A SPECIAL MESSAGE: 2019 YEAR-IN-REVIEW

Dec 22, 2019

This year has been bananas. Full of highs and lows, and yet always part of a larger and deeper kind of celebration. So, here is a 2019 year-in-review: of projects and writings, press and travel. I hope you can find some joy in it, and I also hope you find much to celebrate in the new year. My best to you, Brian

ALBUMS

I released three interconnected albums in 2019, with Shawnee, Ohio (on Karl Records) as a centerpiece bookended by two instrumental albums, Wayne National Forest and Many Hands (on Winesap Records). Shawnee, Ohio made it onto some nice year-end lists, including well-respected musician and author Ted Gioia, who included Shawnee on his "100 Best Recordings of 2019" You can see the list here.

Released on Karl Records (Berlin), Shawnee, Ohio is the culmination of nearly a decade of research and creative work in Appalachian Ohio. Through a series of 11 sonic portraits of everyday people from Shawnee and neighboring towns, it tells the stories of extraction, booms and busts, and environmental damage and recovery. Listen/purchase here.

Released in February, Wayne National Forest is a quiet companion to Shawnee, Ohio. Recorded with the same Shawnee ensemble––that features Paul de Jong and Anna Roberts-Gevalt among others––the instrumentals of Wayne National Forest reflect the soundscapes of the forest, located in Appalachian Ohio. You can listen to and purchase it here.

Along with Wayne National Forest, Many Hands bookends Shawnee, Ohio, and is a quiet set of tender, searching, and tactile piano miniatures. Benzine Magazine (France) gave it 4/5 stars. It was once again inspired by working in and listening to Appalachian Ohio. You can listen to and purchase it here.

ESSAYS AND ARTICLES

The year began with me still trying to process the death of my sister, Jane, from early onset dementia. I wrote a short essay about her, called “Memory, Loss, and the Family Photo.” This essay was presented at the New/Old Image Exchange Symposium at Ohio University in February, 2019. Read it here.

I also wrote an article called "Getting Lost" for the Rethinking Marxism journal (Volume 30, Issue 4) that explores and describes my friend Jonathan Johnson’s photographs. I’ve known Jon and his work for several years, and I relished the chance to organize some thoughts on both the images and his process of making them. For Jon, "getting lost" is the act of finding oneself in unfamiliar places, and a process of slowing down. Jon also helped me with the Shawnee, Ohio project as a videographer. Find the article here.

Published simultaneously in both The Daily Yonder and 100 Days in Appalachia, "The Sounds of Rural America" is an opinion piece I wrote to address (and hopefully begin to redress) the rural/urban divide, and push against stereotypes of Appalachian Ohio (and Appalachia more broadly). Read it here.

"On Cunningham and 'Stillness'": In February 2019, I was asked by choreographer Netta Yerushalmy to make a short, one-time contribution to her “Paramodernities” project when it came to the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. I chose to talk about my experience of visiting Tacita Dean’s installation “Stillness” at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Read it here.

"Winding Road Stories": This is an ongoing series of in-depth articles celebrating the people, businesses, and organizations of Appalachian Ohio, as part of my AmeriCorps service there. Meeting and listening to these people has been perhaps the most rewarding part of my work. Read them here.

VIDEOS

To celebrate the release of Shawnee, Ohio, we shared an exclusive live performance of "Boy," performed in the Tecumseh Theater in Shawnee. It was remarkable to play in the same room my grandfather did in the 1920s.

I also recently shared all of the videos from Shawnee, Ohio. These videos are projected during live performances. Click through to watch "Judd," and you can also choose from ten other videos here, and learn more about the project.

In May, a film crew from Rava Films and A Blade of Grass documented a Forest Listening Room session at Robinson's Cave in New Straitsville. This video is a good general introduction to the region and project.

This video is the second in a series of four Forest Listening Rooms performances. "Perry State Forest" listens to a local resident talk of her opposition to a new coal strip mine on public lands.

This is a Forest Listening Rooms performance at the XX Coal Mine, now where the Tecumseh Lake is located just outside of Shawnee. Here, residents talk of their lives and work in the forest.

This Forest Listening Rooms performance takes place in Wildcat Hollow in the Wayne National Forest. Children talk of what they heard, listen to archival recordings of children talking of mining, and tell their own stories.

