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Cotxes
alto sax, vibes, harp, piano, & video projection Noah Getz (sax), Nobue Matsuoka (vibes), Jacqueline Pollauf (harp), Jeffrey Chappell (piano). Video by Patricio Benadon, with Lolo & Susaku and Ezequiel Bloise. Recorded and mixed by Rogério Naressi at American University. Premiered at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (2013). |
Cotxes takes us on a casual drive around Barcelona during an uneventful Spring afternoon. Cars (Catalan: cotxes) come and go with unknown purpose while concrete formations, anonymous city dwellers, assorted flora, and various urban peculiarities fill the windshield’s shifting landscape. Through these images, the passage of time is shaped and reshaped.
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Rhythmensional
bass clarinet, viola, vibes, piano, & pre-recorded drums solo by Dafnis Prieto Dafnis Prieto (drums), Rane Moore (bass clarinet), Jacqueline Dorr (viola), Nobue Matsuoka (vibes), Jeffrey Chappell (piano). Drums recorded at Systems Two Studios, Brooklyn. Ensemble recorded at American University. Mix by Rogério Naressi. Video by Kevin Eikenberg. |
Rhythmensional showcases Dafnis Prieto, who recorded an extended solo specifically for this project. Four live players (who follow a score) perform alongside the improvised solo. At the outset, Dafnis's playing sparks new ideas that spread through the ensemble. This is followed by an interplay of shared gestures and evolving themes. Put more evocatively: as Dafnis begins to play, he releases from his drums a musical 'force' (sounded by the ensemble) that is at first unsure of its role and soon gains a creative life of its own,
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delight/delirium
flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, piano Stephanie Ray (flute/piccolo), Gleb Kanasevich (clarinet/bass clarinet), John Wilson (piano). Recorded and mixed by Rogério Naressi at American University. |
delight/delirium is a musical portrait of the comic book character Delirium, youngest of the seven Endless siblings in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. Known first as Delight, Delirium's unpredictable states of mind and emotion are tinged with a psychedelic sense of naiveté and incongruity.
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Cosmicomics
large ensemble llinois Modern Ensemble, conducted by Stephen Andrew Taylor. Images by Yana Sakellion. Recorded at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Mixed by Rogério Naressi at American University. |
Cosmicomics recounts two stories from Italo Calvino’s book by the same name. The protagonist is Qfwfq: humanly commonplace in his thoughts and emotions, yet seemingly ageless and often formless.
I. Without Colors (0:00 - 5:40)
Early in the life of our solar system, Earth is pure grey. A passing meteoroid creates a temporary atmosphere and floods the world with colors. This scares Qfwfq’s lover Ayl, who escapes to the underworld. Qfwfq lures her back to the surface, but—mirroring the Orpheus myth—the return journey ends in disaster: a tremor sends them in opposite directions and separates them forever.
II. The Stone Sky (5:45 - 10:06)
Qfwfq and Rdix live inside Earth. Qfwfq dreams of reaching the planet’s core, but his beloved Rdix has other plans. One day, a mysterious being snatches Rdix away and onto the surface. (Or does she go willingly?) A volcanic eruption takes Qfwfq on a mission to rescue Rdix. Upon glimpsing her with her new lover (whom we learn to be Orpheus), Qfwfq returns alone to the underworld.
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Intuitivo
septet Courtney Orlando (violin), Evan Price (violin), Kurt Rohde (viola), Marco Mazzini (clarinets), Michael Formanek (bass), Christopher Froh (percussion), Nasar Abadey (drums). Engineered by Corey Novick, BIAS Studios, VA (Orlando, Formanek, Abadey); Michael Zbyszynski, CNMAT, CA (Price, Rohde, Froh); Osama Abdulrasol, Enkido Studios, Gent (Mazzini). Mastered by John Fishell. |
Intuitivo is a collage of free improvisations. My goal was to shape the players' raw individual ideas into a spontaneously 'coherent' whole, all the while preserving and highlighting their unique subtleties of time and timbre. First I recorded the musicians improvising freely and separately. Then I trimmed and juxtaposed the improvisations to create an imaginary synchronized performance. To achieve a natural sound, I used only basic edits: no pitch-shifting, overdubbing, or time-stretching!
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Song 72
alto sax & piano Noah Getz (sax), Jeffrey Chappell (piano). Featured on Noah Getz's CD "Croscurrents" (Albany Records). Premiered at the Phillips Collection, Washington DC (2008). Link to the score. |
Song 72 plays with time by weaving the two players’ rhythms and tempos in and out of each other. Holding everything in place is an underlying pulse of 72 bpm—sometimes explicit and metronome-like but often concealed, like an invisible gravitational pull.
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Five Miniatures
bass clarinet, baritone sax, & left-hand piano Thelema Trio: Marco Mazzini (bass cl.), Peter Verdonck (bari sax), Ward De Vleeschhouwer (piano). Featured on Thelema Trio's CD "Neither From Nor Towards" (innova). |
#1 [0:00] Oriondo stumbles into a dusty tavern and spots a small table in a corner where Fulgencia sips from a golden flask. He trips a few times before landing at her side. #2 [0:31] Fulgencia offers Oriondo her flask, which he refuses. She voices her displeasure with ultramodern mediocrity. #3 [1:21] Oriondo tries to explain something very important, gesticulating passionately between burps and curses. She does not understand him. #4 [2:44] “The problem,” laments Fulgencia, “is our espousal of inane fabulists whose sapid sermonettes inure the bereft. Incidentally, you are most inurbane.” #5 [4:09] Credits roll.
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Búgi Wúgi
piano solo Ivan Ilic (piano). Recorded at American University. Performances at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall, The Phillips Collection (DC), Killian Hall at MIT, Dublin National Concert Hall, and elsewhere. |
Búgi Wúgi emulates the rhythmic escapades of early jazz masters such as Bubber Miley and Earl Hines. While the left hand keeps time with steady accompaniment patterns, the right hand weaves in and out of time. This unfolding game of rhythmic consonance and dissonance requires that the pianist synchronize the right hand’s changing tempos with the left hand’s beat, all the while imbuing the melodies with lyricism, the accompaniment with a sense groove, and the overall piece with an illusion of effortless improvisation.
