Album Notes

"The View From Ring Hog Hill" contains the two major works produced by the Curable Interns during the late 1980's. Thought lost, it was restored from tapes recovered since the release of the first self-titled CD.

SOME OF THIS MATERIAL(about 20 minutes) IS ON THE FIRST CD.

"The Beulah Variations"(17 minutes) was extracted from "Transfiguration"(32 minutes) as a shorter performance piece with a more exoteric, rather than esoteric, focus.
Also, "The Dance of the Little Ceramic Dolls/Sleeping" states themes used in the title piece, "The View From Ring Hog Hill at Sunset."(28 minutes).

Consider the first CD a "sampler," of sorts, of various live and studio efforts by the Curable Interns. "The View From Ring Hog Hill" focuses and expands upon the "alien" elements of the music, and is uncompromising in its sonic depiction of a seasonal ritual performed every Clairemas at places like Horsehead Point - deep in the heart of the Invisible South......

The Story of Saint Claire (from the insert that comes with the CD)::::::::::

Both compositions on this recording were used as liturgical music and for the staged reenactments of the story of Saint Claire that are performed every Clairemas in the communities of Saltport, Turnipville, Hogchain, and Horsehead Point.

Here are the parts of the Clairemas story that are interpreted by costumed dancers and music:

After a musical prelude sets the tone for the presentation, we visit Beulah, in the henhouse, surrounded by her beloved chickens. She positions her antennae at the top of her pointed carapace to receive a communication from her fellow cone shaped beings (CSBs) requesting her help in an important matter.

Claire is undecided about the intentions of the new creatures that have arrived via flying wheel and have begun to establish colonies on Earth. She wants to find out for herself if they are as friendly and benevolent as everyone says they are. She cautiously enters the cavernous tunnels in which the CSBs and other beings reside. Claire is armed with an ancient weapon called a "shotgun" to destroy them if she determines if they are evil. She also has a magic bell that will call them from the depths of the cave.

She rings the magic bell several times to summon the creatures, and forms begin to take shape in the shadows of the cave and dance gracefully around her.

The Shadow People present Claire with beautiful relics from great civilizations that existed long ago on Earth. She is emotionally overwhelmed.

Claire gives the magic bell to the Shadow People, telling them of its great power for good. She also gives them the "shotgun," telling them to destroy it immediately.

Claire makes the forbidden request. She asks the Shadow People to assist in her transfiguration.

Claire is led into a ceremonial chamber. CSBs emerge from the kiva. They perform a ritual to open a portal into the Invisible World. One of the CSBs approaches Claire and tells her a secret that she is not to reveal until she returns to Earth to herald the beginning of a new age.

To great noise and excitement, Beulah arrives. Beulah performs the procedure of transfiguration on Claire while the Shadow people and the other CSBs dance ecstatically. The trickster makes a brief, but significant, appearance.

The operation is a success, and Beulah returns to the henhouse while Claire, now Saint Claire, begins her ascension to the City of the Elder Gods, stopping first on the top of Ring Hog Hill, where the sun is setting. While surveying the horizon and the lights of the settlements beginning to flicker on as darkness approaches, she symbolically casts a magic circle of protection around the Earth.

Saint Claire ascends to the City of the Elder Gods, which is illuminated in Her honor.

Story recorded by Kenneth Johnston for the "View From Ring Hog Hill" CD and the Curable Interns website. Copyright and Published 2004. All rights reserved.