Porch Swing Orchestra is an art project that pairs music recorded outside with images made on-site. Performed and recorded at home and away, solo and with others. Our orchestra is comprised of birds, guitars, artists, poets, and passing cars that spontaneously create ephemeral symphonic chance-inspired compositions. The original site and hub for all things PSO can be found at porchswingorchestra.org

This episode is the first of a mini-series of pods highlighting artists who are presenting in VAST IS THE SEA, a series of live events exploring the interconnections between images and sound curated by PSO and hosted by Co-lab Projects in Austin Texas.

The series will take place over 4 Saturdays and feature 2 presentations per evening on Jan 20, 27, and Feb 17 and 24. All presentations are maximally 45 minutes long

There will be a 15-20-minute intermission between presentations

Each presentation is ticketed separately except for the opening night which is one combined ticket. You can purchase tickets on a sliding scale starting at $5 at co-labprojects.org. This is a great way to support PSO.

The opening event features San Antonio Artists, Anthony Francis and Xavier Gilmore beginning at 8 and that will followed by yours truly who will be joined by Paul Stautinger to reprise the suite of music we performed in the Turrell Sky space but accompanied by a new video.

Co-lab is a legendary art space whose current configuration is a 40 x 10 x 10-foot concrete culvert sitting on an open plot of land just east of the city. The culvert will be awash in projections and stereo sounds on either end of the ceiling. The floor covered in a sea of moving blankets.

Viewers/listeners are invited to lay next to the performers occupying the center to become a raft in an ocean of sounds gazing at a visionary sky.

(video documentation of Gilmore’s architectural sculpture, Between the Lines)

In this pod, we will first hear my conversation with Anthony Francis where we cover everything from the poetry of Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Fred Moten, bell hooks, Frank Wilderson, family, community, stillness, and so much more. Our conversation will be followed by an excerpted audio from his piece, All Is which he will present on Saturday. Following that we hear a piece by Gilmore which was originally Shown as part of a sculpture show called Wild Ruins, Wild Orientations in a pop-up in Adkins, Texas. The Piece is a sound element that accompanies an architectural sculpture called Between the Lines which for Gilmore speaks to gathering, community, and privileged space. 

LINKS and REFERENCES

Porch Swing Orchestrahttps://porchswingorchestra.org/

Tickets to VAST IS THE SEAhttps://withfriends.co/event/17182339/vast_is_the_sea

Anthony Francis:https://www.afrancisart.com/

Xavier Gilmore:https://www.xaviergilmore.net/

Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Fred Moten, Stefano Harney, bell hooks, Frank Wilderson, Édouard Glissant, Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin,

Porch Swing Orchestra is an art project that pairs music recorded outside with images made on-site. Performed and recorded at home and away, solo and with others. Our orchestra is comprised of birds, guitars, artists, poets, and passing cars that spontaneously create ephemeral symphonic chance-inspired compositions. The original site and hub for all things PSO can be found at porchswingorchestra.org

This week’s pod features an interview with Henry Smith who was the co-creator of the latest PSO piece, no.222. Henry came over on a rare rainy day in September and brought his soft touch to nylon six-string to make much goodness. We have a wide-ranging conversation about his musical upbringing, high school battle of the bands, the semiotics of album covers, wood type, and much more. 

VAST IS THE SEA A series of PSO-curated events at Co-Lab Projects in Austin Texas

Tickets: https://withfriends.co/event/17182339/vast_is_the_sea

January 20 - Performances and Opening Reception8pm Anthony Francis and Xavier Gilmore9pm Barry Stone / Porch Swing Orchestra10-11pm ReceptionJanuary 27 - Performances7pm Mark Menjivar8pm Ania SofkoFebruary 17 - Performances7pm Ariana Gomez8pm Gavin Watts / The ReformersFebruary 24 - Performances7pm Jessica Mallios8pm Thomas Hooper / Skloss

This project is supported in part by grants from the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department, Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and H-E-B.

