Hellville was the result of a desire to compose a programmatic suite based on the book “Greetings from Hellville”, a wordless graphic novel by Swiss artist Thomas Ott. Ott’s work is known for its stark black-and white scratchboard technique transparent brutal storytelling. The visuals of this particular work inspired Crean to create a sound world around a single clarinet and manipulated sound via electric guitar pedals.
The first movement, “No Eyes for Kaldowski,” is based the story “The Job,” about a hitman on a mission whose terrible features are revealed on the last page. The second movement, “The Voodoo Priest’s Greeting,” based on the story “10,” tells the story of a white supremacist who faces his fateful end at the hands of southern voodoo hotel clerk. “She Turned G.O.D In,” based on the story “G.O.D,” is a surreal re-imagining of the Judeo-Christian creation story. The clarinet opens with a reverberate multiphonic chord as the angel of G.O.D appears to a man as he sleeps. The man is gifted with the power of G.O.D as melodic passages weave in and out of the multiphonics. The story “Goodbye!” is the basis for the final movement “Only thing that did it was a nuclear bomb.” A man discovers he is immortal after several attempts to end his life, where the clarinet moves through various articulations to symbolize the hope, defeat, and disappointment of the man’s actions. The man then accidentally slips and breaks his neck only to wake up healed, and runs to the window out of his frustration. It is at that moment as he opens the window that a nuclear bomb has been set off, and the man disappears. - Notes by Rosśa Crean
credits
from halfway home,
released July 26, 2022
'Hellville' by Rosśa Crean
Engineered & Produced by Andrew Rodriguez
Mastered by Mike Tierney
Recorded at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
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