Violist Thomas Beckman is helping the Bowen Island Public Library construct a new room to display local art and conduct seminars and readings with his new EP. The donation, which will be 100 per cent of the record's sales -- is, to Beckman, the answer to the question many artists are asking:
“How can I make a real impact with what I do by helping something bigger than myself?”
He wants to encourage other artists to consider this question when they're listening to Music for Bowen.
Between 2003 and 2007, at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town, Beckman earned an Honours Bachelor of Music degree, and following took his master's at UBC, graduating in 2010. Since then he has released four records, one each year since 2012.
Like Beckman's 2012 EP Conception Bay, Music for Bowen thrives on its geographical connections. The former was written while Beckman reflected on a trek through the wildly beautiful country of Namibia.
Naturally, the new release -- dedicated to the Island -- is intimately connected with it, but also it has a broader scope beyond space.
“It’s supposed to be an EP for the times,” said Beckman. Current unresolved and contentious political issues are the subject of the album's sonic explorations.
Take "Whale Cry," described by Beckman as a “lament of the whales,” where the viola’s tones emulate conversations taking place over hundreds of kilometers between these remarkable marine mammals. In British Columbia, an increase in tanker traffic could disrupt a critical humpback whale habitat, and part of that disruption, that facet captured in "Whale Cry," might occur via noise pollution impeding the whales’ communication.
“We seldom think about what we put other animals through when we make massive decisions,” said Beckman on the relationship between his music and the environment around us.
Farther from home, "Amazing Grace," written as a response to recent events in Baltimore, confronts the current state of social justice, policing, and gun control in America. As a response to these problems, Beckman praises Bernie Sanders -- a Senator in the running for the Democrats’ presidential candidate nomination -- with "Run." In talking about climate change, income inequality and by supporting free education, Sanders sets himself apart from other American politicians.
Music for Bowen is, like Sanders’ progressive campaign, rooted in a belief in community.
"Getting ahead is getting everyone else ahead,” said Beckman on the importance of community relationships. Pursuing a career in the arts, or the sciences or what have you, need not be an egoist’s project.
With that in mind, Beckman reached out to potential contributors to help make Music for Bowen. The EP was made in collaboration with Jude Neale who on the record’s last track recites her award-winning poem, "Wild Berry" and with assistance from Vogville Studios.
“We’re social creatures, we’re not born on islands: we live together,” said Beckman, commenting on his own creative process and on his aspirations for creating a communitarian ethos within and beyond his art.
Music for Bowen can be purchased here, with all proceeds going straight to the library.
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