The Ghost Whisperer

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 Silver Flute Improv

Bit of a freaky job,but I figure someone’s got to do it: to commune, through music, with Toronto’s lost souls in historic and purportedly haunted buildings. The King Eddy ballroom is not the only space that is in need of a little ghost-busting, rest assured!

Who you gonna call? The ghost whisperer!

Admittedly this spontaneous improv on my silver flute is a little rough-and-ready, but I think nonetheless it nicely conveys the mysteriousness of this deserted ballroom, especially as explored after hours. Different from the more melodious results that Oliver Schroer achieved so brilliantly in his ’conversations’ with buildings, this is one of numerous recordings I made one evening last week which suggests a dialogue between instrument together with the resonant reply of the more passive, evocative space.

The flute, as far as it goes, is ideally suited for conversing with the departed, and has a long history in numerous cultures of uniting the living with those who have passed. Some would say that the flute is even ideally suited in this regard, as it links the inner and outer worlds through the player’s breath; the ethereal sound of the flute serves at least on a certain level as a conduit between the conscious with the subconscious.

The flute serves even in traditional North American culture as being the Voice of the Ancestors, as I will explore in another post. My First Nations’ Flute sounded exceptionally beautiful in this amazing place, as you will hear!