Making “The Lucky Ones” music video has been one of the most unique creative experiences I’ve ever had. I began sketching the storyboard on March 13, 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown in New York, and just filled in the last page of that same journal upon completing the video on July 1st. In a way, the sketches provide a genuine depiction of my inner world during quarantine, constantly oscillating between hopelessness and hopefulness from page to page. The creative process unfolded as an ongoing conversation with the lyrics. Every page presented an opportunity to find new meaning to the same words, if sometimes in stark contrast to the day before.

“…the world is caving in now, collapsing upon itself… shut everything down, silence all around…we’re the lucky ones” When I first heard the song in February, these lyrics resonated with me in particular because I was feeling a similar need to shut everything down. Daily life seemed to move too fast and I yearned for a refuge away from the noise of daily life. Little did I know just how real those words would become for me and almost everyone I knew, when the world actually shut down and collapsed upon itself.

Eventually, I arrived at the word “silence.” Though it seems like inaction, the act of silence brought meaning back into the words again. Silence allowed the dust to settle. Silence allowed for hidden yearnings too quiet to be heard to gradually reveal themselves. Colorful landscapes emerged from the page as the noise slowly dissipated. Silence provided the backdrop for clarity, bridged the two halves of the song and revealed a path forward. I saw it as a gateway to cross over to a more wondrous place.

In essence, “The Lucky Ones” is about finding escape through the silence of a journal. "You and I are made in silence."

Film by Xuan

Music by Annika Socolofsky

Performance by Parhelion Trio (Sarah Carrier, Andrea Christie, Ashleé Miller)

Recorded by Annika Socolofsky

Audio by Alex Dowling

About the piece:

parhelion - (n.) a bright spot in the sky appearing on either side of the sun, formed by refraction of sunlight through ice crystals high in the earth's atmosphere.

Turadh is a reflection of the warmth and vibrancy of Parhelion Trio’s namesake. The idea for this collaboration came from my memories of playing my fiddle for my grandmother and her identical twin on bleak Midwestern days at their home in rural Kansas. Over the years, and as my grandmother's dementia progressed, her conversations would circle back to her favorite phrase: "well, it's another gray day in the midlands!" No matter the weather outside, I will always be thankful for the warmth I have been able to share with my grandmother and my late great aunt by playing them tunes on my hardanger fiddle. In Turadh, you’ll hear numerous samples of my own fiddle playing on my in an attempt to share this feeling of warmth and resonance with you--to offer you your own break in the clouds.

This piece was commissioned by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting for the 2018 Blackbird Creative Laboratory.

Full performance below

A sneak peek of my interactive installation for the iBug Urban Arts Festival in the bunker of the abandoned Bahnbetriebswerk in Reichenbach, Germany. The light reacts to the sound of my voice.

Artist Statement

Inspired by the artist’s initial otherworldly impressions of being in the underground bunker, this experiential work gives a voice and consciousness to the dark empty chambers through sound and reactive light. The idea is to reinvigorate a decades abandoned place, to let the space speak for itself and interact with living beings as they re-engage with the abandoned structure through the lens of art.

The work invites visitors to ‘Come Closer’ on multiple levels. As visitors climb and descend five stories of the attached building, faint echos of the audio (a female singing voice) can be heard beckoning them to descend the stairs down to the dark basement. Once there, visitors will see faint glimmers of a light beaming to the sound of their presence, leading them forward to discover a maze-like installation. Anchored into each quadrant of the chamber system is a room with a tree, something they recognize and can carry with them as they re-ascend above ground.

My video journal of the experience as an artist at ibug 2019.

A documentary about the 2019 ibug Festival für urbane Kunst, featuring my work at 24:09.

photos by Cameron Jamieson

Full concert here

Making-of video here

a short intro about the project

Program notes from the composer:

There is a strangeness to the duality of the word "dwalm". It is an old Scottish word with two meanings: a stupor or daydream (as in the phrase "in a dwalm"), and to faint or fall ill. It comes from the Old English word "dwolma", which means "confusion". What is strange is that a daydream is such a light and lovely drifting of the mind, whereas fainting or falling ill is a sudden wrenching. Perhaps though, they are different surfacings of the same darkness. This piece is half lullaby, half keen; both songs to set someone to rest, whether by drifting off or being bid a final, fearsome farewell.

High Concept Labs Residency at Mana Contemporary

On|Off is an immersive, audience-dependent public sound work using a set of portable homemade synthesizers. These simple tone generators – each consisting of only an on/off switch, a volume knob, a frequency knob, and a speaker fixed within a small wooden box – are capable of enormous sonic diversity when combined. When in the hands of audience/participants, the instruments’ straightforward design makes them easily performable by anyone (regardless of age or level of musical experience), allowing for rich possibilities in blurring the line between performer, composer, and listener.

First developed by composer Danny Clay, percussionist Peter Ferry, and video artist Xuan in 2015, the work has evolved beyond its initial form as a series of interactive audio-visual games. It’s taken shape as outdoor sound installations, instruments for elementary music classrooms, collaborative stimulus in concert settings, as well as various interactive transfigurations throughout art galleries in the US. This project has received grants by the Eastman School of Music and the city of Chicago, and participated in residencies at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, High Concept Labs at Mana, and Avaloch Farm Institute. The trio continues to expand possibilities for engagement with the core belief that anyone, regardless of age, ability, or knowledge, can experience the joy of music making.

The included On|Off video is a record of our first experiments at Mana Contemporary in Chicago as apart of a residency called High Concept Labs.

40-Synth Sound Installation at the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester NY

Elementary school music class in Avaloch, New Hampshire