Noise #46 for Solo Piano

When climate change stops the music

Dear Friends,

Today, Wednesday, July 20, 2022, Rolling Stone featured the article: Pearl Jam Cancels Vienna Concert After Eddie Vedder’s Throat ‘Damaged’ From Europe’s Heat Wave.

What a weird, sad headline. And what a mess of dark inspiration to dig into while improvising Noise #46.

Pearl Jam is my favorite band. I grew up on Vs. and Vitology, interviewed Boom Gaspar for Keyboard magazine, and recorded my own covers of Go and Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town. Vedder will always be one of my musical heroes. I hope he returns to full voice and health very soon.

More troubling than a sickened idol, though, is the chain of events that hurt him. “Scientists have blamed climate change for the extreme heat wave now settling over Europe, which in turn has sparked wildfires in France (where one is twice the size of Paris) and Spain,” the Rolling Stone article says. The band’s official statement blames Vedder’s condition on dust and smoke from those fires.

His illness is one more piece of bizarre collateral damage from unchecked climate change. One more bit of evidence that human-caused environmental damage can touch anything—and even silence the music we love.

Noise #46 is a get-well card to both Vedder and the planet he and I and you share. It’s also a siphoning of rage that articles and improvs like this must exist in the first place.

Many thanks for reading, listening, and sharing the noise,

Michael Gallant

(Noise #46 by Michael Gallant. Improvised and recorded on July 20, 2022, in New York City. Copyright 2022 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)