thrasher (2025), Bill Alves and Ben Alves

My family have been frequent visitors to the California Botanical Gardens and to the many mountain trails around Claremont over the past 30 years, where I have recorded many bird calls. One of my favorite local birds is the California Thrasher, which is often hiding in the brush and so only identifiable through his distinctive songs. My son Ben and I have taken a California Thrasher recording and slowed it down to appreciate its melodically intricate modulations and electronically brought out its natural harmonies—rather different from those found on the piano. The austere wilderness of this region evokes many sentiments, but to us its distinctive birdsong soundscape creates a timeless stillness amid change.

Composer Bill Alves and his family live in Claremont, where he teaches at Harvey Mudd College and directs the HMC American Gamelan. His electronic and video works have been released on the albums The Terrain of Possibilities and Celestial Dance, and his chamber music and music for gamelan on Imbal-Imbalan, Mystic Canyon, and Guitars and Gamelan. He is co-director of MicroFest, the Southern California festival of microtonal music. His son Ben Alves is a producer and composer known for electronic music under the name Shipwrecked. Now, under the name Fogcatcher, he is taking that same dark, atmospheric sound and applying it to experimental rock.

The North Mesa Gardens feature the Native Designs Cut Flower Garden, Bird & Butterfly Garden, Oak Grove, Outdoor Classroom, Council Rings "Horseshoe" bench, and Intersection II Sculpture