Henry Smith’s show at the VAC featuring the Rob Roy Kelly Wood Type Collection

January 26th - February 10, 2024UT Visual Art Center, Fieldworks Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, January 26th, 5-8 pm

Jay Ryan’s Poster Work: https://thebirdmachine.com

Einstein’s Brain, Henry’s Dad’s band:

Henry’s website: https://henrysmith.work/

This week’s pod features PSO’s sophomore full-length release, Second Season which collects 18 pieces from PSO’s second year spanning March 2019 to March 2020. The release was inspired by the invitation to participate in the ICOSA (an art collective in Austin) Soundscapes program. Outside their art space, these crossfaded tracks will play from dusk to dawn until January 9, 2024.

There will be a listening party on Thursday, December 21 at ICOSA in the Canopy Art complex at 916 Springdale Road in Austin, Texas. The music will start at 5:34 which is the official time of the beginning of the sunset. We will have hot chocolate, adult beverages, and on-site screen printing of PSO merch.

We will also have a brand new CD complete with a double-sided 11x17 Riso/inkjet printed folded cover on hand. You can get one in Austin or from the Bandcamp page. There will be links in the show notes.

So…Bring a camp chair and a mug. The event is free.

We begin with PSO no.52, Complete Orbit recorded among a singing chorus of birds then seg into sounds from a lemonade stand, cacophonous calls of purple martins from the purple martin sanctuary, seaplanes from Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, and a pretty broken guitar in Birch Bay, Washington.

TRACKLIST

01 Complete Orbit No. 52, 4.18.2019 (2:34)

02 Lemonade for Days No. 71, 10.17.2019 (1:48)

03 Purple Martin Suite (Part 1) No. 88, 3.22.2020, Purple Martin Sanctuary, Austin, Texas (2:40)

04 Slip Slide Cumulonimbus No. 54, 5.9.2019 (1:26)

05 Axes on Axis No. 53, 4.26.2019 (1:53)

06 Friday Harmonics No. 65, 8.16.2019, Friday Harbor, San Juan Islands (2:21)

07 Point Texas No. 74, 11.9.2019 (1:25)

08 Flights No. 60, 6.26.2019 (1:12)

09 Lotus Loop No. 82, 2.3.2020 (1:44)

10 See Planes of Friday Harbor No. 64, 8.9.2019, Friday Harbor, San Juan Islands (2:34)

11 Lemonade Stand No. 70, 10.10.2019 (1:38)

12 Clear Winter＊s Day No. 83, 2.16.2020 (2:31)

13 Spare No. 55, 5.16.2019 (1:59)

14 Science Fairport Convention No. 80, 1.15.2020 (1:41)

15 Sprinkler Shadow No. 68, 9.19.2019 (2:27)

16 Sundials and Sirens No. 58, 6.13.2019 (1:25)

17 Birch Bay Swan Song No. 61, 8.3.2019, Birch Bay, Washington (1:12)

18 Purple Martin Suite (Part 2) No.89, 3.27.2020, Purple Martin Sanctuary, Austin, Texas (1:40)

LINKS

ICOSA Soundscapes: https://www.icosacollective.com/soundscape

Porch Swing Orchestra Website:  https://porchswingorchestra.org/

Porch Swing Orchestra YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PorchSwingOrchestra

Porch Swing Orchestra on Spotify:

Porch Swing Orchestra on Bandcamp: https://sunsetcommission.bandcamp.com/

This week I am excited to share a collaboration with photographer, avid runner, and pedal steel ringer, Bill McCullough! Bill is an amazing photographer based in Austin whose street work I have admired for years. We met courtesy through the Artist Run Club when the group visited the studio he and his wife Meredith Miller, an accomplished printmaker and book artist share. Bill has also played pedal steel with the lauded Austin band, Knife in the Water for going on 20 years.

We met on Bill’s porch and played for a long time. What a joy! This piece is a kind of supercut of a small portion of what was a pursuit of pure pleasure. Bill shot the images and I put them in a code blender. I love how the cat fits perfectly into the shape made by the cactus.

