2 Roots
The seed of this theme was in stories of trees communicating through their roots while helping their neighbours of the same species to heal. Inspired by the reading of Peter Wohlleben (2018), I decided to invite another accordion player, Tommi, to collaborate and build the composition for Roots. Being from the same family, or species, of instruments we could exchange and get reciprocal motivation from specific instrumental skills, making it sound much richer. I imagined the collaboration with another accordion to create similar motivation as you get from other instrumental players such as teachers or fellows. At the same time it would emphasise the roots of the accordion in traditional settings.
On our first session I had taped different materials on the floor of the room as an experiment for feeling the roots on our feet while improvising (Figure 1.7). Before starting we agreed to only use melodic material, in order to represent visually different roots coming together. We were both sitting, with closed eyes, experiencing the roots with our feet. After the improvisation, we had a spoken reflection where we discussed the experience of improvising in this specific context. Because the roots were connected and we were sitting, it was impossible to follow those roots till the end. This feeling of not being able to reach all the way to the end connected with a reflection on the impossibility to completely reach completly to our origins. Apart from the thinking behind the topic of the roots, these kinds of physical exercises support an awareness of the body sensations and in my opinion its relaxing effects can contribute to a more creative outcome.
On our second session it somehow turned to another direction than what we visualized from the first session. I might have contradicted myself by taking a decision of bringing a more specific material, rather than continuing exploring on the same exercise. This was for me a new way of working towards creation. Because of a limited time for the creation I took a decision of bringing a personal created melody that for me represented roots. Reflecting on this I understand that another option for developing this collective creation would have been to continue improvising with a goal to find a common melody that would represent roots for both of us.
Nevertheless, from the second session we moved from workshop Model Three to Model Two (Hendrickse, 2015) and continued working towards the creation. Although I was bringing a quite clear structure of the music piece, our collaboration and his ideas were always turning to other possibilities, making the collaboration a very interesting process.
The performance of this song was planned to be around the log while a visual projection of Daniel Villodas was also shared. The projection reflects the path of discovery of your own roots represented by my own feet walking along the roots of some trees we found in Helsinki.
