The Oken Stone Podcast

A few thoughts about the process of change, the fragile nature of human relationships and the value of learning how to be yourself.

Becoming Other

When the hysterical becomes historical,
I’ll see you there - 
Don’t mean to be funny but,
you crack me up
like crazy paving.

When daily becomes doolally
I’ll sort it out - 
schizophrenia?
I’m a mosaic for you.

When the parting becomes central
I’ll be more Man -
for god’s sake -
Just kick the habit!

When hoping becomes coping
I’ll reconsider -
read the cards?
Get royally flushed.

When promise is compromised
rip up the letters -
Alpha and Beta;
I’ll tear your translateables.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ar 2025

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The Scales Of The World is an allegorical story following the life of a tree and a man as they are both cut down. The story is presented in several short sections, each of which takes both branch and man on a transformative journey from riverbank through to a flooded world. Each section is represented through a mythical, reptilian being and invites the audience to travel on a journey of reinvention and transcendence.

Prelude - Cracking. A thunderstorm moves down from the mountains and lightening strikes an ancient willow tree. The fallen willow is carried by the river before rooting into the ground and growing upwards again.

Chapter 1 - The Willow Snake. A man is cutting willow by the river to make a basket as a present for an absent lover. As he works a Willow Snake encircles his wrist before he is struck dead by lightening. He falls to the ground amongst cut
willow branches. The willow roots again into the earth and grows up through the body of the man.

Chapter 2 - The Glass Snake. The man enters a spirit realm, a world of confusions. He is confronted by a Glass Snake which challenges his concepts of reality. The man perceives a hot-air balloon passing overhead with a basket hanging beneath it, and beneath that a rope. He reaches for the rope but the rope shatters into a million glass shards and he is lost within the refracted light, falling into a glass vase.

Chapter 3 - Moura, The Eyed Lizard. The man finds himself at the entrance to an underground tomb or gateway. The path is guarded by a Moura. The Moura invites him to enter this other world and to accept his fate.

Chapter 4 - The Great Serpent. The man passes into the earth and meets the Great Serpent, Maxa’ xkuk. The serpent is liquid and solid simultaneously. Its presence signals a great flood that will engulf all the land, swallowing the man along with it. Two branches from the ancient willow tree are carried by the tides to the opposite poles of the world and begin to grow. Each tree produces a single fruit and each fruit contains a single life, and a new beginning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Music - Richard Luke 
Vocals - Alex Rigg & Breezy Lee 
Lyrics - Alex Rigg 
String Arrangement - Greg Lawson 
Violins - Fiona Stephen & Greg Lawson 
Viola - Liz Wyly 
Cello - Juliette Lemoine 
Harp - Stephanie Irvine 
Pipes & Whistles - Ollie Rigg 
Percussion - Anders Rigg 
Guitar and Piano & Electronics - Richard Luke 
Strings recorded live at Cottiers, Glasgow by Mark Mckellen 
Mixed and engineered by Richard Luke 
Mastered by Andy Baldwin at Metropolis 
Cover design by Alex Rigg and Kim Martin

Dancers - Jen Farmer; Suzi Cunningham; Malcolm I Sutherland; Dylan Read; Aaron Jeffrey; Camille Marmié; Rosamund McCormac; KJ Clarke-Davis; Philip Alexander Macdonald; Laura Victoria Ward.

Choreography - Alex Rigg & Bill Coleman.
Written, Designed & Directed - Alex Rigg

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These are a few poems written over the past couple of weeks. I'm not sure if they are about anything, except perhaps my reaction to the passage of thoughts and emotions within myself and a reaction to the places in which I find myself.
The duality of internal and external worlds seems very relevant at this time in our culture and at this moment of big global change.

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Awoke to a head full of histories. The birds here are going doolally for new blossoms in the trees around the house, feeding chicks, drinking heavily on nectar, facing the day as it arrives. Thought that I should try and do the same.

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This is a short poem written looking across at Kapiti Island north of Wellington in New Zealand. Heavily influenced by jet-lag and what has been a very curious year for me.

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This is a studio recording of the story and music from my 2024 project Kroovan Wings. This recording will be released as an album for streaming on the 6th of December 2024 and is available now on Bandcamp:

https://oceanallover.bandcamp.com/

If you want to support our project so that it can be performed in 2025 then please buy a copy of the album from Bandcamp.

Kroovan Wings is a homage to trees. In Gaelic craobh (pronounced kroov) means 'tree'. It is a celebration of two magnificent trees, an Ash and a Sycamore, that stand at the gateway to the Galloway Forest Park and at a meeting point on the Southern Upland Way below Culmark Hill. Both trees produce seeds that have wings  to fly out across the landscape.
This is part of a show that I am making with Oceanallover, the music has grown into the story, with the voices of Joey Sanderson and Breezy Lee, clarinet from Freya Rae and trumpet from Richard Merchant.

Joey Sanderson - Vocals and JelloBass
Breezy Lee - Vocals
Richard Merchant - Trumpet
Freya Rae - Clarinet
Alex Rigg - Vocals and Lyrics

Mastering - Andrea Gobbi
Recorded at Gloworm Studios, Glasgow

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Body Memory Mapping

During this period in our lives of altered behaviours and patterns many of us will change the way we are living, even if the changes are momentary. These changes may be large or small, physical or psychological. The changes will be recorded by our memories and by our bodies. The changes may be minor and temporary or transfiguring and permanent…… or anywhere between those extremes. A person who had never bothered with growing things before may have become an avid gardener, developing callouses on their hands in the process. Someone used to a hard physical life may have become overweight. Someone obese may have become slim. A person with arthritis may have discovered that new daily routines have made their joints more pliable. Perhaps someone lost an eye running through the woods, or gained a new understanding of their own body. A person may have survived a major physical trauma on their own, or been rescued from a dangerous situation. You may have lost a limb, a tooth or a wart. Your back may have recovered after years of manual labour or be wonky after lifting a heavy wheelbarrow. Someone may have been burned moving the barbecue or developed a stutter through loneliness or the weight of family responsibilities. They may have damaged lungs or liver as a direct result of Covid-19. In all cases there will be a body memory that links these recent histories to a specific time and place in their lives. In retelling the story of these memories they will be referring to a map held within their bodies.

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This is a poem from 2002. It was a very colurful year amongst many such years. Hindsight - does that mean looking at the deer's tail? The monster in question here is my libido I supose, or the hidden clockwork mechanism that drives one.

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Kroovan Wings is a homage to trees. In Gaelic craobh (pronounced kroov) means 'tree'. It is a celebration of two magnificent trees, an Ash and a Sycamore, that stand at the gateway to the Galloway Forest Park and at a meeting point on the Southern Upland Way below Culmark Hill. Both trees produce seeds that have wings  to fly out across the landscape.
This is part of a show that I am making with Oceanallover and a small sample of the music seems to have grown into the story, with the voices of Joey Sanderson and Breezy Lee, clarinet from Freya Rae.

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Thanks very much for listening. Art is an act of generosity and as such is made to be shared.

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This is a new piece of work that I am developing with Nomoss, a dance and music collaboration based in Edinburgh. In this instance the sound is some reworked recordings that I made whilst on holiday in East Wittering some while back.

The text was originally written for presentation in The Arches in Glasgow in 2008. It is a narrative given from the point of view of a drawing, a very particular drawing from a book of medical dissections published in 1672.

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Thanks very much for listening. Art is an act of generosity and as such is made to be shared.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theokenstone.substack.com/subscribe