WORKS:
White Space/Modular Suite (2022)
[Suite work for modular synthesizer systems. 3 movements, total duration: 8’; electronics: Moog Modular System 55, Buchla 200e System]
This work is primarily inspired by technologies and compositional approaches prevalent for composers in the 50’s-60’s working inside the field of studio composition & electronic music, with hardware like modular systems and tape machines; taking cues specifically the work of Pauline Oliveros and her meditative pieces stemming from her Deep Listening philosophy.
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Mvmt. I offers a view into a soundscape and ponders questions about the relationships between nature and technology, so outwardly present in our modern world. Additionally relationships of a performer with their instrument and the ways humanity interfaces with technology, envisioning a space somewhere in between natural and artificial.
Mvmt. II differs from the previous movement as it diverges from concepts found in II & III. It is purely an exploration of the technology and sonority of the Buchla 200e system.
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Mvmt. III is inspired by the architecture and sonic qualities of an already existing space: the Dan Harpole Cistern at Fort Worden Historical State Park. Tapping into the historical significance of the location that once held 2 million gallons of water as a utilitarian space and in context of the work of composer Oliveros, as well as the unique acoustic, spatial and architectural character of the site. While all the sound generation is handled by the analog modular system, this movement also takes advantage of current digital audio processing technology to simulate the long reverberation time found inside the cistern space.
MOVEMENTS (2022)
[Audio-visual suite, video and 10.1 multichannel sound installation. 4 movements, total duration: 7’]
(This video contains binaural audio that simulates the 10.1 setup in your headphones. Please wear headphones for the best experience)
“Movements” artistically explores several aspects relating to public transportation including “humanity as a flood” during commutes with a large number of people, psychological effects of isolation and re-location, historic disasters, and person-location or person-architecture relationships. The work was conceived first as an electroacoustic concert piece and later on expanded to explore capabilities of multichannel audio spatialization using Max/Msp and motion graphics generated in Touchdesigner, Max and After Effects as well as original video footage.
Music for Spaces (2021)
[For tape machines and other optional electronics, total duration: indeterminate]
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Inspired by Brian Eno’s workflow in “Music for Airports” as well as Eno’s and Harold Budd’s “The Pearl”, the piece is meant to explore the workflow of making tape loops. Sources for said loops include a set of tones from a Eurorack system as well as electric & acoustic pianos. These are all processed through various delays and reverb units such as the Eventide H300 and Eclipse.
Music for Spaces is a work consisting of 7 tape loops that all have different intervals of repetition relative to each other as well as a track of processed field recording which includes the percussive footsteps and sounds of conversation. Aside from the auditory component of the piece, the tape players (ideally reel-to reel, but cassettes are a good substitute when not available) can be arranged inside a performance or gallery space for an added dimension to the work, letting the tape machines inhabit the space and “perform” their musical part alongside the individuals who are in it; when this is the case and an audience roams around the tape machines/the space, the field recording track can be substituted by a processed live audio feed of the room sound.
Assay (A study for FM synthesizers) (2021)
[For electronics, total duration: 2’]
Assay is a short piece of computer music composed using Max/MSP patches and based on concepts as envisioned by FM synthesis pioneer and John Chowning at Stanford University in the 1960’s.
The piece is born from the exploration of the sound world present in Chowning’s work, forms derived from narrative works and a fascination with the science-and-research-driven beginnings of electronic music.
There are three distinct sections in the work and associated sounds and themes for each, striving for a sense of consistency and slow flow. During the opening we are greeted by sounds not only reminiscent of Chowning’s work but also Hugh Le Caine’s followed by some classic clangourous FM sounds before slowly returning to thematic material present in the introduction, now developed further.
Noise & Fixed Filterbank Study (2021)
[For fixed & performed electronics, total duration: 2’]
This is a short study composed for Noise and Moog 914 Fixed Filter Bank, which has 12 band pass filters and 2 shelf filters (e.g. low pass and high pass), and fixed (recorded) electronics.
The study is an exploration of the pitched aspects of Noise and its musical capabilities as well as an exercise in composing with strict limitations and material that in traditional compositional contexts is deemed non-usable, and in cuqrrent electronic music does not take a central role, and try to bring it more to the forefront using a spring reverb unit to particularly highlight the present resonances.
Machines are Friends (2021)
[Generative data sonification work, with optional conceptual installation component. Total duration: indeterminate]
“Machines Are Friends” is a generative, data sonification work executed using Max/MSP in real time (with the patch having the capability to randomize the order in which the data is read, making each iteration of the piece then somewhat unique) and based on a 2019 ACHA data set relating to college students’ mental health and suicide statistics.
This particular dataset poses the student questions regarding their relationships with others and themselves with the aim of obtaining a somewhat comprehensive look at the mental state of the student population, with the goal of the piece being to allow a moment of reflection on our own mental health, how there is some sense of bonding trough communal suffering and the various ways we can help each other, or at least try to.
The work can run independently and explore the seemingly eternal nature of human suffering with an additional installation component, consisting of the computer where the piece runs on -ideally a laptop- arranged on display as a sculptural object (beyond the traditional understanding of a computer) where the inner workings and “life systems” of the work are on view; the piece can run indefinitely when the computer is plugged into a steady energy supply or otherwise until the device runs out of power while running on batteries, malfunctions or otherwise stops running for any other reason, i.e: dies. Otherwise, a performance version of the piece can be executed, which would permit a human performer to react to the data driven sounds and “conversationally” adjust audio processing effects and “conduct” the various musical parts being played by the computer using faders, in a human-machine duet.