Transposition Zine
Contents:
Broadcast Mixtape: text by Lizzy Crawford
Because of a Flower by Ana Roxanne: poems by Leslie Allison, illustrations by Molly Schaeffer
Too Much To Dream Last Night Mixtape: text by Lizzy Crawford
LIVE by Angel Bat Dawid: poems by Leslie Allison
Cover illustrations: Leslie Allison and Lizzy Crawford
Listening is always a process of creating something new. Lizzy and Leslie conceived of this zine by exchanging mixes and reading creative music writings (Nathaniel Mackey’s “From A Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate," Hanif Abdurraqib’s "They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us,” Jessica Hopper’s “The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic”). They birthed the idea of a creative music writing zine, and invited artist Molly Schaeffer, also a poet and expansive music listener, to contribute drawings.
Writing as Listening: unpublished poems of hearing music
Ellen Fullman and Theresa Wong performance
grasp reverse / shaft flash / little wave / wriggle to the biggest / back laugh lift / loop reverse course / four fingers / illuminate with pressing / clear size of space / each step a slide / river up / and down the mountain / room made pregnant / matte spider / silk sheen / soft full foot / each balance / silent roll / very upwards / backwards inwards / and downwards / ear to sole / light tether / slide against slight / wooden bump / a peg to turn the page / pinch into existence / her pace / casual / butch mastery / magic force / is inside the laundry line / pass the shiver / over to each other / toe trace to find heel / furrow the floor / one note / never just one / her pleasure sole and open / along the length of the lead / find the next / extended pinky / pulling herself or being pulled / gentle brush / two steps quicken / stone harvest / in the well / the basin / sea bird peck on shells / unlock secret food / scuff of life / her long friend / the tight rope / shore ripples off her back / we are in the body of it / with her / sandbags heaped / match the tension / bear the length / tautness as material / how sound unlooses / kneel to / balance scales / tags of memory / stroke to reset / dense brocade / curled claws / conjure with / the least effort / stroke the body / of the air / of whoever is missing / no shape but her / hands and where we are / swivel wrist wobble / pull up and back / get into it / sway of knowing / the route / 18 yards / created the perfect / loophole / played it / cat’s cradle / loom / pressed flowers / vines / string back around / to domestic / power / she is the wind in the lyre / eyes wrapped / in stable curiosity / rather flutter / fond ground / collective breath / rebirth / when with an iron / she leapt from chord to chord / lilt little jig / lightly summon awe / heard the new tempo / erupt from the floor / tin corrugation joy / fed us the full / echo / as much of space / as of time
Half Shadow performance
horizon / upbraided bridge’s / shadow grass / lines in motion / unmasked / release of many / small snakes / shook tresses / to speak / the jowl a bowl / spinning wet clay / collecting sounds / in its concentric wrinkles /coin fluttering on a marble table top / dip of a kite / amongst a memory / a whole school of kites / having the words / near you / only needing to glide / not to read / glitter spine / in its melismatic descent / down the dark back of the tune / impossibility to track / much less keep / the cloud the earth’s / slowest breath / no cliff rock(’)s harder / scraping open / without knowing or remembering / the fool / in their wise passion play / passing through / with secret poses / pansies blush / without using your mind / fragment recycled / from travels across the floor / knitting structure / strong enough to hold itself / up like your dance / partner’s socks / you’ll see / it falls / out of the tree / casual and seismic / the change / a deal with the universe / a tear with the river / flashing hand / over foot / introducing me to strings / I already know / for the first time / the recognition and peace bring grief / ununderstandable / loudness to forget / the glitter of stars / seeing your friend sing / in the queer mirror / old swollen loss / sticks the door jamb / engendering / a throat’s power / aware / of strangers / gravel shore / graze / at the strange / water’s edge
Angélica Negrón & Lido Pimienta performance
Green Umbrella New Music Series, LA Phil New Music Group conducted by Raquel Acevedo Klein
Christian Quinones:
quarter green glance handgames pluck the stomp of revelation tethered with eyes little jolts where does it go and why do I have only concert blacks the light breeze of their calls the exercise of it all the attempt I want to embrace not scorn is it the concert hall rhythm approaching or staying trapped in its own circle of lighting and yet like is context missing the actual dance but this is the dance they are allowed journey from the slap to the air as if our trajectory was to become ‘music’ was to forget the friction of feet and palms and tongues I want it for them
Nathalie Joachim:
palatial distance play to the sound from behind the size of a friend’s noise black bow stretch the wings taut jostle into each others’ crooks and finding warm language left over bells parted cross the letter typed and lost to friendly net dig in to the pines sap hardened in crystals feel around in the darkness’s needles the organized painting described in a book where that image exists I am fulfilled by their knotting and pulling and sipping up a cloth understood long enough to settle its ripples down Proust’s waves Woolf’s waves patience
Tania Leon:
pins scattered pulled apart the pattern of scales on the camouflaged butterfly shed tripping down the aisle sway remnant finely chopped ingredients spread across the board making them do things
Angelica Negron:
stand back frills on chests dap dip you can tell when they are rolling bubbles of nutmeg raindrops on the window blurring and wiping away what twists to make a cord allow the notes to rest on the ruffles spools of horn the little tear of the smile the water’s edge for ever build a home instantly with your shake kitchen full not forgotten by the stage her own ripples wand at sea through the glass the brave act of chopping an onion timbrel shift possible rift in presence
