If you don’t know David’s work you can read our 2016 interview with him here. But suffice to say the US born Australian based artist has worked with everyone from John Zorn to Scanner and Jim O’Rourke. More recently he has released a couple of solo albums on Room40, Rituals (you can read our review here) and Piano 1. As a composer he utilises a combination of samplers and live musicians, his electro acoustic work often drawing on ancient texts, films, and traditional music.
The Thousand Buddha Caves continues to develop this approach, a peaceful evocative work that explores his interest in the myth of The Silk Road. This is what he has to say about it:
“It was this trading of cultural traditions, cosmologies, mysticisms, esoteric knowledge, historical eras and forms of rituals that became the entrance into the Caves for me. I immersed myself in the music, stories, history and Buddhist influences, looking for connections to this century; the technology, the underlying belief systems, the dance, design, architecture, painting, film, mixed forms and including the misunderstandings that create hybrid forms as cultures and time periods absorb, fight, steal, destroy, mythologise and trade from and with each other.”
The Thousand Buddha Caves is composed and produced and performed by David Shea in collaboration with: Mindy Meng Wang: Guzheng and Voice, Speak Percussion: Eugene Ughetti – Percussion, Matthias Schack-Arnott – Percussion and David Shea – Electronics, Piano, Singing Bowls, Vocal Overtone and Multiphonic singing, sample collage, and field recordings
Guest Musicians include Tamara Kohler – Alto Flute/ Flute (from samples of Rituals), Oren Ambarchi – Elec.Guitar, Joe Talia – Drums, Girish Makwana – Tablas, Ictus Ensemble – (excerpts from Chamber Symphony #1).
The Thousand Buddha Caves is released 12th of March 2021 via Room40. You can find it here.
