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In the drifting, wordless space between wakefulness and sleep: music of lost civilizations.
Echoes lingering long past their creation; reverberations seemingly without end.
Unusual polyrhythms juxtaposed with polyphonies neither western nor eastern; music of civilizations long lost and forgotten -- and until now unheard.
Propitiations to an ancient muse? Celebrations of forgotten feasts?
No one knows: no physical traces remain; the only surviving legacy is sound -- and the imagery it inspires. . .
As first described by Sir Francis Bacon in 1624:
"We have also sound-houses, where we practise and demonstrate all sounds, and their generation. We have harmonies which you have not, of quarter-sounds, and lesser slides of sounds. Divers instruments of music likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have, together with bells and rings that are dainty and sweet. We represent small sounds as great and deep; likewise great sounds extenuate and sharp; we make divers tremblings and warblings of sounds, which in their original are entire. We represent and imitate all articulate sounds and letters, and the voices and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps which set to the ear do further the hearing greatly. We have also divers strange and artificial echoes, reflecting the voice many times, and as it were tossing it: and some that give back the voice louder than it came, some shriller, and some deeper; yea, some rendering the voice differing in the letters or articulate sound from that they receive. We have also means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances."
(Source: Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626. Essays, civil and moral, and The new Atlantis, by Francis Bacon; http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1627bacon-atlantis.html)
Lost Civilizations began as a project of Mike Sebastian (Tenor Sax, Saxello and Bass Clarinet) and T. A. Zook (BassCello and Misc. Instruments). More recently, they have been joined by Larry Gomez (Tabla, Cymbals, Misc. percussion). Performances also frequently feature their friends as guests.
This site is unmonitored; those wishing to contact the project directly may do so via http://www.myspace.com/tazook.
Sessions of the Lost Civilizations experimental music project (totally unscored, unrehearsed and extemporaneously improvised on the spot) are posted on the sites listed below. The sessions are posted in their entirety (albeit in sequential excerpts due to MySpace upload limitations); the recordings were in one take with no overdubbing of any kind.
http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsmusic ("Lost Civilizations I" CDR)
http://www.myspace.com/morelostcivilizations ("Lost Civilizations II" CDR)
http://www.myspace.com/merellasebastianzook ("Lost Civilizations III" CDR)
http://www.myspace.com/sebastianandzook1 ("Lost Civilizations IV" CDR -- first half)
http://www.myspace.com/sebastianandzook2 ("Lost Civilizations IV" CDR -- second half)
http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsatorpheus ("Lost Civilizations V" CDR)
http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsvi ("Lost Civilizations VI" CDR)
http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsvii ("Lost Civilizations VII" CDR)
http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsviii; ("Lost Civilizations VIII" CDR)
http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsix; ("Lost Civilizations IX" CDR)
http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsx ("Lost Civilizations X" CDR)
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