SALEM — On Friday night, Ana Roxanne transformed the East India Marine Hall at the Peabody Essex Museum into a transcendental concert hall.
To celebrate the final weeks of Bernie Krause’s The Great Animal Orchestra, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and the Peabody Essex Museum hosted Roxanne, an experimental ambient sound musician in the newly renovated East India Marine Hall.
Her four-piece suite encompassed the four elements: water, earth, fire and air.
She led with the water composition, bathing listeners in tones that filled the room. Roxanne played the piano, letting notes wash over the crowd as Krause’s recordings of seagulls, whales, and waves wove their way through the composition.
The next composition was grounded in the element of earth. Roxanne led listeners on a journey as recordings of cicadas, birds and crickets echoed through the hall. Roxanne played piano again, a trolling rhythm that started as footsteps and grew into mountains of music.
During the third composition, Roxanne played guitar and thunder erupted from the speakers. The setting sun shone through the hall’s palladian windows and illuminated Roxanne with the warm glow of the fire her music evoked.
The final composition, wind, featured Roxanne’s vocalization which made the room vibrate. She created a symphony of breath as she layered her singing and humming. Behind her, the trees billowed as if they were dancing to her harmonies.
In the second half of the concert, Roxanne played other original music. She became an instrument herself as she built the piece before the audience’s eyes. She recorded and looped her singing, creating a one-woman chorus.
Her final song was a tribute to the late musician Julee Cruise, from whom Roxanne takes inspiration. She performed a cover of Cruise’s song “The World Spins.”
While Roxanne regularly uses field recordings of daily life in her work, she found using Krause’s recordings a wholly different experience.
“It was quite different because my music is very internal, it feels almost like a journal of sorts that is reflective of my very specific personal experiences, and it was a nice exercise and a nice change to approach writing less from a personal perspective and just imagining the sounds and the environment of the natural world separate from me.”
She described her work as a supplement and a compliment to The Great Animal Orchestra. “I hope my work can help to emphasize Bernie’s work through his exhibition, and the importance of being aware of nature and incorporating it into our daily vision.”
Roxanne’s goal was to provide a sense of calm and a sense of connection to nature for those in attendance, and she more than achieved it.
Emma Fringuelli can be reached at [email protected].
