Ciseler: Carving sound from Silence
Residency in Cabris, France

Immediately captivating, la chapelle St. Jean Baptiste is a small chapel located in a tiny medieval village in Cabris, France. The resonance inside this 8-sided marvel brings sound to life, creating a rich acoustic environment to carve out new compositions, forge collaboration between U.S. based improviser, flutist, and composer Emma Shubin, and multi-year American artist-in-residence of Cabris, France, Rebekah West and her organization Visages de Cabris. Rebekah's artistry shines through all that she does, and her curiosity, creativity, and wonder had led her to spearhead a special arts initiative in this tight-knit village, where she is now considered an ambassador for the arts. Rebekah, with Cabrienc and American harpist, Megan Metheney collaborated on the first recording in the chapel in August-September 2014. Les Audides is the first in what is planned to be a series of original recordings composed and recorded in and "with" the chapel.

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During this nine-day residency, American flutist Emma Shubin, American percussionist-vocalist Rebekah West, and British flutist Jennifer Raven shared a four-day compositional process in the la chapelle St Jean Baptiste listening, discovering, improvising and composing, essentially sculpting a 45-60-minute body of new works, which we will then spend four days recording in the chapel with French engineer Fred Bétin from Studio 26 in Antibes.  The week was celebrated with a series of four concerts including a program with a concert with American harpist (and local Cabrienc) Megan Metheney and French violinist Béti Guiffray, and joined by British educator Ben Reeve on voice & percussion. 

This multinational collaboration provided a rare opportunity to create a new body of work not only with living, active improvisers, performers, and artists, as well as with the resonance of a space itself.