Dye My Hair

Angular, for acoustic piano solo (2021) 
[Demo] 
This piece reflects Industrial 4.0 and the Future/Current Machine World. It explores the texture of repetitive patterns, questioning and symbolizing the robotic movements.

Angular | Piano Video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/-Syb0xKbZEk

Buy Track - ALL Funds contributed to this demo will go directly to the fundraiser for New Arts Collaboration, a non-profit project for presenting and advocating new and experimental piano works with extended technique and multimedia. 

New Arts Collaboration is a fiscally-sponsored affiliate of InterMusic SF, based in California. InterMusic SF’s mission is to support the professional and artistic growth of San Francisco Bay Area musicians. Your contribution will be passed on to NAC via InterMusic SF, to support artist honorarium, administration, technique and engineering cost, and project development. 

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mixing/cover art: Ting Luo
photo credit: Clover

Angular

Augular

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Live improvisation on Jan. 6, 2021 @ Ircam, Salle Stravinsky

Yi Zhou 周易, cello
Jon Yu, electronics

Improvisation with Yi Zhou 周易 (Jan. 6, 2021) for cello and electronics

Hoson zês, phainou, mêden holôs su lupou;
pros oligon esti to zên, to telos ho chronos apaitei.

[For as long as you live, be happy and do not be distressed in any way.  
Life exists for a short while, and Time demands its due.]

Ancient Greek text from the Epitaph of Seikilos, ca. 1st century C.E.
English translation by Randall McNeil


Seikilos

Flags On The Moon

Situation I / Incidents( 2016)
Written for Vertixe Sonara (Tenor Sax, Acc, Pn, Perc, Vc, Db) 
**
Premiere: November 19th. 2016
Luz-Non-Luz no Festival Vertixe Sonora
******
Some words about the piece:
Situations are series of pieces with a set of circumstances in which one finds oneself.
In Situation I / Incidents, I am carefully observing, perceiving and later on identifying different incidents and their qualities. and also how they reflect each situation around them with their Echoes and resonances.

In our daily life, we face incidents all the time. sometimes they are distinct piece of action or episode. They could also be an occurrence of seemingly minor importance, especially factions between which relations are strained and sensitive. Since every action has a reaction, there would be footprints of resonances and echoes after each incident.

Situation I /  Incidents (2016)

text by Nina Dante
performed by Fonema Consort

Bodyscape

Intertwined Distances (2018)
Solo Harpsichord and Electronics (quadrophonic)

commissioned by and written for Mahan Esfahani
Premiere: March 2018, Madrid, Fundación Juan March
http://www.march.es/musica/detalle.aspx?p5=100310
Recording: Live radio broadcast 

----------------------------------

Some words about the piece: 

Distance, Movement, Silence, Perception, Paradox, Continuity...

According to Merriam-Webster, distance is a separation in time, an extent of advance from a beginning; and in mathematics it refers to the degree or amount of separation between two points, lines, surfaces, or objects.

In this piece I am exploring the qualities of various dimensions of ‘distances’.
The piece opens perceptual spaces and plays with the listener’s perceptions. It is an observation of how the sound moves and travels within the concert hall, of the distances between the performer on stage and the audience, and of the relationships of both with the quadraphonic speakers. On another level, it explores the phenomena of distance in time (the centuries- old harpsichord being placed in a modern environment) and distance between people (geographically, emotionally, etc). Our daily life is made of these intertwined distances, which are constantly in movement and change.

On a personal level, the electronic component comes out of a close collaboration, between Mahan Esfahani and the composer.

The sounds are solely harpsichord sounds, specially recorded for this piece. In association with various filters and processes, the material developed further and gained other colours and qualities.
The piece is an observation of these constant movements of sound and various perceptions of distances – and of ultimately how all these unite and convolute by twining with each other.

Intertwined Distances (2018)

Siroko Duo performing La Musique by Brett Austin Eastman on February 2, 2018 at Center For New Music, presented by Hot Air Music Festival.

Jessie Nucho - alto flute
Victoria Hauk - flute

https://sirokoduo.com/

LA MUSIQUE is a work written for flute and alto flute. The title is taken directly from the poem of the same name by Charles Baudelaire. The piece was composed using three compositional ideas. The primary
compositional idea is a musical transcription of the poem using a comprehensive cryptogram developed for the piece. In this cryptogrammic technique designed to transcribe French text into melodic phrases, each letter in the alphabet corresponds to a specific musical pitch and duration, and quite often is accompanied by a fricative textural sound to mimic the pronunciation of the letter - aspirated articulation. The second compositional technique used in the piece involves a melodic rendition of recordings of myself reading the text out loud. Lastly, a lyrical theme serves as a link between the first and second ideas.

The compositional techniques complement each other like a mosaic pattern, modeled after the parallelism of the poem’s verses. The form of the poem influences the form of the piece. Textures and timbres in the flute writing are informed by the music of the spoken language.

LA MUSIQUE was written for Siroko Duo. 

LA MUSIQUE
La musique souvent me prend comme une mer!
Vers ma pâle étoile,
Sous un plafond de brume ou dans un vaste éther,
Je mets à la voile;
La poitrine en avant et les poumons gonfés
Comme de la toile
J'escalade le dos des fots amoncelés
Que la nuit me voile;
Je sens vibrer en moi toutes les passions
D'un vaisseau qui souffre;
Le bon vent, la tempête et ses convulsions
Sur l'immense gouffre
Me bercent. D'autres fois, calme plat, grand miroir
 De mon désespoir!

 MUSIC
Music often moves me like vast waters!
 Toward my obscure star,
Under a fog’s roof or in a boundless ether,
 Sail set for the afar ;
Chest out and lungs full of air
 Spread out like a tarp,
I skate the backs of mounding waves
 That the night warps;
I feel vibrating in me all of the passions
 Of a writhing ship;
The strong wind, the storm and its tractions
 On this immensely wide split
I lull. Other times, still as glass, great mirror
 Of my hopelessness! 

Translation: Brett Austin Eastman

La Musique - for flute and alto flute *live at Center for New Music Feb 2, 2018

Premiered by AsianArt Ensemble on August 11th, 2019 at Villa Elisabeth, Berlin.

Wu Wei, sheng
Hong Yoo, daegeum
Matthias Leupold, violin
Chang-Yun Yoo, viola
Gabriella Strümpel, cello
Matthias Bauer, contrabass
Adam Weisman, percussion
Il-Ryun Chung, conductor

[pictured: Paulo Nozolino]

La Musique - for flute and alto flute *live at Center for New Music Feb 2, 2018

Brett Austin Eastman

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