There is a small town in the heart of the Swannanoa Valley in Western North Carolina called Black Mountain. Between 1933 and 1956, it attracted many of the world’s most incendiary minds; drawn to the area by a rare creative energy.
Performances of Floating Action are on December 26th at 8:00 pm. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 day on the day of the show.
Folks like John Cage and Buckminster Fuller and Albert Einstein all came to live and work and study at Black Mountain College, an educational community in which the artistic process was considered fundamental to the progress of humanity. One student remarked that it was a “crazy and magical place, and the electricity of all the people seemed to make for a wonderfully charged atmosphere, so that one woke up in the mornings excited and a little anxious, as though a thunderstorm were sweeping in.”
Seth Kauffman knows the galvanizing power of Black Mountain. There in his small studio, tucked away in the shadow of Mount Mitchell, he strives to conjure the aural magic that recording gurus have followed around the planet; spiritual moments of song that reach deep into the listener’s psyche. Such as the sound of untrained human voices locking together in unique harmony. Flashes that elicit a feeling akin to the fervor millions of adolescents experienced the first time they heard the woolly opening riff to “Satisfaction.” Kauffman often channels these sparks and so luminaries such as My Morning Jacket’s Jim James have taken a shine to him. Now others are trying to coax what powers they can from his shaman robe. Dan Auerbach recently brought Kauffman to Nashville, TN, to lend his many talents to a handful of projects. And just last night, Jenny Lewis asked him onstage at the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC, to play the violin with her band. However, Kauffman saves the lion’s share for himself.
Body Questions invites the masses into the world of Floating Action, the untethered space he inhabits as a songwriter. One in which Kauffman is compelled to challenge the limits of composition. After the junkyard apology of “(Taking Me) A Little While” clears the air, “Unrevenged” drifts in like a thunderhead. The music that follows is a wholly original trek through the sublime, all the disparate sonic bits miraculously interwoven. A challenging and exhilarating sensory experience constructed on extraordinary pop songs. Bodies glisten as they dance under the sun to the triumphant, Pan-African grooves of “Earth Shackles.” Patrons throw money at the band in a cosmic juke joint, hoping to hear the sultry shuffle of “Hide Away Too Long” one more time. A lonely balladeer searches for answers amongst the choir of constellations that illuminates “Couldn’t Be Yourself.” This record is lyrically cinematic, structurally sound and texturally intoxicating. Years into the future, it’s possible teenagers will mimic the subtle guitar moves and intricate polyrhythms of Body Questions in their bedrooms. Floating Action’s place is a soothsayer’s dimension.
But the portal is open. The time is at hand.
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