Olive Kimoto at Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden
Beloveds! We hope to see you at the historic Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden for a limited series of intimate monthly concerts focused on collective breath, meditation, and unity. This is music as medicine, collective ritual, and an invocation for the worlds to come.
This month we’re graced with the great forest fae herself, Dianna Lopez. Perhaps you’ve seen videos online of Dianna gently fingerpicking in the back of a pickup truck enveloped by redwoods or cruising along PCH emanating the most blissful of tones? Join us among the koi, the sacred bamboo, and underneath a great western sycamore, to share breath and wonder as we inhabit her very special realm of sound together.
We’ve given this micro-series the name ‘The Paradise Garden of Endless Melodies’ as a play on two references. First, as a nod to the late IASOS and his Vibrational Environments series which included an album called The Paradise Bird of Endless Melodies comprised of synth and birdsong. Second, as a love letter to the history of Paradise Gardens, and their adjacent role in both Japanese and Persian culture as sites for utopic world building.
Bring a blanket and gather in the garden with us for an evening of spacious guitar, flute, voice, and the rekindling of something very special. We’ll have tea available for you upon arrival & offer the reminder that there are no animals allowed at the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden aside from our critter friends who nest, rest, and digest throughout the koi ponds and tree canopies.
We may still be setting up and tinkering with sounds at 5p, so pls feel free to lay and wander and enjoy the garden. Dianna will begin around 5:30p and share sounds for about an hour.
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Dianna Lopez is a bedroom-born indie artist originating from Upstate New York. Over the past two years, Lopez has released a myriad of projects and gradually grown deep roots in longform environmental guitar music.
Lopez draws from all genres, but mostly from the spirit that lead the 60s and 70s psychedelic rock era. Dianna wants to keep her sound rugged, cerebral and a source of healing.
The Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden was created by landscape designer & craftsman Kinzuchi Fujii between 1935 – 1940 for Charles and Ellamae Storrier Stearns. It is the only intact example of a major Japanese-style garden created before World War II for a residence in Southern California.
The teahouse which we gather alongside is named Niko-an, meaning Abode at Two Ponds. The original teahouse was built in Japan to Kinzuchi Fujii’s exacting specifications, then disassembled and shipped to Los Angeles for reassembly in the garden. The twelve tatami mats covering the floor signified a teahouse of great importance.
Kinzuchi Fujii’s son possessed his father’s original plans and many photographs taken during the garden’s first construction. These were an invaluable resource during the garden’s recent restoration.
Though the original teahouse burned down in 1981, it has been rebuilt. Dr. Takeo Uesugi, an accomplished landscape architect and designer, worked closely with the current owners, Jim and Connie Haddad, to restore the teahouse, faithfully adhering to Kinzuchi’s original drawings, photographs and architectural plans.
We’re very grateful to Jim, Connie, Virginia, and Heidi for welcoming Living Earth to the breathtaking Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden.