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	The Story Behind this Recording of Postcard from Heaven and New ArpaViva Label As a precocious student of piano, harp and composition at the Belgrade Conservatory of Music and philosophy at the University of Belgrade young Victoria Jordanova got aquatinted with the work of John Cage at the American Cultural Center and Library in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. As a matter of policy at the time American cultural institutions in socialist countries focused on the most innovative, avant-garde, daring, experimental, liberating, and creative in contemporary American art to showcase freedom of expression in American society. That approach inspired somewhat different American dream than commonly known one. Young artists and intellectuals were dreaming about a cultural climate that gave birth to Abstract Expressionism, Happenings, Fluxus, Pop Art, Beat poetry, and other wonders they discovered at these libraries, rather than about the economic prosperity of the American middle class. They believed whole United States were Black Mountain College, New School of Social Research, or lower Manhattan. For adolescent Victoria Jordanova it was a faithful day. Her American dream was born, although her American iconic hero was John Cage, not John Wayne. The man who changed forever the way her beloved piano sounded. Who asked audiences to listen to silence (perfectly appropriate for a friend and chess partner of Marcel Duchamp). And finally the man who described his music as a play that “is an affirmation of life—not an attempt to bring order out of chaos, nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we are living, which is so excellent once one gets one’s mind and desires out the way and lets it act of its own accord.” (Hence his favorite Japanese Zen Buddhist saying Nichi nichi kore ko nichi -Every day is a good day.) Yes, he was a prince in that dream. Nevertheless Victoria Jordanova wanted to become a virtuoso harp player. Although, she took an opportunity to go to United States and study music at Michigan State University, she didn't look for her youthful dream there. She pursued virtuosity as a harpist on French Government fellowship at Paris Conservatory, later also at Moscow Conservatory. She studied with the best teachers in the world, her skills were getting more amazing every day, yet something was missing. She decided it's time to change her approach to music. She moved to Manhattan after she won a fellowship from NYU for graduate studies in Musicology. She was playing contemporary music with NYU Chamber Music Society, she was teaching music, she completed her masters degree, and was settling in the routine of a music teacher's life. Then, few years later in San Francisco by chance (according to Cage that’s how most excellent things in life happen) her youthful dream reappeared. She was attending an informal lecture and presentation by New Music composer Donald Swearingen at the (composer/media artist) Randall Packer’s loft, Pamela Z was there and few other future friends. Their enthusiasm for use of electronics and emerging digital technologies in music making reminded her of the time when her young imagination was set on fire by John Cage. Like if she was trying to make up for the lost time she rushed to attach pickup microphones, digital sound processing devices, digital delay, and all gamut of Rock and Roll pedals to her harp. Her imagination and creativity now fully awaken and her extraordinary musicianship and virtuosity still there her harp became alive. Whole specter of sounds never heard before was being born. Ingeniously she would use all kinds of objects to squeeze out ever more new sounds out of her instruments. She was suddenly living her dream. Unfortunately, as it often happens in life, as Victoria recaptured her dream her former country was living the nightmare, it was dying in a cruel, bloody civil war. The central Yugoslavian Federal Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina was the site of the worst horrors of war. At the same time an accident happened at the French American School in San Francisco where she was teaching. The piano movers dropped a piano. The piano fell through two flights of stairs and was laying broken in the lowest hallway of the school. Trying to see if there is any life left in the instrument Jordanova played few notes. The sounds coming out of the piano intrigued her, they were different and dark, in line with her feelings. She became obsessed with the sound and decided to record an improvisation dedicated to her beloved now dying old country. She mixed in a layer of harp improvisation and, by chance (not exactly Cagean chance, but still a chance) recorded a child’s voice singing an innocent tune during her broken piano performance. The result was published one year later by the CRI label of New York as Requiem for Bosnia and Other Works in addition to Requiem it included several solo harp pieces. Critics were raving about the CD. Jordanova was compared to Mozart, Verdi, Britten, and Eliot Carter. Tim Page of New York Newsday selected her CD as one of the 10 best classical recordings of the year. Since that time Jordanova had numerous performances in most iconic New Music venues. Her music was performed by ensembles such as Bang on the Can All Stars, California E.A.R. Unit, Zeitgeist etc. She published several CDs of her music that won acclaim of critics and audiences alike. She mastered techniques of digital recording and editing and the craft of the music producer. In the fall of 2005 Jordanova received an e-mail from Glenn Freeman, the producer for OgreOgress productions. He asked her if she would be interested in recording John Cage's Postcard from Heaven for 1 or up to 20 harps. The piece was performed only once in Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis in 1982 and was never published as a recording. She was recommended as a person uniquely qualified to accomplish this recording by herself. As she was discussing technical details of production, studying the score and experimenting with techniques recommended by Cage (like use of EBow on harp strings) she didn’t recognize the obvious signs immediately––It was Cage, it was a harp, better yet 20 harps, it was a postcard from the Prince of her youth, only seemingly coming more than 20 years late, but actually finding her right at the time when she was ready. It was destiny. Fortunately, it didn’t take too long for an intuitive person like Victoria Jordanova to realize that. Jordanova called Glenn Freeman and told him she has to do this on her terms and publish it as a first CD on her new ArpaViva label dedicated to the celebration of new life of old instruments. The new life Cage gave to piano by preparing it, or the new life Jordanova gave her harp by liberating its sound potential with new technologies. Mr. Freeman was delighted. As a true admirer of Cage’s work he didn’t care who will get the credit as long as Postcard gets recorded and published. After almost a year of work Postcard from Heaven was ready for release. Victoria Jordanova recorded all of the harp parts, her friend Pamela Z contributed performances of all the vocal parts. Jordanova edited and mixed everything by herself controlling every aspect of the production from the beginning to the end. This is the first published recording of the work. The CD 001 in the catalogue of ArpaViva Foundation Inc. This label and this CD are result of a life long dream of one Victoria Jordanova and a homage to one and only John Cage. The story would end here if something else didn’t happen. One night not too long ago I had to drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Victoria gave me the CD of just finished final mix of Postcard from Heaven and Six Solo Ragas to listen to while I drove, since I didn’t have a chance to hear it before. Once on the open road I pushed the play button. The sounds projecting unique sense of space and color filled the car. The beauty of it surpassed everything I've heard before. Certain spiritual power that sublimated mysticism of Jordanova's Eastern Orthodox heritage, John Cage’s Zen Buddhist beliefs, and Pamela Z’s spiritual background turned the car into the cathedral floating over Highway 5 through the night sky illuminated by millions of stars. I played the CD five more times before I’ve reached Los Angeles. The music was only getting more luminous, space larger, and spiritual power more overwhelming, I was in real danger of finding God that night for the first time. Now I know you are thinking I’ve got it all wrong. It’s all about aesthetics of chance. Cage determined the number of possibilities for each aspect and then used chance to select a particular possibility: the number of possibilities would be related to one or a series of numbers corresponding to the sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching, or something like that. Or it is just Cage’s tongue in cheek cultural reference to harp as an instrument––20 harps had to be heavenly. Or he was just experimenting with the possibilities of a raga as a form. And you would be right it’s all there. But, I am telling you, there is much, much more than that in this first recording of Postcard from Heaven, believe me, I know the whole story behind it. Relja Penezic San Francisco October 2006