Premiered by Sound Icon on February 18th, 2018 at the Boston University Concert Hall.

PROGRAM NOTES:
time is the precipice of a thing becoming itself is based on the exploration of formlessness as form, a piece of music where the drifting, seemingly aimless instrumental lines create a complex texture that becomes more than the sum of its parts. Instead of relying on a clearly delineated form based on goal-oriented structures, this work gradually transforms its elements without ever feeling the need to go anywhere other than where it already is. In this sense, the music is in a constant state of becoming itself, a goal that it can never really achieve.

“Paradise was unendurable, otherwise the first man would have adapted to it, this world is no less so, since here we regret paradise or anticipate another one. What to do? where to go? Do nothing and go nowhere, easy enough.”
                        - Emil M. Cioran

time is the precipice of a thing becoming itself

Benjamin J. Penwell writes music and lives in Chicago. He is a PhD candidate in Composition & Music Technology at Northwestern University, and holds degrees from Boston University (M.Mus, Composition & Music Theory) and University of Oregon (B.Mus, Composition).  //  His music explores texture & timbre, drone & sustain, quiet & silence, noise & consonance, beating & acoustic phenomena, and tuning & microtonality. He likes fermatas.  //  He is interested in extreme metal, ambient and drone music, harsh noise, and early music.  //  He likes guitar pedals & digital sound processing, distortion & power chords, reverb & delay, synthesis & sound design, and recording & audio editing.

time is the precipice of a thing becoming itself

benjamin j. penwell