Music, Freedom, Yo-yo
This for me was extremely exciting, yoyo and music much like most art have a connection. Yoyo is a painting, the yoyo being a paintbrush and the string being the canvas. You can make it whatever you want it to be, and no two people will present tricks the same. Freedom to me, is the most important aspect of yoyo, music, and artistic expression as a whole. My music is very loose and free, often yoyo videos are edited to very composed and tight pieces of music. Having this opportunity to freely make music to fit how yoyo makes me feel I think is pretty special. Yoyo is very tactile, and I think it has a lot of emotion, it makes me feel a lot of emotions at least. The music I make is also very tactile, my sounds are composed of things I actually touch and manipulate. Even when it is edited and organized on a computer, it all comes from a very organic process of being involved with my hands making contact with objects to create a sound. So because of this, I feel that it is just natural to put the sounds I make into yoyo videos.
Canopy also has a pretty big emphasis on nature, nature is probably my biggest inspiration for making music and art. Colour, sound, movement is all related to me, and is all very much a part of nature and art. Watching yoyo often reminds me of watching birds in trees, leaves swaying in the wind, a river current or a campfire. When I watch tricks I go to these places in my head, the sensation of these things in nature conjures sounds in my head and sounds create colours for me to work with. Canopy has provided me with a gallery that I fill with my sonic paintings, paired with the videos it creates an experience that the community can immerse themselves in. I hope that my showcase of sonic freedom mixed with cinematic and trick expression will help inspire players to do what feels best in their heart. I want yoyo players to feel freedom to be who they want to be, express themselves the way they want to, no matter how abrasive, mellow or technical that expression is. Yoyo is art, art is nature, nature gives life to the planet we reside on.
The world is beautiful, and so are you.
Thank you Canopy Collection.
-Lydia
Lydia and I began conversations over Instagram a few years back. I was just getting back into the yo-yo community after a few years away to focus on school. Our mutual appreciation for art incited long messages back and forth that inspired me creatively. She sent music she was working on, and I was immediately ushered into a deep, sonic space I had never before explored. Her music was textured with both electronic and organic impulses. The droning frequencies could shift from feeling like a warm blanket to a desolate wasteland. I began listening to her bandcamp albums on my long drives to and from Los Angeles. As Canopy gained momentum and conversations began about what kind of music we wanted to feature in our media, I thought immediately of Lydia. With her music, not only would each video work as a cohesive whole, they would also chart their own unique territory in the yo-yo video landscape. Lydia enthusiastically accepted the invitation and our collaboration has grown beautifully, undeniably built upon an abiding mutual respect, artist to artist.
-Coleman
