AquaSonos: River Sequences for voice, electronics, bells, and gong chorus

by Studio Strange

Primary artists: Dameun Strange, Sayge Carroll, Matshoshi Matsafu
Contributing artists: Claudia Eriksson, Kahlil Brewington

at A night with the river

Bring a blanket, rest, listen and watch. Clusters of musicians and vocalists create live sounds among the trees that line the river walk. Ambient synth, bells, voice and gong activate lights within the trees. Motivated by the strong sense that we all have relationships to water, this project encourages fellow voyagers to contemplate that relationship and asks us what reciprocity with water means. How will you move towards water protection?

A gong ceremony begins each hour. Four ceremonies; one for each of the bird protectors perched at the park. 

Accessibility note: This project contains sound and changing lights. It takes place on grassy ground which may be uneven.

Artist Bios

Dameun Strange
Instagram: studiostrange_
Facebook: dameunstrange

Dameun Strange is a sound artist, multi-instrumentalist, and award-winning composer of conceptual electronic and improvised electro-acoustic works focusing on the African diaspora’s stories and themes, often exploring surrealist and afro-futurist ideas with unique impressionism. Dameun is compelled to express through sound and poetry the beauty and resilience of the Black experience, digging into a pantheon of ancestors to tell stories of triumph while connecting the past, present, and future. 

Dameun has composed music with such artists as Leslie Parker, Ananya Chatterjea, J. Otis Powell, and Sha Cage and has been a featured performer in concerts celebrating the work of George Lewis, Thurston Moore, and Henry Threadgill. He is a 2018 recipient of the ACF | Create Award and 2019 Jerome Hill Fellowship. Most recently, his work was commissioned by BMI Foundation for renowned flutist Adam Sadberry, _not running. (The Life of L. Alex Wilson) for flute and electronics was premiered at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center in March 2023. 

Dameun lives in Saint Paul, MN with his wife, Corina, and their 4 yo, Ezra. Like any good nerd, he enjoys a good sci-fi story and has a soft spot for anything related to cosmology.

Sayge Carroll
Instagram: Mudluk_pottery

Sayge Carroll is a potter, maker, and sound artist. She works with clay to co-create worlds with other artists, ancestors, storytellers. 

Carroll was born and raised in Minneapolis MN. As an artist she has held several residencies, given lectures, curated shows and received grants, and shown her work in the United States and abroad. She has worked in arts education for over two decades building community and establishing art programs at Juxtaposition Arts (Ceramics), Franklin Art Works Gallery, Phillips East, Youth Link, and Little Earth to name a few. Carroll also founded Women of Color Artist Gathering (WOCAG), Art Church, and the Harvest Feast. Her passion about arts access and building a healthy community is seen most recently in the creation of MUDLUK Pottery, a ceramics sanctuary that Carroll co-founded and co-directs in Minneapolis.

Matshoshi Matsafu
Instagram: matshoshi

Matshoshi Matsafu is an illustrator, user experience designer, and all-round creatrix. She builds and designs in collaborative modes immersive experiences, art, and tech that centers blackness. As a South African who has lived and worked in South Korea and the US, immersion into various cultures feeds her curiosity. Matsafu enjoys the process of discerning patterns and behaviors that comprise identities and spaces. This has made her more adept at putting human centric design into practice.

Photo credits:
Dameun Strange photo by Matt Mead, TPT
Sayge Carroll image by Michelle Spaise
Matshoshi Matsafu image courtesy the artist.

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