Discussions & Dissections of Music, discovered & undiscovered...
Transfigurations is proud to bring together four people who, through their own unique methods, are at the forefront of documenting musics, new and old, from the United States & around the world.

In addition to a panel discussion and "Q&A" moderated by Greg Lyon of Asheville FM, this afternoon event will feature short films & upcoming film trailers from 3 out of the 4 labels involved. Not to be missed!

website Eclectic independent record label named after the record store located in Portland, Oregon, Mississippi Records specializes in vinyl reissues of American roots, blues, gospel, art punk, and world music, among other recorded obscurities.

website Dust-to-Digital was started in February 1999 by Lance Ledbetter, a radio disc jockey at WRAS — the student-run voice of Georgia State University. Having been recently introduced to vintage 78 rpm records by the reissue of the Anthology of American Folk Music in 1997, Ledbetter decided to set out on a search for rare gospel recordings. Four and a half years later, Goodbye, Babylon was released. The six CD box set was accompanied by a 200 page book and hand-packed with raw cotton in a wooden box. The response from music fans around the world was astounding, and Dust-to-Digital followed up the gospel set with Where Will You Be Christmas Day? in 2004. The record company was on its way. To date, Dust-to-Digital has received five Grammy® Award nominations and has one win for Best Historical Album in 2009 for Art of Field Recording Volume I. Dust-to-Digital's mission is to produce high quality cultural artifacts, which combine rare, essential recordings with historic images and detailed texts describing the artists and their works.

website Nathan Salsburg is an archivist, producer, guitarist and writer based in Louisville, Kentucky. He has worked for the Alan Lomax Archive since 2000, for which he currently serves in the capacities of production manager, photo and video archivist, and general digital catalog editor. Since 2006 he has produced and hosted "Root Hog Or Die," a vernacular/traditional music program on East Village Radio dot com, and is curator of the Twos & Fews recording imprint, also a vernacular music entity, and a collaboration with Chicago's Drag City label. Its first album - 1982 recordings of the late miner, union activist, and singer Nimrod Workman - was released in November, 2008; its next release, music of several Marrakesh Gnawa, a Sufi order of trance healers, will be out in late September 2009. He is currently producing a tribute record to the singer/guitarist E.C. Ball, late of Rugby, Virginia, entiled "Face A Frowning World," due out in November 2009 on New York's Tompkins Square label. It features contributions from Michael Hurley, Jon Langford, Catherine Irwin, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Jolie Holland, and the Handsome Family, among others. Salsburg maintains an index of on-line vernacular music resources at his blog, roothogordie.wordpress.com, and contributes occasional music writing to the Louisville Eccentric Weekly and the Other Music weekly update. His most recent musical contribution was to the third volume of Tompkins Square's "Imaginational Anthem" guitar compilations. He is currently working on an album of his own acoustic guitar compositions and arrangements.

website SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, with an unflinching methodology that continues to inspire all involved. Hisham Mayet is a founding member of the Sublime Frequencies Collective. His work with the label has been prolific and inspired. His many discoveries include introducing the legendary guitar bands from the Sahara; Group Doueh, Group Inerane, and Group Bombino. His many films for the label have been redefining the nature of ethnographic film and they continue to provoke, amaze and inspire.