Þóranna Björnsdóttir and Federico Placidi – Lucid 2LP

LUCID is as an artistic collaboration between Þóranna Björnsdóttir and Federico Placidi. Their friendship and collaboration started when they were both residents at the CCMIX (Centre de creation musicale Iannis Xenakis) in Paris in 2007. It has been developed and finalized in the domain of interactive electroacoustic performance and as a recording project. In collaboration with Smekkleysa, (SM/Bad Taste) in Iceland, the work is released as a double vinyl album. A digital purchase can be made at Bandcamp.

Þóranna and Federico collected earthy sound material in Iceland; characterized by natural steam vents, tumbling lava rocks and boiling hissing clay. In Rome, they extracted and sculpted from this material and developed the piece musically; using hybrid analogue/digital tools that integrate into a single creative goal different fields of music production.

Chapters A, Singularity, and B, Main Sequence, on the first LP are about creation and cosmology. The second LP is about consciousness, chapter C, Interior, being a metaphor of the human state of consciousness and chapter D, Lost time, is the path to full awareness of consciousness.

The work aims to bind together two different geographical and cultural domains. These two geographical constraints produce different human beings, and the music produced is a dialogue between two souls, which are trying to unify both vision, aesthetics, and purposes.

“Human beings live in a collective shared hallucination; we all know this. What we see, smell, taste, experience on a sensorial level is a representation of reality made by our brain interpreting external electrical stimuli. This is a necessary condition in order to allow human beings to exist and act in the physical realm. LUCID is a word which describes a state of consciousness beyond all this, an epiphany where, at once, the substance of reality it is finally revealed; the power and energy of nature in its raw untamed force and the spiritual energy field that bind everything, soul and matter, together. LUCID is then just a plain word and what matters the most is the connection we establish with its real meaning which cannot be further verbalized. LUCID means REAL.”

Lucid_Mangler_Schreiben is a short example of the many approaches we are using while composing our piece Lucid.

Very special thanks to my dear friend Sigrid Astrup who made the beautiful artwork. www.sigridastrup.com

Supported by The Composer fund of The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service and STEF.

LUCID was nominated as the Album of the year 2019 in the classical and contemporary music category at the Icelandic Music Awards. The album was selected as the Album of the year by Simon Cummings at 5 against 4.
http://5against4.com/2019/12/31/best-albums-of-2019-part-2/?fbclid=IwAR0nODNzCeDDQQNEB6RmEbzSdkOBrIhs0F0afMcR0AR067FmNXPmVsMJ-ec#more-37452