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I have some you tube videos up with a bunch from my ride last spring/summer. Please go to youtube.com/user/catrionanicthamhais to have a look see. The Fox appears within her Burrow... and Looks to see the Morning Sun glow upon the Cliffs to the East that fall down to the River that flooded his Banks on the Shortest Night of the Year A solo performance piece. It was performed at the final concert of the Fall music residency on December 6, 2013 in Rolston Recital Hall at The Banff Centre. The background sound of 'wind in grass' was recorded and mixed in 2012. I am playing one of my self-built Tsugaru Shamisens here and costumed up the yingyang including a 'fox' mask made with beaver fur and smoke tanned dearskin. The piece starts in silence and darkness. The background wind sound fades up and maintains itself throughout, the lights fade up and you can see a small movement in my hand. This movement was occurring during darkness which the audience could subtly see but it is not visible in the video itself. I have edited this video down a little to tighten things up - less darkness at the beginning (it was a full minute in the performance) and no applause, though I can assure you, it was thunderous ;-) This piece was very much inspired by a place in SW Alberta, NE of Pincher Creek on the SW corner of the Pikani Reserve. It is a place that I would camp for months at a time in temperatures from -15 to +30 with winds that would often top 100km/hr. with my camp close to Beaver Creek I would wake in the morning and gaze upon a cliff side often with the company of horses and deer. At the end of September 2013 there was even a cougar with it's kill a couple of hundred yards away. Such a beautiful place and this piece really is in honour of it. With Katelyn Clark on Harpsichord performed live in Rolston Hall at The Banff Centre. Such great fun. A couple of weeks before this performance, when I had just finished making my tsugaru shamisen, Kate asked me if I would like to do some shamisen/harpsichord playing together. Of course  I said, sure!, and we had a bunch of great playing sessions together with Kate suggesting some old 12th century european pieces and we basically just went ahead and jammed on them. This piece in particular fit really well on my shamisen fingers and a few days before the friday night concert, we decided to dive in and perform it. A Banff Centre highlight for me no doubt! Special thanks to Luciane Cardassi (lucianecardassi.com) for the video. etsy.com video made by Eric Beug (objekd)  A lovely short video that was shot in the summer of 2010 when I was at Trails End Ranch in Saskatchewan. Eric Beug, a filmmaker with etsy.com (I had some instruments for sale through etsy. That's how they found me) came all the way from Brooklyn to spend a couple of days with his cameras to film my work and such, specifically about making bone flutes. Here is a link to the video where you will find some photos and words from Eric.www.etsy.com/storque/spotlight/process-bone-flutes-with-catherine-thompson-11032/		Process: Bone Flutes with Catherine Thompson from Etsy on Vimeo.
The Bankhead Project A short video From the Bankhead Project performed in July 2009 in Bankhead (near Banff) Alberta Canada. Please go tohearhereproductions.ca for more information Performer/Composers: Luciane Cardassi, Erin Donovan, Katherine Duncanson, Sonya Freebold, Sadie Freeman, Colin Funk, Emilie LeBel, Katie Mee, Catherine Thompson, Camille Watts
Pidgoyomon – Pidgoyomon, and egg of sand productions is a collaborative creation of Terri Hron & Catherine Thompson. The videos represented below are from the premiere performance presented on Sunday March 8 2009 in Rolston Hall at The Banff Centre. Please go to eggofsand.org for more information including writings about process and performance experiences.
Pidgoyomon - recorder/bone flute intro The piece begins in darkness with Terri and Catherine at the back of the hall walking from opposite sides meeting together on stage. Created by Terri Hron and Catherine Thompson in the winter of 2009 at The Banff Centre, Banff, Canada. Premier performance, Rolston Hall, March 8 2009. Terri Hron - voice, recorders, piano, cora, percussion, bone flute Catherine Thompson - voice, coras, n'gonibanjo, guitar, bone flutes, percussion Stage management - Julie Fournier, Banners - Michael Markowski eggofsand.org
Pidgoyomon - recorder/bone flute intro to we walked forever to find some water from the recorder/flute opening we move to the first song. I hold in my hand an egg of sand we walked forever to find some water the water in the river had slowed to a shiver the water I held in my hand was this egg of sand The sun released has taken all the water and all that is left is in this egg of sand that I hold in my hand that I give to you so that you might stand so that you might remember
Pidgoyomon - Terri looped recorder solo to pigeon talk Terri continues on her own with a session with recorder and looping pedals, Catherine continuing with a Wikipedia description of the passenger pigeon.
Pidgoyomon - Martha Martha, the last passenger pigeon. She died September 1 1914 in Cincinatti Ohio, USA martha when grandpa died i felt my father's tears all through the night all through the night martha when my dad died i felt my own tears all through the night all through the night martha when my mom dies martha when sister dies martha when children die martha when children die martha when they all died could you feel my tears all through the day all through the night
Pidgoyomon - Imagine i The final song of the passenger pigeon section imagine i /imagine i am i the world/am /iwhere do i where do i/do i begin do i with me without the world/with you but not a part of it of you a part but not with you/with the world without me where are we? imagine us/imagine us are we the world/are we where do we/where do we do we begin/do we with us without the world/with you but not a part of it of you a part but not with you/with the world without us where are we? must i break free break free am i /the world (imagine a world)
Pidgoyomon - Coyote Contemplating the harshness of modern industrial civilisation, with Terri on recorder and electronics and Catherine on electric guitar. trick trick trickster/monster/monster trickster stir stir/let/let me/let me in your belly/let me into/your heart/where your soul is trick trick trickster/fire in the belly/stir stir shaving your heart/slices so thin you don't notice the walls/have no substance/or soul monster/they will run out/dispose centripitally dig in their roots/the moment ground hits stir stir/fire in the belly trick trick trickster where is/you soul in your heart/your belly let me in let me let monster trickster
Pidgoyomon - Will you be mine The beginning of the Salmon section, the threatened, the last refuge for a way .. an old way? a new way? will you be my love will you be mine i've been away so long i've been a fool you lay dying i looked away you held the answer could i not see that you did call me that you did say will you be my love will you be mine
Pidgoyomon - Tree feeding The dying salmon feed the trees at the upper reaches of the rivers. Blocked by dams, the salmon can no longer reach their spawning grounds to lay their eggs and allow their bodies to feed the forest. my body will feed you/my body tired and shredded will help you live to tell the story of how/my life is your life and you will grow so/tall and long in time my body /my body will feed you my short life /in this water will be within you/and my children, my children will remember/where to come back to find you i promise all this/but i cannot find you anymore it is now lost to me
Pidgoyomon - Salmon of knowledge Salmon of knowledge? Salmon of wisdom? We have emraced the love of knowledge but our wisdom seems bereft and unbalanced.
Pidgoyomon - Epilogue A prayer, a keening.
Pidgoyomon - Whale riding to finish  riding the whale its skin glistens warm tender comfort without foothold joyfully bareback take me back to safe waters stripped yet clothed in my nakedness shame floats in our wake i cannot see where you begin or where you end perhaps there is none and i am riding a whale that goes on forever melting into the landscape seamlessly weaving a warp of hope