In September 2015, Fogged Clarity flew 15 musicians and poets to an island in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to film a series of short performance films. The aim of the series, The Les Cheneaux Sessions, was to celebrate being, creativity, and collaboration amidst a secluded landscape of sun-stitched cedars, turquoise bays, and open skies inked with cormorants. The weekend that ensued was sublime and synchronous—four days of trumpets, pump organs, and poetry performed in light that swelled like the skin of a champagne bubble; four days of smoked whitefish, Modelos on ice, and fellowship with the most honest and real human beings one could hope to encounter. If only for four days, we realized some kind of heaven up there, a world rich as dream. But we’ll let this first session (below) begin to tell the story. It features Chris Bathgate, backed by strings and brass, playing a pump organ on a grass tennis court on the shores of Lake Huron.
Each week, for the next 15 weeks, Fogged Clarity will be debuting a new session from last year’s filming.