The Reason for the Benefit

Why is it important to keep places like White Horse Black Mountain alive and well?

White Horse Black Mountain makes a difference in the lives of people.

The venue has been a huge asset for the people of Black Mountain and the surrounding areas of Western North Carolina. The venue has been praised by musicians, audience members, and members of the community for it's quality peformances and it's warm and welcoming spirit.

But it goes beyond that. White Horse Black Mountain has demonstrated that it truly cares about people and desires to make a difference in the lives of people; locally, regionally, and around the world.

During early March, White Horse Black Mountain held it's 2nd Help Haiti Heal Benefit event. Asheville resident and friend of White Horse, Lorin Mallorie, was in Haiti at the time and helped arrange and remote Skype broadcast of Haitian musicians who once again had a stage to share their lives and music with the world. Their performance was shown live on the huge screen at White Horse and White Horse arranged to have the performance webcast live ..... so that anyone in the world could see and hear the voices and music of Haiti.

Lorin Mallorie describes the impact of that event as follows:

On Saturday evening we stage a "live" concert via satellite call to White Horse Black Mountain, which is hosting a Haiti benefit. James Vergenau (aka Rebel) of the Haitian reggae band Yizra'el sings an original tune called "Mother Nature"; Jagat accompanies him on the hand drums. The smaller venues here are still closed for reconstruction, and it's Rebel's first performance since the quake two months ago.

They tell me the White Horse audience was in tears. But what stays with me from that night in Kenscoff is the look in Rebel's eyes, alive and inspired to once again be playing the music he loves — this time for a little town in far off America.





John Vorus

JOHN VORUS


John Vorus said he doesn’t know if he found the didgeridoo or the didgeridoo found him.
“I think it was a co-creation of this between my path and myself,” said the 34-year-old Transylvania County resident.When Vorus was 19-years-old and living in Detroit, Mich., he discovered his hidden talent for the Australian instrument.
The instrument, which was created over 1,500 years ago by the Aboriginal Australians, was used primarily for accompaniment in ceremonial dancing and singing, according to the Aboriginal Australia Art and Culture Center in Alice Springs, Central Australia.
Traditionally, an Aborigine would go into nature and listen intensely to animal sounds, not just voices but also the flapping of wings or the thump of feet on the ground” said the Center.“The Aborigine would also listen to the sounds of wind, thunder, trees creaking, and water running. The essences of all these sounds were played with as much accuracy as possible within the droning sound of the didjereedoo.”
The didgeridoo is considered to possibly be the world’s oldest instrument.
I see working with sound as mapping vibrations in air. By matching together different vibrational patterns, it is possible to create, in 3 dimensional space, the subtlety and atmosphere of a place that is reflected in your consciousness. When I hear a sound I can see its shape, color, texture, and movement in my head. So, for me, sound is a visual art that you see with your mind.

When I was 7 years old, I discovered sound manipulation through the medium of the cassette tape. I would make my own voice recordings (typically imitations of animals and weird vocal sounds), and I discovered that when I would tinker with the motor in the tape drive I could have my voice recorded to play back 2 times slower than normal. The result sounded as if I crept out into the woods in the middle of the night and made field recordings of the very monsters I would lie in bed fearing as I drifted off to sleep.

It was like creating some sort of primitive sonic cave art, exercising the hyperactive recesses of my pre-adolescent imagination. Over the years my approach to working with sound has become more involved and the result more fine tuned. But this same experimental approach and psychological resonance lives on.

Our interaction with sound is such a unique and individual experience, its presence in our life is that of a phenomenon. The mechanics of it are explainable by science, but the reason behind its influence on our internal atmospheres remains a mystery.