Odyssey to the 'end of the earth' to begin

Excerpts from Article Published 1/2/2007 lovelycitizen, Eureka Springs, Arkansas

 

Gotta dance! Performance artist Deerwomon and collaborator Tamarah

Jonason will leave town next week on a musical, philosophical, extraterrestrial journey to Tierra Del Fuego.

Deerwomon and Tamarah Jonason will depart next week to accompany noted composer and painter Christopher Lantz and his son Michael and dog, Jolie Bear, on a journey to the"end of the earth." Better known by its Spanish name, Tierra Del Fuego. The "end of the earth" is the southern-most tip of Argentina and Chile. The group will travel throughout Central America on their adventure and plans to embrace education, performance and spirituality. Their mode of transportation will be by car and SUV with a "tear drop” trailer.

 

Deerwomon is the editor/creator of Lantz's latest audio book "House of Symphonies".

Lantz is a renowned conductor, painter and writer. He has led philharmonic orchestras around the world. He has two Ph.Ds, one in music and the other in acoustical physics, which is the study of sound that is governed by the laws of physics. At age 16, he played an original composition for Stravinsky. Later, he conducted world-class musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma. He grew up in the company of creative powerhouses who were family friends such as Diego Rivera, Frieda Khalo and Georgia O'Keefe. His paintings have sold for as much as $100,000. Lantz eventually reached a point in his musical career when he no longer "felt nourished by the music."

He determined that Western music was dead. Then he had a vision. He was to return to New Mexico, where he grew up, buy a piece of land and build an acoustical chamber. So he gave up his life of wealth and fame and moved to New Mexico and began building what would eventually become an extraordinary structure known as "The House of Symphonies"for which his most recent book is named.

 

According to Deerwomon, Lantz's neighbors reported that a UFO landed one night encompassing the entire house. When the space craft left, the area around the house was left smoldering. The heat of the craft burned iron deposits into the ground. And Lantz later discovered his house sits on a huge deposit of quartz.crystal. Left behind on the interior walls of the house were petroglyphic symbols. After studying the symbols, Deerwomon says Lantz realized they had some type of musical intonations. But he didn't know what instrument to play. His favorite composing instrument, the piano, just didn't seem to work.

When he mentioned his dilemma to a friend of his at NASA, the friend shipped him 18 crystal bowls. NASA used the bowls to retain radio signals from satellites when they passed behind the moon. Lantz began experimenting with octaves and was soon deciphering the intonations of the symbols.

The last chapter of Lantz's book House of Symphonies provides the "mission" for Deerwomon's odyssey. The book is written in an interview-like manner. In the final paragraph, the interviewer asks Lantz, “Where are you going?” "To Tierra Del Fuego," Lantz responds. "But how and why?" the interviewer asks. "By car to study about sacrifice," Lantz responds. "We never did get that right!”.

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The group will have a mobile recording capability and will record the journey and upload it as blog entries.

The trip is being financed through a not-for-profit 501c3 organization - Full Bloom Productions, Ozark Art, Artists, Healers. They will return to Eureka Springs in time to perform a new work, Passages, during the May Festival of the Arts.

 

 

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