coalinga jct, 3 am

The intersection of Interstate 5 and Highway 198 (Dorris Avenue) near Coalinga, CA, was for a long time the only major rest stop on the interstate between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and is the only stop on the Greyhound bus route between here and the Bay Area. It is a quintessential piece of the American transportation infrastructure.

At this location, between 2:55 and 3:25 AM on Friday, February 17. I recorded this modern oasis of idling trucks, fast food restaurants, and fueling stations, surrounded on all sides by oil, cattle, and cotton fields (in typical American parlance, nothingness). Anything but silent, the environment shivered in absolute darkness for at least twenty miles in any direction.

Conceptually, this project is about limitations. The product is, and was intended to be, a completely aleatoric composition using the sonic environment of Coalinga. The challenge is to best embellish upon the story of this place by experimenting with the rules, but without having direct control over the events or the order in which that story is told.

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