Sudden Wealth with Jason Dodge - Under Gemini by Noelle Kocot

Sudden Wealth was founded by Chris Evans in 2022 as a collaboration with Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Graham Kelly and invited poets and artists who use the spoken word as a central element of their work. The project considers how the flux of subjectivity within language might be shaped and reimagined through a triangulation of written composition, vocal intonation and extrinsic sound. For Under Gemini, Dodge is joined by Evans on bass, Halvorsen on electronics and Kelly on guitar. Arranged and mixed by Evans and Halvorsen, and mastered by Halvorsen, the two extended tracks do not illustrate Kocot's poem or provide it with a conventional musical accompaniment. Instead, they establish a shifting environment in which speech is exposed to rhythm, duration, repetition and interference. The recording draws attention to the space between the fixity of publication and the singular, time-bound event of a voice speaking. Born and raised in Brooklyn and now based in New Jersey, Noelle Kocot is the author of numerous acclaimed collections, including Soul in Space and Ascent of the Mothers. Their work has received support and recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, The American Poetry Review, the Lannan Foundation, the Fund for Poetry and the Academy of American Poets, and they serve as Poet Laureate of Pemberton Borough. Published jointly by Slimvolume and Winona, Under Gemini appears as a limited edition of 150 twelve-inch records, comprising two tracks at 33 rpm. The offset-printed sleeve has been designed by Chris Evans, with every copy individually airbrushed by the artist. Moving from Kocot's original poem, through its limited publication by FIVEHUNDREDPLACES, to Dodge's live vocal performance and Sudden Wealth's collective sound composition, Under Gemini extends the work through successive acts of interpretation, transmission and dispersal.