after AMPLIFY 2011: stones

In the first long silent day after the busy 15 days of the AMPLIFY festival, I still hear Radu Malfatti's almost inaudible little click sounds on his trombone mute which he made occasionally in his sets, not just in my memory but in my actual ears as if I were just hearing the sound right in front of me. On the 11th day of AMPLIFY, I thought I found the music finally in the duo set of Radu Malfatti and Michael Pisaro, who were playing Radu's piece 'Claude Lorrain 2'. Radu's click sound was so subtle and quiet, sometimes almost inaudible, but the most powerful and memorable sound I have heard during all of the 15 days. Pisaro's sensitivity certainly helped to deepen the silence surrounding them to bring out Radu's click sound in the purest form. Time felt like it was standing still for a moment when he made the click sound in the middle of the silence - like the profound tranquility spreading after a little stone was thrown in a pond in a Japanese garden. The rough reality in the middle of the noisy, chaotic streets in East Village of New York has disappeared at the moment. Now after most of the active/aggressive sounds performed during the festival have gone, that little click sound still remains true and alive in my ears regardless of the passage of time.