Bearthoven

Scott Wollschleger
American Dream

Gas Station Canon Song | Scott Wollschleger

Karl Larson, piano

American Dream | Scott Wollschleger

Karl Larson, piano
Pat Swoboda, double bass
Matt Evans, percussion

We See Things That Are Not There | Scott Wollschleger

Karl Larson, piano
Matt Evans, vibraphone and crotale

All works © 2017/2018 Scott Wollschleger Music (BMI)

Gas station Scott Wollschleger grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania where he
canon song says, “The gas station is a more common object than the Mona
Lisa. Where I came from, it would be fake for me to claim the
beautiful art history of Europe as my own.” Although he has
since moved away, Wollschleger often drives across the state
when he goes back to visit family. On one particularly long drive,
Wollschleger says:

I stopped in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and the gas station

was on this hill. It was dusk, and it was gorgeous. I went into
the bathroom and I had a moment where I thought, “is this
beautiful?” There was graffiti on the wall, and there were blue
tiles, and the light was coming in from dusk, and there was a
feeling of dew. In that moment I thought, “Can something so
abject also be an object of beauty?” It was almost an exercise in
affirmation. The light itself was beautiful, but it was also beautiful
because it was existing in that moment. The fact that I stumbled
upon it and felt serenity in that space was beautiful. But then
it became a mantra about being inspired by one’s immediate
surroundings, which is important for artists wherever they are.

Gas Station Canon Song is about reclaiming everyday spaces—

such as parking lots and convenience stores—as places of
beauty and art. Instead of reserving the designation of “Art” to
places that are elsewhere, Wollschleger wrote this work as an
anthem for people making art where they are, with objects in
their daily lives.
American Driving on the interstate, one stops at gas stations, a state fair,
a sleazy motel. The memory of these places blend together—
Dream
commercial rest stops that look the same connect places,
blurring time. Trying to make sense of the many impressions
and places, one creates a narrative from these fading images.

Similarly, Wollschleger describes American Dream as an

“abstract musical landscape of fragmented songs.” He emphasizes:

There was an urgency in the creation of the piece, spawned from

my reflection on the state of the world and what I felt was a crisis
happening in the country. I was able to get out of this sense of
despair through writing the piece. The process changed me: as it
went on it became less about the crisis I was sensing, and more
about abstract sound and pattern. I composed blocks of musical
time and wove them together in a discontinuous way. Knowing
I was writing it for Bearthoven—who are able to jump between
these different grooves to create a shock between competing
ideas—allowed me to write in this way… Part of my aesthetic is
acknowledging our experience in the world. This discontinuous
experience of the world is where the piece comes from.

Karl Larson (piano) elaborates:

American Dream is comprised of a number of ‘broken songs,’

including fragments from Gas Station Canon Song and We See
Things That Are Not There. Scott breaks up the pure iterations
of these songs and twists them into a more complex, wrought
soundscape. This idea really gets to the essence of his style, I
think. The juxtaposition of the beautiful and the grotesque / the
lofty and the banal is a major theme in much of his music.
Our lives are filled with familiar sounds we learn to ignore.
Wollschleger’s American Dream brings these sounds to the
forefront: the white noise from a television set being turned on
at 3AM, the faint sound of a carnival, the buzzing ecstasy of 20
vibrators (the final gesture of the work). Wollschleger makes
other subtle references to pop culture through musical inside
jokes, pointing out:

At the beginning of the piece, the meters alternate between 7/4

and 11/4, a hidden nod to the famed convenience store chain
7-Eleven. A lot of American Dream is about ambiguous states—
happy, sad, really goofy, really abject—and the oscillation between
these seemingly contradictory feelings. This is my American Dream.

Pat Swoboda (bass) adds:

Of course your thoughts about the American Dream are

always a reflection of yourself. There are those that do believe
in a materialist version of that dream—the idea of ownership
as fulfillment or success. Some people might think that it’s
obscene, and to another person it might be the most beautiful
thing they’ve ever heard—American Dream reflects these
differences in perception.

