Black Canyon Flute

Christopher Thomson playing flute at on the rivers edge in the Grand Canyon.

Blacktail Canyon in the Grand Canyon—steep, quiet, beautiful acoustics.  500 million year old Tapeats sandstone sits directly atop 1.75 billion year old metamorphic gneiss (on which I stand) leaving a 1.2 billion year gap in the geologic record.  After seven days of paddling through the wonder drifting ever deeper into an altered state, I pulled my kayak onto the Blacktail Beach.  In the waning light of the evening of 9/7/97 I hiked into the familiar canyon carrying only my flute and a tiny recorder and played all night. The tapes and morning after photo recently resurfaced in an old shoebox as I prepare for a 4 day hike/recording session into that portion of the canyon.  Here is a 75 minute slice of the music that flowed through me there 18 years ago.



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