A project by Valerie Tevere and Angel Nevarez
The Slow Drop is a multidisciplinary project which includes a spatial music performance, a multi-channel video and sound installation, and a series of photographic portraits of musician collaborators.
The Slow Drop began with the question: What might a creative response sound like in the wake of climate change? Artistic reactions to climate change are necessary to build understanding of the realities of changing landscapes. Cities like New Orleans are at the frontline of climate change, whose urgency leads us to think critically in order to probe new narrative spaces for transformation.
The first component of The Slow Drop was a spatial music performance that took place on October 8, 2022 in Musicians’ Village, New Orleans, LA. The performance titled The Slow Drop: Musicians’ Village was built upon the musical talents of residents of New Orleans Musicians’ Village —a 2006 housing initiative in the Upper Ninth Ward that provided financial assistance to bring musicians back to the neighborhood after the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. Collaborating musicians include Danny Abel, Sam Albright, Denise Bonis, Tom Chute, Sula Janet Evans, Helen Gillet, Edward Lee Jr., Thomas McDonald, Margie Perez, Troy Sawyer, Gabriel Velasco, and Chip Wilson.
The Slow Drop: Musicians’ Village was an acoustic experience–a neighborhood score–formed through the combination of social engagement, music production and collaborative improvisation across Musicians’ Village. The neighborhood score consists of melodic textures, percussive accents, and vibrant tones that reference the ecology and the layered acoustic environment of New Orleans.
The score included improvised music and voices evoking dramatic tensions one may associate with a ravaging storm.