As the American Dream evolves with time, it becomes

a combination of all our individual, potentially conflicting
narratives. Can these come together to create one “dream” or
do they break down through this incongruity?
We See things “We always see things that are not there. That is profoundly sad,
but it’s also profoundly hopeful too, because it could mean ‘are
that are not
not there yet’.… It’s hard to be in that place of uncertainty, so fear
there is the armor we wear,” says Wollschleger.

As with many of Wollschleger’s duos, We See Things That Are

Not There is about how two people are never able to fully see
each other. The piece begins with the pianist and percussionist
playing the same line in unison. After this first phrase, they try to
connect through their shared memory. However, the more they
try to communicate, the more things drift apart. They begin
to stutter, unable to recall what they were originally trying to
say. Wollschleger continues, “The memory of the opening line
decoheres, and the process of trying to remember becomes
more important than the thing they were trying to remember in
the first place.“

Matt Evans (percussion) comments on Wollschleger’s music:

To him, everything is kind of a memory, and everything is

imperfect, but also potentially more beautiful. He’s fascinated by
the erosion of facts and thoughts, and the weird little holes that
get poked in things as they move through time.

Is it a love song? A mis-remembered nostalgic anthem? A

quiet, hopeful fanfare? A frightened obsessive meandering? In
allowing ourselves to be truly vulnerable we can connect with
each other, even if only for a moment. Or perhaps we see things
that are not there.

– Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti

Bearthoven
Scott Wollschleger
American Dream

Produced by Ryan Streber, Scott Wollschleger, and Bearthoven

Bearthoven is
Karl Larson, piano
Pat Swoboda, double bass
Matt Evans, percussion

Recorded March 2018 at Oktaven Audio in Mt. Vernon, NY

Recorded and Mixed by Ryan Streber, Scott Wollschleger, and Matt Evans
Mastered by Ryan Streber
Edited by Ryan Streber, Charles Mueller, and Teng Chen.
Session Assistant: Nathan DeBrine
Photography by Jaime Boddorff
Designed by Mariah Tarvainen
Liner Notes by Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti

Executive Producers: Michael Gordon, David Lang, Kenny Savelson, and Julia Wolfe
Label Manager: Bill Murphy
Sales & Licensing Manager: Adam Cuthbert
Label Assistant: Cassie Wieland
Special MASS MoCA and Avaloch Farm Music Institute residency
programs, Jay and Karen Swoboda, Ron and DeAnn Larson,
thanks to our Robert and Kim Evans, Don Kent, Catherine DeGennaro,
supporters Emily Bookwalter, Zoe and Jack Johnstone, Michael Gordon,
& community Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Philippa Thompson, Tim Thomas,
Kenny Savelson, Sruly Lazaros, Michael McCurdy, Jessica
Slaven and Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio, Bill Murphy, Adam
Cuthbert, and Cassie Wieland at Cantaloupe Music, New
Music USA, Jaime Boddorff, Mariah Tarvainen, Anne Leilehua
Lanzilotti, Katy Salomon, Kevin Sims, Cory Bracken, Ivan Ilić,
Ken Thomson, Vicky Chow, Ashley Bathgate, David Cossin,
Gregg August, Mark Stewart, Nick Photinos, Todd Reynolds,
Brad Lubman, Lauren Radnofsky, Sue Killam, Meghan Labbee,
John Tibbetts, Ft. Briscoe, our friends at the Brooklyn Ice House,
Fairway, and all the composers who have written for Bearthoven.

Support through New Music USA’s NYC New Music Impact

Fund is made possible with funding from The Scherman Foun-
dation’s Katharine S. and Axel G. Rosin Fund.

www.bearthoven.com
www.scottwollschleger.com
www.annelanzilotti.com
www.jaimeboddorff.com
www.mariahtarvainen.com
www.oktavenaudio.com
www.cantaloupemusic.com