Celestial Vessel is a canoe made from 1950s RCA Victor Red Seal 45rpm records that represents the voyage from Africa to the Americas and the importance of music in holding different cultures together during the slave trade. The boat form refers to modes of dispersion, especially eighteenth-century accounts of canoes which were used to transport captured Africans from the inland to coastal slave markets. But it also reads as a ghost ship ready to carry us between realms, from the harsh realities of the physical world to the promise of the afterlife. The red records act as an imaginary archive that speaks to the critical role of music as a means to transmit information and bring people together, as well as to the hardships that African American jazz artists endured in the music industry during the segregated 1950s.
As a mixed race youth growing up in London in the 1960s and early 1970s, Hoyt would eagerly await the arrival of the latest US imports at the record store. It was not only a place to discover new music, but an outlet to another world, where records informed him of the social and political climate in the African American community and helped him shape his personal identity. Hoyt brings his sculpture to life with his sound composition, which samples the records on this canoe and beyond to collage together the richly diverse sounds of Africa, North and South America, and Europe.
Dezember 2012
The Celestial Vessel Suite
[To view the MP3 Player you will need to have Javascript turned on and have Flash Player 8 or better installed.]
Conceptualized & collaged by Satch Hoyt
Produced by Satch Hoyt & Dirk Leyers
Engineered by Dirk Leyers at the Funkhaus Berlin, Germany
1. Franz Liszt. "Les Preludes", Leopold Stokowski and His Symphony Orchestra. RCA Red Seal Record, 1952
2. Bandaka Tribe. "Musical Bow", Music of the Ituri Forest (recorded in the Belgian Congo). Folkways Records, 1957
3. Bambuti Tribe. "Lusumba Song", Music of the Ituri Forest (recorded in the Belgian Congo). Folkways Records, 1957
4. Johann Strauss. "The Artist’s Life", Longines Symphonette, Gems of Music
5. The Art Ensemble of Chicago. "Bush Magic", Urban Bushmen. ECM Records, 1980
6. The Art Ensemble of Chicago. "Illistrum", Fanfare for the Warriors. Atlantic Records, 1974
7. Candomble Bloco-Afro field recording Santo Amaro, Brazil
8. Rosie Hibler and Family. "Move Members Move", Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 2. Folkways Records, 1956
9. Count Basie's Kansas City Seven. "Dickie’s Dream," Jazz, Vol. 10: Boogie Woogie and Jump and Kansas City. Folkways Records, 1953
10. Mambudu Tribe. "Makata Sticks", Music of the Ituri Forest (recorded in the Belgian Congo). Folkways Records, 1957
11. Sonny Terry and Oh Red. “Hamonica Breakdown”, Jazz, Vol. 1: South, Folkways Records, 1950
12. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. "The Sleeping Beauty", Leopold Stokowski and his Symphony Orchestra. RCA Red Seal Record, 1952
13. The JB's. "More Peas", Doing It to Death. People Records, 1973
14. Igor Stravinsky. “Second Part: The Sacrifice”, Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring). Boston Symphony Orchestra; Pierre Monteux, Cond. RCA Red Seal Record, 1951
15. Anthony Braxton. “Z. WBN D3B”, The Montreaux/Berlin Concerts. Arista Records, 1977
16. Kelis. “Young, Fresh N New" Wanderland. Virgin Records, 2001
17. Robert Schumann. Kinderszenen (Scenes of Childhood), Alfred Cortot
18. Pianist. HMV Records, 1947
Satch Hoyt - born 1957 in London, lives and works in Berlin. He is an artist and musician whose work investigates the material culture, history and music of the African Diaspora.