Lush was written in the Winter of 2016 for Wet Ink Ensemble. This piece was conceived as a hybrid between concert music and orchestral film music. As a composer of concert music, the attempt to draw out new ideas from mainstream film music may seem unusual, however, as I began exploring the possibilities provided by commercial sound libraries, sampler instruments, and synths, I was drawn to the idea of retuning these electronic instruments to create an electroacoustic part that fills out and expands the chamber ensemble into a bigger, richer sound.

The majority, if not entirety, of new film scores are produced using samples along with the occasional sprinkling in of a few live performers to heighten a sense of realism. By creating music in this way, the ideal realization of this score may be as a recording, where the precise level between live and sampler instruments can be completely controlled.

A second impetus for using an electronic part made from sampler instruments is to facilitate the performance of precise microtones through pitch matching. This method has allowed me include unusual harmonies and chord changes since the pitches of the live instrumental parts are almost always doubled in the electronics.

Recorded live on April 29th, 2016, at St Peters Church, New York,  by Wet Ink Ensemble with Alex Mincek, conductor. David Adamcyk, recording engineer. Mixed and mastered by Taylor Brook.

www.taylorbrookmusic.com

Lush - for 11 players and electronics (Wet Ink Ensemble)

All audio in this track is from 12 slide whistles played by 12 small electric blowers. The blowers are programmed to carefully oscillate at a flow rate close to that at which the whistles overblows. These sounds are pretty quiet in real life even though they sometimes sound intense.

No electronics were added and I made minimal adjustments to the original sounds, mostly moving things around a bit.

12 Whistles Playing the Break, for 12 mechanically controlled slidewhistles

Electronic Music in 37-limit Just Intonation (3.5.7.11.13.23.37)

created in SuperCollider 3.9.3
April-December, 2020

dedicated to Marcus Pal

large scale modulation down a fourth ("I-V")
3:4  -->  6:8:9  -->  8:11:12

PORT (Rondo for Marcus Pal)(2020)

2-channel electronic, fixed-media.
Loíza, Puerto Rico, December 25, 2020 - January 2, 2021.
"drink rain from the pulse at my throat" - text excerpted from Kim Addonizio's "Muse".

drink rain (2021)

Physically modelled performance (NotePerformer) 
Orchestral music in 13-limit just intonation
(3.3.3.3/4.3.3.1/bd.timp.harp/strings)

N.B. The very last chord is to be played "as long and accurate as possible", with multiple asynchronous reattacks in the brass and strings (in this version, there is a simple fade out due to the limitations of physical modelling etc.)

PER (2018-20)

In this week's episode, Brad Garton interviews composer Taylor Brook and multi-media artist Lara Lewison about Star Maker Fragments, the new album from TAK Ensemble, out 3/3/2021.

Lara Lewison creates audiovisual art for the web and for live performance, with a focus in networking, language, and creating live works that are dependent on exchanges between “performer" and “audience." She works with combinations of software and programming languages and has given unity workshops and lessons at Harvestworks, CUNY Tech, and Columbia. She holds a bachelors of arts in music from Columbia University and was the 2020 recipient of the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts.

Taylor Brook writes music for the concert stage, electronic music, music for robotic instruments, as well as music for video, theatre, and dance. He has worked with Ensemble Ascolta, JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Quatuor Bozzini, Talea Ensemble, and others. He has won numerous SOCAN Young Composers awards, including two first-place prizes and the grand prize in 2016 for Song, for solo cello.

Brad Garton is an American composer and computer musician who is professor of music at Columbia University. He has written, or helped to write, a number of computer music applications, including Real-Time Cmix, music synthesis and signal processing language for real time composition.

Star Maker Fragments: takensemble.bandcamp.com/album/star-m…er-fragments

Star Maker World: laar.world/starmaker/

Lara Lewison: laar.world

Taylor Brook: Taylorbrook.info

Brad Garton: sites.music.columbia.edu/brad

016. Star Maker with Taylor Brook, Lara Lewison, and Brad Garton

Excerpt from:
OUTSIDE ONLY SOUND 
The String Orchestra of Brooklyn
Fort Greene Park
Brooklyn, NY
October, 17, 2020

Complete performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPzrgbAA--w&t=574s

Lush - for 11 players and electronics (Wet Ink Ensemble)

brookt

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