Hommage à B.B.

“soft gradient” is dedicated to Annea Lockwood in gratitude for her friendship and her music. Annea’s gift of a kempul gong recurs quietly in this piece.

Best heard on headphones, soft gradient reflects on the concept of the petit Bardo through multiple, often parallel presences - first through human movement in the soundscape and then by overlapping vestibules of abstract and concrete sound. What might be described as liminal polyphony is demarcated (or decentered) through passageways that are short (such vintage light switches and their tinkling bulbs recorded in France) or ever-elongating inharmonic clouds.

Begun in 2023 and completed in 2024, soft gradient also marks a personal rebirth—an ongoing passage to good health after COVID-19. Based on responses I continue to receive after this music was released in July 2024, soft gradient also offers a pathway for rest and rejuvenation, which is essential to survive and transform our troubling times.

soft gradient

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soft gradient (complete)

https://thump.vice.com/en_us/track/lorna-dunes-covalent-bond-is-a-love-song-from-a-science-geek-who-happens-to-write-dance-music

Lorna Dune - Covalent Bond

Recorded by WNYC's New Sounds Live at SONiC Festival 2015. Mechanical instruments by Nick Yulman. http://www.wnyc.org/story/new-sounds-live-concerts-2015-part-1/

Me he perdido (performed by the American Composers Orchestra)

Composition for solo alto saxophone and pre-recorded audio. All parts performed and recorded by Jonathan Nichol.

Smoke

#@&%!* (expletive deleted) for Percussion Quartet was premiered in Ann Arbor, Michigan in December 2000. This dynamic piece exhibits a heightened state of frenetic energy through explosive outbursts and a bubbling undercurrent of churning rhythmic figures. It explores disparate musical influences like popular and world music, while highlighting the flexibility and virtuosity of the percussion ensemble. The title reflects the demanding physicality of the individual parts and the tricky ensemble work. In fact, I was once told the expletive should have been inserted!

Many thanks to Evan Chambers, Kristin Kuster, Roland Vazquez, Miller Asbill, Jay Bordeleau, Carrie Magin, Jason Markzon, and André Dowell for their artistic support.

Perusal score: https://issuu.com/alreinke/docs/11-0511-pq-score

Purchase Score & Parts

#@&%!* (expletive deleted) for Percussion Quartet (2000)

Music for the Third Place is an aleatoric work for violin and electronics comprising pre-composed fragments, found sounds, field recordings, synthesizers, and live audio processing systems. The shape of the work is governed by a set of rules in the style of competitive board games and the players' choices in accordance with those rules. Aside from the content of the violin fragments, found sounds, and field recordings, nothing is pre-determined.

This is a recording of the world premiere performance (first of two readings) at the Third Place Gallery in Minneapolis, for which the site-specific work was composed. In addition to the violin fragments and electronic components, a variety of bells - collected from antique shops in St. Paul, Stillwater, and elsewhere - were distributed among the audience: listeners were invited to ring bells whenever they heard something they liked or did not like, thus contributing to the overall soundscape of the performance.

Karen Kim, violin; Patrick Castillo, electronics
September 15, 2012, The Third Place Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

(c) 2012 Patrick Castillo

Music for the Third Place

Cello and Fixed Electronics
Joshua Roman, cello

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/bloom/

Bloom - cello and fixed electronics

A piece for bagpipe and electronics inspired by the shofar service in Jewish High Holidays.

Tekiah

Composer & Sound Artist
Find out more at https://alexandragardner.net/

Bloom - cello and fixed electronics

Alexandra Gardner

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