Completed September 14, 2022
Premiered June 3, 2023 at Current Space by Danielle Williams (cond.), Mind on Fire, and recorded live by Jason Charney

Supported by New Music USA’s Creator Development Fund for 2022-23
Commissioned by Mind on Fire
Winner of a 2024 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award

Original text:

Movement I - The apparition of these faces in the crowd...

worn-down, faded bench 
companion to weary travelers 
catching their breath between stations
we sat together
laughing into each other’s shoulders
as we ducked beneath neon-singed clouds 
of rush hour smoke
rolling, tumbling down
old-town alleys turned glass walkways 
noodle bars turned Apple Stores

Taoist temples turned shopping malls 
teeming 
thrumming
into the night
our hands nearly touched 
amidst the rhythms of the crowd 
as indefinite and fleeting
as the skyline around us 
my train arrives
I rise to leave
looking back through tinted plastic, I wonder 
in this city of forgetting
will you remember me?

Movement II - ...petals on a wet, black bough.

when I returned
the bench was no longer there 
they turned it into 
a Starbucks
the largest in the world 
I went in
a ghost among the rows of emptied Gravitas blends 
silhouetted against the Roastery Bar’s harshly gilded tones 
floating up the escalator past smoky mocha updrafts 
and glimmering Tom Dixon fixtures
when through a tinted mezzanine glass panel -

I see us
          past coffee-stained mugs and soft curls of wispy steam 
     together, sitting
undisturbed by the surrounding rush 
of raindrops and unfilled orders
the moment suspended
     a gentle warmth about us
unconcerned, content
as we laugh, sip, and remember -
hazily I saw their outlines rise
the pair evaporating with the last of the moisture 
into the crowd, out the doors
as a gust of smog blew in 
and filled their void

they built a bigger Starbucks in Chicago.

Large Ensemble

Nanjing West Road, for soprano, mixed ensemble, and fixed media

Genocide, June 2025:
Israel is only the executioner, every nation which has armed that country in the past year is an accessory to that genocide, an accomplice, a facilitator.  We cannot talk about war crimes because when you target unarmed civilians, mostly women and children, we are talking about a massacre, like terrorists do, not a war. The people who orchestrated that massacre, in the US, the most duplicitous, followed by those of the UK, Germany, France, and probably a few lesser ones should be tried for crimes against humanity just as well as Netanyahu and his cabinet, because it has been going on for two years, generously reported by media of all kinds, so the enablers knew exactly how the arms were to be used, as a tool for revenge, domination, and humiliation of the Palestinian people.  The conflict has ceased to be about the defense of anything for months.

The parties responsible have made a mockery of decency, morals, fairness, proportion, or justice, not to mention empathy.  Of what little there was, these concepts will be a lot longer to come back than they were to be struck down.  

Is it 1984 already?!?!
 ...

I have not been able to recover access to my other account [https://soundcloud.com/ha-kekong] for a couple of years.  I have tried a few times to get back into it but SoundCloud doesn't trust me.  Same phone number, same email addresses, and they still claim that they can't verify my identity.  I created that account about three years ago as a substitute to my regular account which SoundCloud temporarily closed.  They closed it as part of some upgrade procedure in their system, the result of a bug that affected many accounts, about two years ago.  Since SC did not inform its users I didn't know if that was permanent or not, so I created that other account which I can't access.  Don't be mad if I have not replied to your message in the past two years, that's because I never got them ; ) ... You can always reach me here though.
...

This one here (957729823) is for regular folks.

I love you, both.

...

You can't see it because of the angle with which I took the shot, aiming down, but beyond those blocks is the sea.  To the left is the Mediterranean, to the right is the Atlantic Ocean.  No it's not Gibraltar, but a little bit further West. ... Actually I checked recently and it is further North more than West, I thought I was facing South when in fact I probably was facing the Atlantic ocean, which is why I suppose the waves were of a decent size where we were.
...

My face and the bike are a courtesy of Joël Vaudreuil
[https://vimeo.com/user8897093]  ... Merci Joe!
I then went ahead and butchered his work with a borrowed helmet.
... Sorry Joe. =(
...

I'm trying to promote what I think is good music, so if you want to help out a bit I'd rather you [like] or [repost] my *playlists* rather than my field recordings, if you don't mind, unless you are a die hard fan of those things. Thank you ; )

I speak French, so if you send me a private message, and that you are a francophone, please write in French, thank you.  ... I mean, you don't absolutely have to, but I would prefer it. 

All my field recordings (except for when I record a person) are public, freely downloadable by anyone who is able to click on the button.  I encourage anyone interested to use them in any way whatsoever, on purpose or accidentally. No need for permissions or credits or any other kind  of administrative maneuvers.
...

Anarchists give me hope.

I'm a big fan of EFF.  Love ya EFF.  (no connection with the above line)
... and of course Richard Stallman and Linux and all the others.  Bless yous.

Now don't be lazy, go find out what it is this "EFF" that I'm talking about.  I'll give you a hint: it has to do with computers.

You have a nice day now.  Hugs & Kisses.

Electroacoustic composer, field recordist, naturalist, squirrel. https://elliecherrymusic.com/

Nanjing West Road, for soprano, mixed ensemble, and fixed media

Bobby Ge