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MUSIC: Luke Temple’s music video for “Maryanne Was Quiet” was shot around Point Reyes. In creating the video, directed by Sam Kuhn, Mr. Temple said he was inspired by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s use of landscapes.   Sam Kuhn

The Gospel Flat Farmstand in Bolinas stood illuminated by the largest supermoon since the late 1940s on Monday night, while a cacophony of cymbal crashes and disorganized guitar, bass and keyboard notes rumbled out to the road. It was the debut of a monthly series called Good Fortune, an event billed as “music-movement-mixed media” that translated into an evening of impromptu creation. 

Eight musicians on drums, guitar, bass and keys situated themselves in a circle and followed hand-gestured directions that dealt evolving commands (louder, silence, all-out insanity) as each musician played only a single note—any note of their choosing and not necessarily in agreement with the others. 

Out of this arose a misfit melody that covered the scale and began to make harmony out of the noise. Listeners considered the difference between randomized commotion and structured song, order and chaos. 

The conductor of this spontaneous orchestration was musician and songwriter Luke Temple who, in the last six months, relocated to West Marin from upstate New York. He said here, musicians like him don’t have a regular place to get together and play. “In some ways I’m hoping this becomes a catharsis every month. People can get together and just freak out,” he said.

Partially drawing from Brian Eno’s “oblique strategies,” in which the avant-garde musician collaborated with a visual artist to craft printed cards that featured restraints (such as “work at a different speed”) intended to encourage lateral thinking, Mr. Temple’s new series convenes local creators to “open up the possibilities of harmony.” He encourages anyone to participate in any medium: poetry, movement, visual projections and, of course, music. 

He said in the future, if the night becomes more popular, he will apply further constraints. “I think limitations can create possibility. When everyone is talking, you can’t hear the narrative. When you limit the options, people feel more comfortable and are not worried about impressing each other,” he said.

To help illustrate his point, he referenced Maureen Tucker, drummer for The Velvet Underground, whose basic drumming patterns and elementary musicianship provided immense inspiration. “Her simplicity informed the sound,” he said. 

Mr. Temple has been tinkering with the idea of the series for the past few years, and hosted an early rendition of the project three years ago in Brooklyn. Mr. Temple lived for over decade in New York City, where he achieved success with his indie rock band Here We Go Magic before moving upstate two years ago.

Although he lived in Mendocino County during his late teenage years and would pass through West Marin on Highway 1, it wasn’t until a San Francisco band called Farallons reached out and asked if he could help produce their upcoming album that Mr. Temple discovered Bolinas, two summers ago.

But his reason for moving to West Marin was rooted in something larger than the glorious open spaces. “I moved out here because I fell in love,” he said, referring to his partner, dancer Asia Wong, with whom he now lives in Point Reyes Station.

Earlier this month, Mr. Temple released his latest solo album: “A Hand Through the Cellar Door.” It’s a collection of eight tranquil, acoustic-steeped songs that rivals Sun Kil Moon’s 2014 acclaimed album “Benji” for its ability to conjure images of ghostly campfire narratives through the vibrations of nylon-stringed guitar plucking. 

Two of the album’s highlights, “Maryanne Was Quiet” and “The Case of Louis Warren,” feature detailed lyrics inspired by two people in Mr. Temple’s life: a relative suffering from an internal dilemma and a classmate foe-turned-friend. It was the first time he worked with autobiographical songwriting, and he said it was something he heard from a master songwriter that inspired the shift into more lyrical writing. 

“Steve Earle said to write what you know. I’ve always been more interested in the non-verbal elements of music and the lyrics came last. This time I took the emphasis off that and created ‘laterally,’” he said, calling to mind to another of Mr. Eno’s concepts. “It took the pressure off and I wrote songs quicker. If you reflect on life, any life, there’s plenty to write about.”

 

The Good Fortune series starts at 8 p.m. on the second Monday of the month at the Gospel Flat Farmstand, in Bolinas.