Phil Elverum & Arrington de Dionyso - Giant Opening Mouth on the Ground LP

Around 2010 I made this self-playing loud sculpture by connecting a giant gong (48”) to a giant subwoofer (2x18”) via a contact mic, a crossover, and a powerful amplifier. I don’t do much besides find the frequency where it wants to resonate infinitely and let it go. I like the opportunity to walk away from “playing a show” while still playing it, and I was delighted at the weird stuff it does on its own.

The first time I set it up was at The Business, the old old location, and it brought people over from the restaurant across the street, disturbed and confused by the subharmonic rumble and flanging metal noise, even in the industrial shipbuilding part of town. I blew the speakers at that one. The second time I set it up was inside the new studio Nich and I were putting together, The Unknown. In the giant room it really went. The room contributes to the resonance, the walls and windows shake and wobble back, the corners keep bass in the shadows. One day I let it drone for like 6 hours while adding organ notes and experimenting with mic placement in the vast space. This became the song Sauna.

In May 2014 Arrington was in Anacortes where I lived and I had my gong going at the Unknown. That was when I was recording Sauna. We spent an afternoon improvising together, my gong subwoofer sculpture going, me gently turning one knob, Arrington walking the space playing contrabass clarinet, lalove, and voice. Something huge happened in the room during these recordings. Too huge to look directly at it, so we put it away and went on with life.