First album by improvising electronic group Sønreel: Maja Cerar, violin; Liubo Borissov, electronics; and Douglas Geers, electronics.

Emerge

Charybdis

Wreckage

Sonar

Nautilus

Submerge

Listening Sky Stones (2023) is a meditation on intimacy, interiority, ritual, engagement, and release. In particular, it is a reflection on the loss of a loved one. For much of the piece, the musicians focus on coloring and shaping individual sounds, disrupted by intermittent interjections of more complex gestures. The piece is scored for clarinet, piano, violin, cello, and computer sounds. Multiphonic notes played by the clarinet act as a symbolic respiration, and other pitch content is largely derived from the frequencies contained in the multiphonics. The electronic part of the piece consists of software that allows the pianist to capture performed notes and extend them in time, giving the piano the ability to sustain notes roughly akin to how the clarinet and strings do so. The pianist sustains and colors these extended notes by performing with a foot controller and wireless handheld sensor. This recording is a live performance by Collide-O-Scope Music, May 2023.
Video of live performance: https://youtu.be/oX-G5TSvR-o

Listening Sky Stones

Inanna, an ancient Sumerian goddess known as “Queen of Heaven and Earth,” is an intriguing mythological figure associated with the city of Uruk, located in present-day Iraq.  The stories of Inanna have received increased study in recent decades as more sources have been discovered and translated.  Among these, the tale of Inanna’s descent into the Underworld is one of the most renowned.  As she descends, Inanna gives up her godly protections one by one until she stands naked before her sister, Erishkigal, the Queen of the Underworld.  Without warning, Erishkigal strikes Inanna dead and hangs her from a hook on the wall.  Moved by the pleading of Inanna’s assistant Ninshubur, the god Enki eventually sends two creatures the size of flies into the Underworld to convince Erishkigal to allow Inanna to return to life.  This work draws upon impressions of the Inanna narrative and psychological states of its characters, but the music is not literally programmatic.  The electroacoustic elements of the music are realized using Max/MSP.  The electronics create a sonic environment, color the violin’s timbre, and dialogue with the violin’s performance.

Inanna's Descent

This was the first piece of electronic music I ever composed.  Created in 1990 with Casio FZ-1 sampler and recorded to 2-track analog tape.  Mixing was done live by three people manning faders.  Thanks to Charles Geers and Jan Ratterman Herbert for supplying vocals.  Other source materials include crowd ambience from a sound effects LP and live samples from an imaginary Thanksgiving dinner.  And oldie but goodie?  It was fun to do.

Thanksgiving

The text to these seven songs is from The Book of Nightmares by American poet Galway Kinnell (b. 1927), published in 1971.  The book is a series of ten poems about his children and his sense of their, and his, mortality.  Little Sleep's-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight is one of these poems, which itself is divided into seven sections.  Mr. Kinnell has said that he models many of his poetic forms on musical forms, and this poem is essentially a suite of related poems in contrasting moods, similar in some ways to a musical suite. The poem is printed without music at the end of this score, to help one study and interpret the text as a whole.

This song cycle has been written to include computer music "segues" between the songs.  These short segments of 10-30 seconds can be cued from a CD player and include environmental sounds--for instance: wind and rain, crowds of people--and some other tones which are derived from recorded guitar notes.  The idea is that the computer music serve as a setting for the songs, creating mood and context.  These segues also help connect the individual songs into a whole unit, as the poet originally conceived his work (see below).  Moreover, each computer music segment fades out as the subsequent song begins, so that the performers do not have to worry about synchronizing with it.  Though they are not necessary for a performance, the composer encourages the use of the computer music for performances of this work.

Back You Go

In the Light

If One Day It Happens

And You Yourself Some Impossible Tuesday

In a Restaurant Once

I Have Heard You Tell the Sun...

You Scream, Waking from a Nightmare

This MP3 contains about sixteen minutes of excerpts from the 90-minute opera "Calling," by Douglas Geers (music) and Wickham Boyle (libretto).  The opera premiered in September 2008 in a series of fourteen performances at La Mama Experimental Theater in New York City.

Calling

Calling - excerpts from the opera (16 minutes)

This eight-channel electroacoustic work is a commentary on popular music's "borrowing" from folk music, in a lighthearted fashion.

Stolen Blue -StereoMIX

A work for solo guitar with optional electronic processing (this is the solo guitar version).  Performed byJunpei Ohtsubo.  Dedicated to the memory of David Koenig. Composed and premiered, 2019.

Hinge Flock Traces

This short piece for SATB choir plus live computer sounds is a recomposition of the chanson "Mille Regretz" by Josquin des Prez, who lived circa 1450-1521.  All computer sounds are synthesized live in performance, based on what the choir sings.  

This recording is a live performance by the University of Minnesota Singers, Matthew Mehaffey, conductor, April 19, 2013.

For more info about this work, please see http://www.dgeers.com/audio/Mille_Regretz.html .



Mille Regretz (fache amoureuse)

Douglas Geers is a composer whose works include acoustic, electroacoustic, and multimedia.  He lives in New York City.

Doug Geers

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