John Luther Adams: A Sonic Geography of Alaska

Len Kammerling / John Luther Adams still

In 2009, I spent two months in Alaska interviewing and working with this year’s Pulitzer Prize winner for music, John Luther Adams, for my 2010 documentary “The Reach Of Resonance.”  John has been exploring the sonic geography of Alaska through birdsong, Alaska Native language and drumming, and the geophysical phenomena of the land and sky.  At the time, he was composing “Inuksuit,” a piece for nine to ninety-nine percussionists that has the audience literally hike through the piece, as musicians…