TRACK LIST

no.220 |Cat in the Cactus and the Pedal Steel, November 20, 2023, Austin, Texas

no.103 | Cicada Serenade, June 22, 2020, Austin, Texas

no.122 | Furniture of Crickets, December 9, 2020, Austin, Texas

no.131 | Shimmers Before the Storm, March 5, 2020, University Camp, Wimberley, TX

no.145 | Lightburn and Wood, June 30, 2021, Wild Bill Lake, Montana

no.178 | Sweet Sweet Springs, June 29, 2022, Barton Springs Pool, Austin, TX

LINKS

Porch Swing Orchestra Website: https://porchswingorchestra.org/

Porch Swing Orchestra YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PorchSwingOrchestra

Porch Swing Orchestra on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5veNpAdzFR1sJmmBcX1AuJ?si=tw8IxeF7TNCG8seYndXg5w

Porch Swing Orchestra on Bandcamp: https://sunsetcommission.bandcamp.com/

Bill McCullough: https://billmccullough.com

Charles Wood Photographs: https://www.instagram.com/mountainsinstars/

This week’s PSO features a live recording new piece we opened with in our performance at the Turrell Skyspace. Paul Stautinger joined me and added a ton of color and melody, playing both finger-picked intricacies and sweeping tonalites made with an E-bow.

Mark Menjivar provided an array of bird songs and sounds processed through a modular synthesizer. On the POD, I talked to Mark about the archive of field recordings he (re)activated for this performance and his other myriad projects and practices. Among other topics, we discuss the distinctions between sound and song, the deep political implications of noticing, and the transformational potential of aesthetic experience.

Prelude to Lost Pines was performed and recorded in front of a live audience inside The Color Inside, a Skyspace by James Turrell, which is part of the Landmarks Public Art Collection at The University of Texas. Our performance was commissioned as part of their Songs in the Skyspace program. Songs in the Skyspace is underwritten by KFMA, Austin’s independent classical music radio station.

Two PSO pieces from the past follow the Prelude to Lost Pines. PSO 166, entitled The Triple Double is Yours from January 20, 2022, and following that is PSO 31 from October 16, 2018, Toddler Breakdown in Festival Town.

PSO 31 was featured on a compilation of PSO pieces collected from the first year of PSO, Once Around the Sun. You can hear and/or purchase those recordings on the Porch Swing Orchestra Bandcamp page.

TRACKS

Interview with artist and PSO member Mark Menjivar PSO no. 219 | Prelude to Lost Pines, “The Color Inside” by James Turrell on UT Campus, October 15, 2023

PSO no.166 | The Triple Double is Yours, Austin Texas, January 20, 2022

PSO no.31 | Toddler Breakdown in Festival Town. Austin, Texas, October 16, 2018

LINKS

Porch Swing Orchestra Website

https://porchswingorchestra.org/

Mark Menjivar

https://www.markmenjivar.com/

Paul Stautinger’s Band

https://www.marchandbeauty.com/

Barry Stone

https://barrystone.com/

PSO Newsletter on Substack

PSO no.218 is a 6-minute preview taken from me and Paul’s preparation for our hour-long performance at the James Turrell Skyspace on the UT campus on Sunday, October 15th beginning around 6. The event is fully booked, but there is a standby policy that you can read about on the Landmarks James Turrell web page. Artist and PSO collaborator Mark Menjivar will join Paul and me and play processed field recordings sourced from the Texas Bird Sound Library, a treasure trove of recordings he discovered during his time as a visiting artist at Sam Houston State University. 

Included on the pod are randomly picked tunes from the PSO archive. Highlights include field recordings from the coast of Maine, in Bastrop State Park, and sounds from the porch from as far back as 2018. The pod ends with two pieces that feature collaborations with Gavin Watts of The Answers and the Reformers and John Hunt, a staple of the Austin music scene since his days in Silver Scooter, Fivehead, The Decade Show, and now plays in the band, the Bantom Woods. 

Links

PSO websitehttps://porchswingorchestra.org/

Bandcamp https://porchswingorchestra.org/ Bandcamp

Newsletter on Substack (FREE!) https://porchswingorchestra.substack.com/

Track Listing

All recordings were made in Austin, Texas unless otherwise noted.

(03:26) no.218 | Practice Makes Practice

(09:11) no.83 | no.154 | Lost Pines, Bastrop State Park, September 30, 2021, Bastrop, Texas

(012:30) no.114 | Pool Patch, October 7, 2020, Austin, Texas

(15:32) no.24 | Bailey Island Revisited, August 26, 2018. Bailey Island, Maine

(17:38) no.198 | Gavin Watts and the Celestial Railroad, February 1, 2023, Austin, Texas

(21:42) no.136 |High Strung Mellow Hang feat. John Hunt, April 6, 2021, Austin, Texas

Porch Swing Orchestra is an art project that pairs music recorded outside with images made on-site, performed, and recorded at home and away, solo, and along with others.

