The Street Studio model is wonderfully adept at capturing the energy of a particular time and place, drawing upon the sounds & stories of people who are inhabiting the same space, walking the same streets, eating the same food, but are often not interacting directly or creatively with one another.  Through the Street Studio, the first touch of a Nord keyboard by ambient music pioneer Laraaji is recorded alongside autobiographical stories from Big Ears Founder Ashley Capps; Ceramic Dog bassist Shazhad Ismaily reads zen-like poetry excerpts over bluegrass tunes played by old-time musician & ethnographer Matt Kinman; writer and Knoxville historian Jack Neely tells the story of Market Square over haunting melodies from local musicians Laith Keilany & Jodie Manross.

The Street Studio is a shared, spontaneous meeting space that not only captures unique moments of synergy, but builds upon them to produce new and unplanned musical creations. To me, it is also a personal ode to Knoxville, Market Square, Tomato Head, and Big Ears, to a city and community that I regard with pride and respect. The city is constantly evolving, and with that evolution comes great complexity: histories, controversies, intermingling lives and communities.  It is both fascinating and fulfilling to stop and listen to those voices co-mingling on the streets and experience a moment in place and time.

TRACK NOTES

1. Our Ears to Grow

Secret History columnist Jack Neely came by and schooled us on the musical past of Knoxville’s Market Square. In the rock n’ roll 1950’s, the Market was considered a “bellwether” for commercial music trends. Amidst a background of colorful street musicians, talents like Oud player Laith Keilany and vocalist Jodie Manross dropped in and the square was oozing music.

2. Yummy

Following a glowing set at the Bijou Theatre, ambient pioneer Laraaji stopped by the Found Sound Street Studio. If you don’t already know Laraaji, this article is a nice primer — his spidery keyboard lines set us off on a giddy pre-brunch jam, aptly titled “Yummy.” Afterwards, Big Ears Founder & head of AC Entertainment Ashley Capps waxed nostalgia his 31-year career as an eclectic FM disc-jockey on WUOT. “Maybe Big Ears is a substitute for being able to do a radio show,” Ashley chuckled.

3. Orcas in the Ocean

Percussionist and Bang On a Can staffer Matt Evans came by before his rehearsal with Ensemble Signal to lay down some ethereal Nord tones. Maybe some of that phasing marimba in “Music For 18 Musicians” went to all of our heads, but somehow his suggestion to call the piece “Orcas in the Ocean” seemed just right.

4. Bluegrass & Bongos

Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog tore it up at Big Ears 2014. After ripping through scuzzy takes on surf, lounge, and downtown rock (including a gnarled cover of Brubeck’s “Take 5”), drummer Ches Smith and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily were kind enough to lay down some decidedly more sedate sounds. Ismaily’s zen-like musings are a nice counterpoint to local busker and budding ethnographer Matt Kinman’s impromptu interview.

5. Thumbs Up

No sweaty palms for conductor Brad Lubman. Before his duet with Steve Reich in “Clapping Music”, Brad was eager to get his polyrhythms going early at the Found Sound tent. We were lucky to catch The Sand Man (a.k.a. Lonnie Holley) en route to his show at Scruffy City Hall. The acclaimed folk artist drops some shimmering chords and celestial wisdom on this eerie gem, “Thumbs Up.” The track also features singer Jodie Manross and bassist Eleonore Oppenheim.

6. Flap My Arms

We didn’t get all Jungian on this one, but “Flap My Arms” is a spirited ode to one passerby’s ever elusive dream. A touch of help from Ensemble Signal percussionist Nick Tolle gave the track that extra lift.

7. Pizza Love

Nabbing the much vaunted “Artist Pass” at Big Ears 2014 was a nice feeling — a top perk being the food discounts. We didn’t try Gay St’s famed Dazzo’s, but it’s reputation around Knoxville was unmistakable. Listening back, it’s not hard to hear the local flavor in this track.

8. Shame Rain

Sound engineers are typically the unsung heroes of music festivals. Recording ace Misha Goldman, however, can sing pretty darn well himself — throat sing that is. Dashing between his Big Ears responsibilities, Misha belted out some growling overtones. Before the day’s torrential downpour put an end to our outdoor studio (for shame, rain!), we squeezed in some lilting phrases by Laith Keilany, a masterful player on oud, mandolin and a couple of other strings of his own inventions.

9. Ode to Tim Hecker

Checking out one-off collaborations, rare reunions (Television!) and generally unfamiliar faces is a great excuse to leave NYC and head to a music festival. However, there’s also something comforting to see mainstays like Tim Hecker or Oneohtrix Point Never that play our hometown often. Here’s to familiarity in a foreign place — if only we could have dropped our Street Studio for an hour and caught Dawn of Midi’s set! This track Big Ears artist Kelli Kathman on flute.

10. Gray Skies

Words are fantastic material. Spoken or sung, they’re imbued with all sorts of meaning and musicality. Often times, though, it’s the space between words, a breath–a plosive isolated, the swoosh of saliva — that generate the mojo.

11. Squeak Feet

There was a lot of rain in Knoxville (see “Shame Rain”). Recording and lots of water don’t typically go together; when it finally stopped we were psyched. And so was a certain young fellow with the squeakin’ shoes and bubbly laugh inspired this track.

12. Sun Shelter

No artist loomed larger at Big Ears 2014 than Steve Reich. The last day of Big Ears, also our first filled with clear skies, was almost exclusively Reich programming. We couldn’t resist the urge to sample the minimal touchstone “It’s Gonna Rain,” as well as a few other classics.