Running on Cargo

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An Urban Monastic — 


An Urban Monastic is a studio project inspired by my mother’s daily spiritual ritual.  At various parts of her day, my mother engages in a time of quiet contemplation in which she repeats the word “union”.   Her practice of contemplation is largely based on religious teachings from The Cloud of Unknowing, a 14th century text by an anonymous mystic, developed out of the monastic Catholic tradition.   The anonymous writer of this text outlines a methodology for contemplation, crucial to which is the repetition of a short, one or two syllable word, claiming ‘…short prayer pierceth heaven’. An Urban Monastic is a composition that attempts to sonically capture the experience of contemplation in an urban environment, with its continous distractions.