Our orchestra is comprised of birds, guitars, artists, poets, and passing cars who spontaneously create ephemeral, symphonic, chance-inspired compositions.

The original site and hub for all things PSO can be found at porchswingorchestra.org.

PSO pieces included in this Podcast are below.All recordings were made in Austin, Texas unless otherwise noted.

All recordings were made in Austin, Texas unless otherwise noted.

no.217 Swell Cicada Swells, September 20, 2023

no.83 | Clear Winter's Day February 16, 2020 Austin, Texas

no.57 | Summer Blooms June 6, 2019, Austin, Texas

no.107 | Dueling Pools featuring Sandy Carson, August 19, 2020, Austin, Texas

no.146 | Tidal Cascade, Bailey Island, Maine July 20, 2021, Bailey Island, Maine

no.196 | Blue Eyes Crying and Soaked in Reverb featuring Paul Stautinger, July 20, 2021, Austin Community College Recording Studios

no.41 | Rain and Creaky Screen Doors, January 11, 2019, Austin, Texas

no.26 | Potatoes on Bailey Island, September 8, 2019, Bailey Island, Maine

You can see the accompanying pictures on our YouTube Stream.

Porch Swing Orchestra is an art project that pairs music recorded outside with images made on-site, performed and recorded at home, and in a way, solo and up with others.

Our orchestra is comprised of birds, guitars, artists, poets, and passing cars who spontaneously create ephemeral, symphonic, chance-inspired compositions.

The original site and hub for all things PSO can be found at porchswingorchestra.org.

PSO pieces included in this Podcast are below.All locations are in Austin, Texas unless otherwise noted.

no.216 In Front of the Monkey Tree, September 6, 2023

no.156 In-Store Appearance, October 17, 2021no. 56 Barking Springs, May 23, 2019

no.144 Paved Paradise, June 24, 2021, New Orleans, LA

no.173 Merlin’s Magic, April, 24, 2022

no.151 Collaboration with Michael Zapruder, August 26, 2021

no.199 Winter Whipsaw, February 9, 2023

no.76 Understories, December 5, 2019

You can see the accompanying pictures on our YouTube Stream.

Welcome to the  Porch Swing Orchestra porch cast. I am your conductor Barry Stone and every other week or so I bring you the latest PSO piece along with a selection of works from the past.

Porch Swing Orchestra is an art project that pairs music recorded outside with images made on-site. Performed and recorded at home and away, solo and with others. Our orchestra is comprised of birds, guitars, artists, poets, and passing cars who spontaneously create ephemeral symphonic chance-inspired compositions.

On the podcast, As always we begin with a new offering. PSO no.215 Demolition Condition. Simultaneously you can hear the sounds of the house to our South being loaded into a dumpster and the Stucco monument to banality being constructed in what seems like our backyard.

PSO website https://porchswingorchestra.org/

Bandcamp https://porchswingorchestra.bandcamp.com/

Newsletter on Substack (FREE!) https://porchswingorchestra.substack.com/

Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/porch-swing-orchestra-podcast/id1690660579

Track Listing no.215 | Demolition Condition August 24, 2023 Austin, Texas, no.32 | Circles October 23, 2018, Austin, Texas no.4 | Untitled March 17, 2018, Austin, TX no.150 | Roofer’s Delight August 19, 2021, Austin, TX no.161 | Dueling Leaf Blowers December 15, 2021, Austin, TX no.71 | Lemonade for Days October 17, 2019, Austin, TX no.112 | Blue Mayu Collaboration with Rebecca Marino September 23, 2020, Austin, TX

This week’s pod and music-only YouTube stream feature selections from PSO’s recent live event celebrating the release of our collaborative EP with the Reformers (now streaming and on Bandcamp). We had great music from the Answers and PSO, DIY live screen-printed PSO shirts, popsicles, homemade cold brew, and singing cicadas.

The Answers premiere, The Other Woman, a Gavin Watts original, is slated for a winter release entitled, Texas Made Me Do It.

Paul Stautinger joins Barry Stone to play PSO improvisations and new and old favorites from Stone's more song-oriented project, Mountains in Stars.

The Answers on Bandcamp

PSO on Bandcamp and YouTube on Substack