FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOSTON’S BIG DIG SINGS !

BIG TWIG TUNNEL TAPES CD RELEASED BY JAY CRITCHLEY FEATURES ORIGINAL FIELD RECORDINGS AND PRODUCED TRACKS FROM THE $15 BILLION HIGHWAY PROJECT, RECORDED BEFORE OPENING FOR TRAFFIC; INCLUDES OPERA, DANCE MIXES, A RAP SONG, TUNNEL VISION, AND THE ROSE KENNEDY GREENWAY COMPOSITION.

CD RELEASE EVENTS SCHEDULED FOR PROVIDENCE, BOSTON AND PROVINCETOWN.

CD AVAILABLE ON WEBSITE

I’ve got tunnel vision, let the bombing go on!
We’ve got to protect ourselves from all those morons,
So I can charge and buy the goods to set myself free,
Sugar in my coffee, and my SUV.

Lyrics from Tunnel Vision by Jay Critchley

Responding to the cacophonous sonic environment of the unfinished Big Dig Tunnel in Boston, Provincetown artist Jay Critchley has recorded and produced a surprising CD, Big Twig Tunnel Tapes - Boston’s Big Dig Sings, resplendent with dance tracks, opera, ambient trance music, his signature rap song, Tunnel Vision, and a reflective composition entitled Rose Kennedy Greenway. The concept for the project is an ecological one, inspired by the tree-like footprint of this monument to the automobile, our gluttonous appetite for petroleum, and our war making to defend it. The CD is available on the web at www.bigtwig.org.

CD release events are scheduled at DNA Gallery, 286 Bradford Street, Provincetown on Friday, July 9 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm (508 487-7700), and on Thursday, July 22 at the new studios of WOMR 92.1 FM at the Schoolhouse Center, 494 Commercial Street, Provincetown from 6:00 to 8:00 pm (508 487-2106) as a benefit for Outermost Community Radio. The Boston CD release event is scheduled for Thursday, July 15 at StudioSoto, 63 Melcher Street, on the corner of A Street in Fort Point Channel, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. (617 426-7686). The Providence CD release event will be held on July 15 as part of Providence’s monthly Gallery Night at AS220, 115 Empire Street, from 5:00 to 9:00 pm (401 831-9327. Most events will offer CD giveaways, entertainment, surprise guests, and a video documentary of the Big Twig Tunnel Tapes Project.

A portion of CD sales will be donated to environmental and community organizations.

“What can the sounds we find and the sounds we make deep inside the earth - inside our buried past - tell us about ourselves and our relationship with the planet – in this political convention-rich summer?” states Critchley, executive producer and artistic director of the project.

On three occasions shortly before Boston’s Big Dig opened the I-93 southbound tunnel to traffic in December 2003, Critchley, Timothy O’Keefe and a small cadre of singers, musicians, photographers, videographers and curios descended into its depths 125 feet below the city to record their voices, song, music making and ambient and sampled sound. The artist was supported by Big Dig official Etty Padmodipoetro, but ultimately needed the clout of Governor Romney, Senator Kennedy and US Representative Bill Delahunt to access the underground roadway.

This random collection of archeological recordings from the subterranean workplace, access ramps and stairwells includes opera, vocals, percussion, viola, various wind instruments, ululation and ambient recordings of the un-trafficked two mile tunnel. Six hours of recorded sounds from the virgin underground expressway were rough cut and sent out to interested producers, mixologists and composers who created unique interpretations from the sounds of the field recordings. From “Tunnel Tones for Cellphones”, (Drive-by Polluting, SFV [Sports Futility Vehicle], Gridluck) to the witches of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, from electronic dance mixes to experimental sound pieces and Mozart, Big Twig Tunnel Tapes delights in our underappreciated sonic ecology.

Performers on Big Twig Tunnel Tapes ? Boston’s Big Dig Sings include opera singers Rachel Smith and Stephanie McGuire, students with Donna Roll at Longy School of Music in Cambridge, singer Serena Andrews, viola player and singer Jonah Rapino and Critchley. Video and photography credits go to Roberto Ugalde, Lydia Eccles, Kathy Chapman, Timothy O’Keefe and Critchley. The web site and CD graphics design were created by O’Keefe, who is also associate executive producer and engineer of the project. The CD was produced at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island and is partially funded by the LEF Foundation.

Copies of the Big Twig Tunnel Tapes CD and photos are available upon request.