Theoxenia

Theoxenia

(Adventures in) Stasis

Soft Abuse

In The Perfect Discourse, Hermes Trismegistus and Asclepius discuss the imbuing of inanimate statues with the living power of a soul: “statues ensouled and conscious, filled with spirit and doing great deeds; statues that foreknow the future and predict it by lots, by prophecy, by dreams and by many other means; statues that make people ill and cure them, bringing them pain and pleasure as each deserves.” The frozen form of a statue still might contain a vibrancy, an energy directed by intention, which can elicit movement, both mental and physical, in those within its perceptual sphere. This very LP may well transmit a contradiction: a living moment from the past, a communique from isolation, that may yet reach others by oblique means. Theoxenia is a solo excursion for Dave Shuford, exploratory lifer and member of, among many others, No Neck Blues Band, Rhyton, and D. Charles Speer & the Helix. Two years on from its modest digital debut, (Adventures in) Stasis arrives in its physical form, a codex glinting at a specific recency that draws upon the promontory of an even earlier time. These pieces are built on repetitions: of behavior, brief phrases, reiterated modal forms, periodic routines of the household. In even static positions, dynamic cycles emerge. The heart surges forward in a moment of enthusiasm, with a slight rhythmic variant in the music being the gateway. The sources of these sounds align with those from the excellent Arghiledes LP (Thrill Jockey), a release also in thrall to...