PRESS: FEATURES

A collaboration between Pacific Standard Magazine (RIP) and Columbus Alive, Joel Oliphint's article "The Lost Art of Listening" takes a deep dive into Forest Listening Rooms, my creative process and practice, and the history and cultural contexts of extraction in Appalachian Ohio. Joel visited the region several times over many months, and his patience and keen observations are invaluable. You can read the full article here.

Robert Sember's thoughtful article "Stay, Listen, Organize" is both a remarkable overview of Forest Listening Rooms and also the first in-depth retrospective of the past two decades of my work with sound archives. Written for A Blade of Grass Magazine, Sember explores into the material and its contexts, sound, and Appalachian Ohio. Read it here.

Writer George Grella tackles contemporary ambient music, and includes Shawnee, Ohio and Wayne National Forest in the discussion. Read the article here.

A Blade of Grass has developed a "Field Works" page that details in-depth research on several socially engaged projects. I was happy to have Forest Listening Rooms be a part of this (among other wonderful works, such as Rick Lowe's Victoria Square Project). Read it here.

PRESS: REVIEWS & RADIO

There was an astonishing number of reviews of Shawnee, Ohio this year (nearly 30!), mostly in Europe, and I am immensely grateful to Karl Records and to Ed Benndorf (Dense Promotion) for their help. I was so happy that the reviewers understood and connected with the mix of in-depth research and emotion in the album that I had hoped for. Below are a few highlights. MOJO Magazine's 5-Star review of Shawnee that called it a "masterpiece" was perhaps the greatest honor of the year.

In MOJO Magazine, Andrew Male states, "Harnetty's delicate, keening chamber folk recalls Moondog, Charlies Ives, and his old mentor, [Michael] Finnissy, yet retains a benevolent delicacy all of its own." Read more here.

The Wire Magazine (UK):
"[There is] a strong sense of engagement... in the ability to absorb oneself so deeply in the history of a place that the most trivial happenings, rather than the most dramatic, turn out to be the telling ones." -- Brian Morton, The Wire (UK) Read more here.

Dusted Magazine (US):
"The more I feel unable to figure it out, the more I like the work... It’s moving and revealing, and I imagine we could fill this space just following one of many possible themes, such as anthropology, modern composition, traditional music, or regional political history." Read the review here.

OX Fanzine (Germany):
9/10 STARS (or, Black Flags!) - "A gentle cloth of chamber music is spread over archival material in this melancholic and tender publication... Enormously fascinating and authentic through its artistic and musical examination of the past." -- Henrik Beeke, OX Fanzine (Germany)

Musikexpress (Germany):
5/6 STARS - "Shawnee, Ohio...is a lot at once: acoustic portrait, empathic narrative, and historical search for clues. It is music that opens a door into an unknown room." Read more here.

There have been many lovely radio programs that featured Shawnee, Ohio, including the BBC's "Late Junction," Resonance 104FM, London, and full-length features on "Musikpassagen" (Germany, SWR2), and Portugal's "Geografia dos Sons" (RTP Radio).

TRAVEL AND RESIDENCIES

For two weeks in July, my wife Jen, son Henry, and I did a family residency at the Marble House Project in Vermont. There was much solitude and creative work alongside thoughtful conversation and food with fellow artists. It was truly a marvelous experience, one that I am so grateful for.

The Loghaven Artist Residency took place for a week in December in Knoxville, Tennessee. The cabin was pretty much perfect (except for low doorways), and I made much progress on a new recording project based on Thomas Merton's archives.

In May, I was part of a socially engaged art conference in St. Helen's, UK, alongside A Blade of Grass staff and fellows, and other artists. You can watch a video of the conference highlights here. (Drawing by Emmeline Pidgen.)

At the Creative Capital Retreat this June (at Bard College), I gave a short presentation on Shawnee, Ohio. This was my second retreat, and both times I was overwhelmed by the generosity and talent and friendship of Creative Capital and the participating artists. You can watch my presentation here. (Photo courtesy of Evan Walsh.)

I traveled to Bakersfield, California in November to talk with students at Bakersfield College. When I arrived, I was immediately struck by many similarities between Bakersfield and Appalachian Ohio (and other parts of Appalachia), where the landscapes have been dramatically altered by energy extraction.

Invited by my friend Josh Ottum, we had a lovely time talking with students and faculty about making work that focuses on where you are and where you are from, especially when these places are often overlooked or marginalized.