Voice of the Shell, Pt. 1 (Awaken)

A century ago, after living on the Samoan Islands, a girl my great grandfather befriended gave him this conch shell as a farewell gift. Her father was a chief and the shell artifact was in her family for many generations. While one examines the shell, the wear of generations of use can be noticed. Later in life my great grandfather gave it to my grandfather who also lived on the Islands and spoke the indigenous language. After my grandfather gave it to me, he encouraged me to play it and I began to explore it's musical possibilities. First I started with long trumpet tones. I noticed a wear mark on the shell, reasonably caused by hand motions left by the shell's previous Samoan owners. I followed the motion mark with my hand that led inside the bell of the shell to discover different notes. This process guided me down mysterious corridors and chambers to find startling archaic audio realizations. At times I would get disoriented as I excavated the artifact's secrets. After returning to those places by rehearsing and cultivating a trail on which to navigate, I was able to establish an oriented relationship with the capacity. During that process, the shell revealed kaleidoscopic varieties of timbre, pitch, rhythm and curved lines. While utilizing those techniques I employed a method of free jazz improvisation, applied by stream-of-consciousness, to assemble the songs during recording (these pieces did not exist before recording). In selected areas multiple shell lines were layered together. From a collection of over sixty recordings, sixteen tracks were selected. As I placed the tracks in a reasonable order, a story began to emerge. The songs fit the hero's journey framework described by mythologist Joseph Campbell. Titles were attached to each song to describe the journey. The underlying current is the "Voice of the Shell" which represents the artist's inner-driving force and ancestral spirit guide.

There is a supernatural element to this instrument. Some months ago I video recorded the shell and case while the shell sat in it's seat. Once I opened the case a series of orbs flew out of the shell and round the room. I have that video documentation to share upon request.

Audience member comments after the first live performance:
"It sounded like a gong!"
"I never heard anything like it before."
"Beautiful!"
"It gave me chills."
"I was very touched by how intimately you knew the shell such, that such a beautiful song could be sung between your breath and it's curved contour."

Album listener comments:
"Haunting and beautiful."
"I downloaded it!"
"What I like is the story behind it...you can really sense that you've tapped into a primal impulse. Very nice."


About the artist:
David Frederick Hardy is a full time bronze sculptor based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Luminaries he completed commissions for include J. David Oder, owner and CEO of Shift4 and former U.S. Ambassador John Price. Hardy was educated at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, Massachusetts and Harvard University Extension School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He proposes the performing of a conch shell is one of the original Transhuman experiences. He believes music improvisation is a form of channeling.