[ISEA97] Artist Statement: John Drever – Cloud of Forgetting

 Artist Statement

“If ever you are to come into this cloud and live and work in it, as I suggest, then just as it were above you, between you and God, so you must also put a cloud of forgetting beneath you and all creation”   _Chapter 5, Cloud of Unknowing (Anon, 16th Century)

This work has arisen from my experiences of Zen meditation in a Roman Catholic context. It is both a prayer and equally a reflection on meditation. It is not, however, a substitute for silence. Cloud of Forgetting has been referred to as a “hyper-meditation”. It was realized at The Electro-acoustic Music Studios at The University of East Anglia, February, 1996. Cloud of Forgetting is dedicated to Thomas Zimmermann.

  • John Levack Drever (UK) was born in Edinburgh in 1973. He studied music at The University College of North Wales, Bangor, specializing in Composition with Andrew Lewis. Subsequently he did a Masters in Electro-acoustic Composition at The University of East Anglia, with Simon Waters. Currently he is doing research at Dartington College of Arts in Performance Technology with Joseph Hyde, and Performance Writing with Alaric Sumner. He is instructed in Zen mediation by Fr.Gebhart Kohler. His music is performed and broadcasted Internationally. Recent performances include: Electro-acoustiques Université Concordia University Electroacoustics, Montreal;The 6th Annual Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival, Gainesville; Musica Nova ’96, Prague; Discoveries’ 97, Dundee. Scheduled performances include: le Son Mu 98, GRM, Paris; One Voice, Edinburgh; A Quality of Light, —The New Millennium, St. Ives. He teaches Sonic Art at Exeter University, over the internet for the Open School, and together with Pedro Rebelo he directs Hazards of Noise, a group dedicated to acoustic ecology. He is currently involved in a series of innovative cross art form collaborations, experimenting with performance writing, performance art, movement, installation and video.