RIPARIAN Forest
communion: a liturgy
Ulysses Atwhen & Friends
RIPARIAN FOREST was the second performance in the RIPARIAN series. The first, RIPARIAN: a Contrarian Fugue, performed on May 7, 2021, was a component of Atwhen’s MFA Thesis Myth of Thesis. Among many influences, two that stand out are Éliane Radigue’s Kyema, Intermediate States and Maryanne Amacher’s City Links: Buffalo, a 28-hour piece that broadcasted 5 different sound scapes in the city of Buffalo, live on WBFO.
The ENR Aeoline is a sculpture in dialogue with John Zissovici’s BLACK MASS emerging from the bones of an old pipe organ and the centering drone of the performance. Riparian Forest opened with a multi-voice choral piece, inspired by Tony Conrad’s 4 Violins. This section was conceived by Tony Billoni and arranged and conducted by Kilissa Cissoko.
Featured Musicians:
Jim Abramson, Ulysses Atwhen, Tony Billoni, Mario Fanone, Martin Freeman, Max Goldfarb, Max Hamel, JP Pierre, Bill Sack, Tristan Tims, and Gayle Young
Chorus:
Katie Ambrose-Billoni, Ulysses Atwhen, David Butler, Kevin Cain, Chango 4, Cathy Carfagna, Robert DiGangi Rough, Nick Gordon, Biff Henrich, Doug Lambert, Bryan Lohr, Jennifer Lynne, Andrea Mancuso, David Myles Meinzer, Shasti O’Leary Soudant, Pauline, Tina Peel, Ann Philippone, Alan Thomas, Renata Toney, and Ronald Washington
A special thanks to Preservation Buffalo Niagara for donating the original organ to Assembly House 150, to ReUse Action for salvage support, to Scot Fisher and Olivier Delrieu-Schulze for their guidance on assembly and tuning, and to Julian Montague for design support. The organ is housed at the apex of the Church, within Black Mass, a large-scale sculptural installation led by artist and Cornell Professor of Architecture John Zissovici, and architect Ethan Davis at Assembly House. This performance would not be possible without the enduring support and creativity of everyone involved.
Photos by Douglas Levere, Olivier Delrieu-Schulze, and Assembly House 150
“Incredibly collaborative, this performance, orchestrated by Ulysses Atwhen, is the result of years of generative partnerships across the communities of art, design, architecture, preservation, and building. It embodies the collective ethos of Assembly House 150 and gestures towards the energy we hope to bring to future programs and activations in our space.”
Dennis Maher
Founder & Executive Director, Assembly House 150
