Music
in the
L
Astoria Column
Local fl utist Larkin Stentz will hold a CD release concert benefi ting the Friends of the Astoria Column
Larkin Stentz, known to most North Coast
residents as the owner, organic farmer and
teacher of farming techniques at Green Angels
Gardens on the Long Beach Peninsula, has an-
other engaging talent — he is an extraordinary
on three continents.
in our area. At the end of last year, he and his
technical team recorded an entire CD of songs
in the Astoria Column.
Stentz got the idea while listening one day
Submitted photo
“Inside the Astoria Column: Flute music
through Larkin” is an album of fl ute music
recorded inside the Astoria column this past
August by Larkin Stentz..
Photo by Joshua Bessex
needed at the Column and brainstorming ideas
Larkin Stenz recorded a CD of fl ute music inside the Astoria Column in August. Stentz will have a release party at the Liberty
Theater’s McTarvish Room on Sunday, Jan. 11.
recording in the column. Then, after recording
costs, they could use money from the sale of
this cell tower and a number of other emergency
shortwave,” Stentz says.
me and a recording engineer, Alec Gear.”
ing in an unusual location.
old cloister in Boxmeer, The Netherlands,”
zendall, and the resulting
album is ‘Blossom in a
marvel as it exalted sound,
echo.”
The cloister recording
midnight and, in the same
recording team knew they
would need to hit the Col-
umn at a time of relative
quiet. So one evening they
human ear but with the sensitive recording
determined that they would need to record with
all the lights turned off.
The other challenge was the seven-second
delay for sound inside the Column itself.
one of the levels of the Col-
umn to get a sense of what
was best, and it turned out
that the third level gave us
sible tones,” Stentz says. So
stories above.
the session.
8 | January 8, 2015 | coastweekend.com
2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11
McTavish Room, Liberty Theater
1203 Commercial St., Astoria
www.liberty-theater.org
‘Playing in the dark
meant that I was
totally focused on the
sounds I was creating
and how they were
coming back at me.’
would be a mysterious electrical hum inside the
The raw cuts were sent to studio technician
CD Release Concert
503-325-5922
$10
Horn’s recording in the Taj Majal.
ish Room of the Liberty Theater in Astoria. The
gathering is a chance for music lovers to hear the
restoration efforts needed at the Astoria Column.
the arts
also listening to the echo, weaving my notes to-
VISUAL ARTS • LITERATURE • THEATER • MUSIC & MORE
in a duet with himself. The result of the recording
Story by CATE GABLE