Rangely, Colorado may be a small town, but it has some big adventures waiting for visitors, including The TANK Center for Sonic Arts and the Rangely Automotive Museum. These must-sees, like nothing you have experienced before, will bring out an appreciation for art, history, and creativity.

Presented by:

The TANK

The TANK Center for Sonic Arts is many things to many people. It is:

• A transformative audio laboratory for musicians, sound artists, educators, and residents of Rangely.
• A fully equipped recording venue, concert site, and 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization.
• A haven for the local music community, a destination for artists, sonic explorers, and curious visitors.

The unusual arts venue was an empty multi-story water tower before its extraordinary acoustic resonance was discovered. Any sonic wave will reverberate profoundly, producing an otherworldly sound. While the exact reason for the heavenly sounds inside The TANK are unknown, likely contributors include the structure’s cone-shaped roof, bowed-in-the-middle floor, metal walls that trap sound, and placement on a bed of gravel.

“In the Tank, visitors often find themselves singing in a chorus, sometimes for the first time in their lives. They come in, and one of them will start to hum, just to check the resonance. Another will join in, and another, and suddenly all of them are a heavenly choir, making a sound that often brings them to tears,” said James Paul, executive director of The TANK. “There’s something profound about such deep resonance, the shock that the sound you make — the person you are — can be so uplifted, enlarged and returned to you, transformed.”

Anything that makes noise can be part of an artwork

Sonic arts, also known as sound art, involves understanding, interpreting, performing, and questioning the nature and mechanics of sound. What differentiates a sound from music and music from noise? Music, singing, drumming, shouts, and yells are all part of music-making at The TANK.

The TANK’s recording program coaches local musicians, sonic artists, and everyday people in making their own music. But those on-site are not the only ones able to take advantage of its heavenly sound. The fact is you do not even need to be at The TANK to record at The TANK! Remote recording began during COVID-19 and has continued, with the incredible capacity for virtually anyone from virtually anywhere able to play, record, and listen in The TANK. Recordings have been made with artists nationally and internationally, as they played in a studio, hearing the sounds they made resonant in The TANK through headphones, made possible via a Zoom link and Sonobus, a peer-to-peer streaming app. A musician in Berlin, harpist in Los Angeles and a string quartet in Brooklyn, N.Y. were among those who took advantage of this extraordinary capability.

The string quartet, led by cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, played a very slow version of the fugue movement from Beethoven’s string quartet Opus 131, putting the record out on its new Round Sound label in the spring of 2023. The record came out in digital and vinyl, climbing to Number 14 on Billboard Magazine’s Classical Crossover chart. The strange and beautiful sound is available to hear — and purchase — on www.tanksounds.org.

Another remote recording, from Germany, featured Stefan Paul Goetsch, known as Hainbach, who has hundreds of thousands of online followers. He is an experimental electronic music composer and video creator based in Berlin.

An Open Saturday program is popular with Rangely residents, who come together to sing at The TANK. Also, free concerts by visiting artists in the local assisted living center, town park, local schools, and elsewhere in town unite a diverse population.

Far-reaching popularity

Educational institutions like Stanford University and the University of Colorado Boulder have visited The TANK recently. Graduate students from Stanford, home to the oldest computer music center, made 10 different recordings while in Rangely, in support of their studies of composing and research using computer-based technology. They were accompanied by Brazilian soprano Manuela Freuya. Gracie Fagan, Joel Ferst, and Phy Le, graduate students from UC Boulder, were The TANK’s artists in residence who gave a free concert in The TANK and performed in Bernardo Solis’s music classes at Rangely High School.

The 2024 Season

Each year, events get bigger and better at The TANK! The Eighth Annual Solstice Festival in June welcomed composer/avant-garde percussionist/sound artist Tatsuya Nakatani, as well as the largest number of attendees to date, including in-state visitors from Denver, Grand Junction and Steamboat Springs, national travelers from Phoenix, Philadelphia, Michigan and New York, and an international contingent, too! Nakatani’s music is distinctive, centering around an adapted bowed gong, supported by an array of drums, cymbals, and singing bowls. His contemporary works are infused with traditional Japanese music’s dramatic pacing, formal elegance, and space.

Brass player Matthew Landford is scheduled to perform in July, bringing water back to The TANK as he fills a 500-gallon circular cattle trough to create a work for water sounds and accompaniment.

In August, two-time Grammy winners, Roomfull of Teeth, an acclaimed a capella vocal ensembe, returns to The TANK to participate in Rangely’s SeptemberFest, an annual event that takes place over the Labor Day weekend. They will record a new album while they are in town: “The Planets,” by composer Alev Lens.

Rangely Automotive Museum

Car collecting: a hobby and a thriving culture

Did know that if you own three or more cars, they can be considered a collection (also known as a fleet)?

Cars are one of the most popular and visible collecting hobbies. The pastime is popular among those who love cars, obviously, but also engineering, design, art, and history. Car collectors are a proud group who generally share a love of tinkering and a competitive spirit.

The roots of car collecting began in the 20th century when automobiles were a novelty. It was in the mid 20th century, however, when collecting cars for historical and aesthetic value started to take shape. A car that is 25 years of age or older is considered a collectible.

The owner of the Rangely Automotive Museum, collector and longtime Rangely resident Bud Striegel, has curated a collection that includes an impressive array of classic cars, each with its own story, as well as motorcycles. There are an average of 35 cars on the show floor at any given time, on rotation throughout the year, diverse in character – some are in original condition; others have been lovingly restored – and age.

Among the prized possessions:

• An exceedingly rare Pierce motorcycle, that was in production a mere three years (1909-1912); it is one of about a dozen in existence.
• A 1907 Indian motorcycle without a clutch or brake used for racing.
• A chauffeur-driven McFarlan once owned by Waner Bros. Studios.
• One of the first electric cars, circa 1927.

“Most everyone has a lot of stress in their lives, but once you get inside the Rangely Automotive Museum, all of that goes out the window,” said Lisa Piering, Rangely Town Manager. “Rangely Automotive Museum is worth your time!”

Fostering a sense of community

The cars in the automotive museum are part of all the Rangely parades; they create a shared experience for attendees that satisfies the curiosity and the interest of residents and visitors, alike.

The collection at the Rangely Automotive Museum can be viewed on your own or you can take a tour. Either way, you will find it to be “a little treasure” that is “a must do,” as described in online reviews. The staff are friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable.

Summer hours are Wednesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Rangely’s motto: “Way outside the ordinary” is well-earned

Both The TANK and the Rangely Automotive Museum offer uncommon experiences that you will cherish.

Visit www.tanksounds.org for more information and follow The TANK on Instagram @tanksounds.

Learn more about the Rangely Automotive Museum at www.rangelyautomuseum.info/.