This is a letter of love and gratitude to you — the ccMixter community.

Since the end of September I have been working on a song cycle called PRAYER. This work is deeply meaningful on so many levels. One of the most significant elements of this work is how important ccmixter has been to the process of creating the music.

PRAYER is essentially about how art is a prayerful act — filled with supplication, hope, longing, gratitude — and how through prayer, experience is transformed. My collaborators and I were mindful of the importance of collective ego/consciousness on how we relate to the world, and we wanted to honor that in our work. One of the ways we did that was by bringing in the expression of other artists into the music and in the video projections that are integral to our presentation.


When I started visiting ccmixter in 2009 I did not have a clue. I was completely and utterly naive about sharing culture, remix culture, computer assisted music production — all of it. I didn’t know squat. Gradually, with the support of this incredible community I learned how to record music on my computer. I learned that I can piece bits and pieces of other people’s music together to make a remix composition. I developed relationships with artists around the world who became a part of my music, and for whom I became a part of their music. How magical and astounding!

The music for PRAYER would not have emerged the way it did without you. And this goes beyond the practical aspects of the music production. This music includes pieces that I put together using stems you freely shared. This music includes acoustic songs that I shared with you. This music includes remixes of my stems that you created. And the music includes the remixes that you shared as part of the PRAYER call for remixes. But more importantly, ccmixter has nurtured my growth as a music maker so that I can even participate in work like this. If you could feel my heart right now, you would sense the burst.

Whatever the music for PRAYER is, it is made with much love and appreciation for all of you who touched it — intimately or peripherally — the influence of ccmixter is immense. And even though I just wrote a lot, I still do not feel like the words fully express how deeply I am affected by you.

Thank you.

Susan
aka SackJo22

We are so excited to present PRAYER live as a multi-media, experimental, theatrical performance previewing in Los Angeles this Saturday (February 8) with its premier in Seattle on February 15. We will be documenting the performances and will share material as soon as we can. At the live performances, we will have a listening station with a couple of music players, a computer set up, and a booklet so audience members can listen to the playlist of your remixes. They will be able to learn about ccmixter — visit your artist page, and generally be turned onto the magic that is ccmixter. I am releasing a preview EP of the acoustic songs (soon to be available via tunetrack), and hope to finish the soundtrack for release as a full length CD. We will also be conducting a question/answer session after the performance where I hope to speak about ccmixter. And I really can’t wait until the videos created by our director Angela Grillo and artist Ana Rifa are ready for sharing!

For more info:

About PRAYER
About Los Angeles Preview 2/8/14
About the Seattle Premier 2/15/14
The PRAYER playlist or here
The PRAYER Trailers

Thank you for sharing this beautiful, thoughtful letter… And thank you for sharing your music, this moving project…

It’s touching to read about your experience on ccMixter. I can relate to your words on so many levels. I share the love and gratitude for this community.

The way you have incorporated ccMixter in PRAYER is remarkable… inspiring… and really exciting! I can’t wait to see the videos of the performances. So, so, so cool!

Break a leg, Susan!!!

I was slightly humbled to find one of my tracks (March Through A Mad World) on your event playlist, but pleased that it might have found an audience in cities far away, which I have never visited myself. That track wouldn’t have existed without you making your vocals available for remix. So thank you.

I don’t know if you follow the trackbacks on remixes, but there’s a whole bunch of YouTube videos featuring that track, as well as a promo slide made for a major cinema chain in the Czech Republic. So your voice might be playing to audiences in Prague right now!

I share your sentiments about ccmixter. I wasn’t sure about the idea of open licencing at first, especially as I’d always had the traditional idea of copyright drummed into me. But if we’d all have gone down that route, this site wouldn’t be the success it is today, and our music wouldn’t be reaching the places it’s getting to.

Lastly, good luck with the Prayer project. It sounds great, and I hope great things come from it!