Book + Robeson, concert performance

Lynn Book collaborated with Rich Robeson creating concert performances for voice, flutes, guitar in both Winston-Salem, NC – the Beta Verde House Concert, and at University of California, Santa Cruz – as part of the International Society for Improvised Music, both in 2009. Book’s musical forays have often been in collaboration with just one other musician/improvisor giving her text-centric, extended voice solo concert performances more musical environments. This was the case with Robeson, who was a multi-instrumentalist living in North Carolina who also studied the musics of North Africa. Book’s “Desire Wish Want Crave Covet” a text-score about the ravages of endless consumption on a world fraught with inequities producing brutal desperation, found in Robeson’s modal guitar tuning a fertile ground to counterpoint the text with open-throated keening passages. Likewise, their playing together over many more exploratory work sessions found shared musical terrain. In this sub-collection are notes from some of those work sessions, recordings from the Beta Verde House Concert – the complete performance and individual pieces, and photos from their concert at UC Santa Cruz.

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