Bill Horist - Mutei - Music For Davida Monk's Dream Pavillion - CD

Seattle-based guitarist Bill Horist (Master Musicians of Bukkake) is happy to announce the release of Mutei, his latest solo recording on Important Records. For the last two decades, Bill has been making music within and without convention in a wide variety of settings and genres and has worked with many notables in rock, experimental and new music. His take on prepared guitar has garnered international acclaim.

Mutei presents music composed and improvised by Horist for Calgary, Alberta-based choreographer Davida Monk's latest major dance work, Dream Pavilion. This is the second major work that Bill and Davida have created since their initial production Lyric and the resulting Lyric/Suite (Accretions) CD was developed and released in 2003. Their longstanding collaboration has cultivated a highly integrated lexicon of sound and movement. Inspired by diminutive, carved Japanese statues called Netsuke, Bill and Davida strive to bring this exquisite manifestation of humans, animals, fantastic creatures and deities to life.
With the basis of a prepared guitar score developed in-residence and augmented by percussion and đàn nguyệt (Vietnamese moon lute), Bill has created a mysterious and emotive sonic world which two dancers embody. Despite the score being composed for live performance, Bill recorded a version with Scott Colburn and further augmented the work with conventional guitar, bass and other electronics, thus creating a work that stands beautifully and strangely on its own, in addition to being a powerful component of the choreographed work.

Tracks on Mutei vary wildly from dark drone to plaintive and playful; from meditative ambience to squalls of visceral noise.

"The movement vocabulary for Dream Pavilion arises from a process in which the dancers embodied the physicality of Japanese netsuke, tiny sculptures of exquisite detail. Netsuke depict a range of subjects from flora and fauna to fantastical beasts and mythical beings, captured in moments of powerful emotional expression. In Dream Pavilion my desire is to bring the netsuke to life in a world of juxtaposition and transformation that touches the depths of human desire, fear, playfulness and imagination." ~ Davida Monk