Raven Chacon is a multidisciplinary artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation outside of Albuquerque. He graces Yale for a mini residency, interacting with students, having his chamber compositions performed at Schwarzman, and tonight’s stop at the CCAM clubhouse for some Q and A and a noise performance. Speaking with lead CCAM wrangler Ross Wightman, we learn that as a young Native American headbanger, Raven and a drummer friend spent time in the desert making some unholy racket, no parents or neighbors to file a noise complaint. Given his answers to Ross’ questions, seems that Raven’s forays came with some peyote buttons. He started with a bass, but the strings broke ,then the neck, and he was left with a bass pickup and a desert generator. The next step was noise. His mother urged him to higher musical education. Given the lack of like-minded noiseniks in town, Raven enrolled in the prestigious CalArts program to study with James Tenney. A new world opened up, Cage, Cardew, Riley and other West coast modern composers mentored the young Chacon into the Pulitzer Prize winning artist he is today. Ushers passed out earplugs knowing the squall that was about to ensue. A table of effects pedals and iPads unleashed a torrent of white noise. The beauty of a noise performance is that different sounds emerge and fade. One sequence sounded like a beating heart, another sounded like squeaky bus brakes morphing into birdhouse at the zoo territory. The shades were not drawn, at one point a Bernoulli effect ambulance siren drove down York street, forcing a wry smile from Chacon. The Pulitzer was won for his piece Voiceless Mass written for church organ and choir. Raven also plugged the upcoming NYC End Tymes Festival, highlighting noise artists performing in churches, abandoned subway tunnels and the like. Raven’s social activism frequently puts him in the cross hairs of the political steamroller, land rights, indigenous peoples rights, he even obtained grant money to stitch together sounds from J6 (the current administration pulled that funding lickety split). Cage’s infamous composition 4’33”, four and a half minutes of complete silence, sparked a young Chacon. The reaction to his people being silenced informs his art to this day. Another great performance at the hands of Yale’s Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM).
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