Amanda Hernandez:
touch skin inside shine juice inside fruit friendly vessels bird food saying bird thoughts contact bouquet above the welcome naval laptop stickers inside doorway
Juan Andres Vergara:
tuning sway rowing through early morning sucking the tip together slow slosh smooth dust emerge why exactly not to rock gently at home dusted eye lids close across one not passed across water face sustain pace whirling lowly joining and missing
Darian Donovan Thomas:
show the beginning how the soundscape is made in a cylinder canister who is the bird blanket beard braids into a whisper hang the bells from the neck of the waltz group shimmer frosted globe drifts wandering and sounds follow their dream
Lido Pimienta:
brace heavy doors until swinging open a heart is a harp drink gulps of coffee make your point to yourself alone lalalalalone ledges build up parrot’s crest layers massive spirit enough to swell beyond fear of swelling crouch timpani makes me want to live in this body peep still peep late night of teenness made it across to this not wondering where it’s going only the itch of it now thrash dance in the ghost moments fear evaporates or never even condensates expanse bumps on the coast character conductor painted tent of meaning slow rotation to victory
JOBS performance
two forms / excel / explode sway / on the neck neckless / wired twice / trip release / and catch remainder / planetary wisp / thicker reign / bird spills / birth / won't let me write birth / too / loud rolls off / a ground / for teen need / cut off / itself a world / complete / kick listening / moon ready / to run / palmistry / pulse wishing / not to be / but chimed nonetheless / tectonic scrape / signaling youth / note lost in a fluff / a clearing / a continuity / cruising / the surrounding / smiles of years / webbed nothing / can build it / but the music / simultaneous / in the air between / bodies whip / around the bend / and another note / streamed out to greet / another hand / information horizontal / typeset / boneset / ghosting right / off
Feminist Synth Lab
mixtape listening party
1: scan three fields / dimensions bubble / deep green / voices are leaves / with purpose / a broad place / to land
2: kites reflect / on the slow / burnished surface / keep the secret
3: pick up the radio / signal in your braces / spoon dips / in the metal bowl / spin the woods / forest blue
5: strain / of a thought / when chewing / the gum / resonates / into a lecture / drive of wave foam / big thinking / back on itself / strobing molecules
6: dip in the memory / gesture asks / strata divining itself / from the canopy / quick descent / starts again / emerge from the resplendant goo / press into the glow / or it presses into you / until empty
7: frogs mate / into echoing dark / the silver clearing / shoulders the wind’s weight / the alien choir / hitting water in the sink / collecting spider strands
8: trace deep / rivulets / cuneiform chant / quavering thick line / strip of cloud trails / wait / on a lake / it’s melting
9: faintly approach / crush’s doorway / bead curtains / a light on still
10: low cave / bounce / shiny sphere
11: slide on tiles / the whole serpent / is neck / shoe fragments / dance / forward systems
12: gravel splatter / cruise the turns / siren red / hair caught / in the game / return / haunted beads / speed of a whale / warning from a distance / a joy / to ignore
13: feel down the stairs / slant shadow lights / a narrowness wider / sip back the voice / into gleaming roundness / spill / close / cloth / brush past
14: teal shimmer / the silk years / unroll a carpet / herald in / small steps / big wheels
15: dense breath / speckled canvas / archway crossing / slippery juice / from mountaintops
16: call to pixel / coil around grit / hungry hourglass
17: tongues / whip thrash / pulled out from under / the omen / hard corner / rip / tear it to shreds / rate of glass / say so
Celia Hollander performance
tree hair / drippings / breaths stacked / from a flute's distance / deep tendril of root / medieval bubbling / sun drifts flush / waves molten and dextrous / organ pipes built out of the trunk / tree pulses / contained in its arch / wriggle free / through greening fingers / peppery leaflets / crossing over each / other light / weight faint / hawk crying / sears on a rare breeze / sap pumping a beat / sheer dance of summer / heat shimmer / hand quiver smooths / liquid memory / of water in bark / in buttons in keys / snake in and out / of holes in the air / work swiftly together / towards nothing / wooden units of time / muffled underfoot / clopping in their burrows / being composed / for your pleasure / sour green chords / throughout / on the back of tapping / remember woodpecker / reducing it all to one tone / swept up on a crest / or lowered down / on a shovel / rusted metal / container of afternoon / thickness / of dreams and their messages / dense pile woven / in the fabric of shade / detuned / birds call to join / webbed arpeggio / can't recall / how the sound / changed / inside the stormy pipes / the texture of this moment / spirals out
Hockets
composer: Meara O’Reilly
performers: Mingjia Chen & Linnea Sablosky
1.
bask / lamp’s web / cast / bottle on shell / shape of glass / tail of hair / lick / light belled / undercurrent / warm line / when one / elongated / around the bend / swath tossed / weave branches / time allowed / to rumple ribbon / gaze / dig / graze the forehead / moment stitched / bubble dashes / in water tunnel / must / lift / light wail / lands / child’s hands / pigeon’s down / stuck in the door / framed / bows errupt / stretched velum / and vellum / once bone / was sound / sloshing / ground the stone / in delight / cowel fold / tucked knees / disperse / press / hole in the tree / tries to recall / the cuckoo / conveys / reach / accessorized / by breath / decorated / by pause / uncolor / passes through / welded pane / communicate / by lead strips / indented / by baby’s laugh / squeal recognizes squeal / at the bottom of the ocean
2.
pebble
exchange
ease
eye
oars
meadow grasses
breeze each other
divide
divine
dwindle
spoon’s portion
dropped
lilted
splatter
frosted
pastel swing
who is pushed and pushes
posthumously
wind
wind
wound
wound
belling
bound
bounce
scribe
dripped
ink
pooled
nib
scripted
quickened
cliff
familiar
leap
look with one eye