Cloud-Like (2014), Kirsten Broberg (5:56)

Ali Wright, alto saxophone
Dylan Ward, alto saxophone

Joe Tesoro, audio engineer
Colin Mosely, artwork and design
Recorded August 2019 at the University of Missouri–Kansas City

Cloud-Like, Kirsten Broberg

Tyler Kline: Yuzu

Alexandra Gardner: Tourmaline

Landscapes and Lamentations

Richard Carr: Rainbow Falls

Heroic Dose is an electroacoustic due featuring Dylan Ward on saxophones and Seth Andrew Davis on laptop/electronics/electric guitar. Heroic Dose incorporates elements of electronic processing and free improvisation in their music to explore ideas of  cybernetics, singularity, psychological/physical transformation, dialectical discourse, philosophy, and interspecies communication.

Their eponymous ten track debut is inspired by the work of Terence McKenna, where they encode the transformational imagery and sonic possibilities drawn from psychedelic experience into musical input for acoustic instruments, which is then further transformed through electronic processes. Heroic Dose was released June 2020 on the Mother Brain Records label.

Artwork by Austin Glascoe

Heroic Dose

Circuit Bender–Part 1

This piece is an exploration of a perceptual phenomenon I call "channel switching." It's meant to depict (more or less literally) the way music presents itself to me in states of detached, dream-like consciousness.  Each section of the piece "tunes in" to a different channel. But all channels seem to be broadcasting the same idea, only from slightly different angles, as if through a sort of sonic prism.

Continua (for guitar quartet - demo)

God Spoke with a Piercing Blast

This piece was written with a Moog Mother 32 with guitar for one of my musical heroes Weasel Walter. I will continue writing homages for composers and musicians that I like so stay tuned. The soundbites are from a news reel, a Lydia Lunch interview, and Weasel himself.

Deathamphetamine (For Weasel Walter)

A work for Soprano and Alto Saxophone.
Recorded at Dolan Studios in NYC by Dylan Ward and Andrew Koss November-December 2017

Trenches

A demo recording of a piece I wrote in the fall of 2016, first for guitar and loop station, later scored for full orchestra. Full band version in the works.

Rift (for guitar and loop station - demo)

"Espejos" (obra realizada con el apoyo del Fondo Nacional de las Artes)

(Eva García Fernández -2020-)

para flauta, clarinete bajo, piano, guitarra eléctrica, violín, cello, vibráfono y batería.

Concierto - Entre Huellas Sonoras - Radio CASo (Noviembre 2020)

Ensamble Tropi

Flauta: Sebastián Tellado
Clarinete bajo: Constancia Moroni
Piano: Malena Levin
Guitarra Eléctrica: Manuel Moreno
Violín: Florencia Ciaffone
Cello: Alejandro Becerra
Vibráfono y batería: Juan Denari

Dirección: Haydée Schvartz

Si la obra quiere ser espejo del texto, entonces la presencia del texto en la música no puede sino tener la estructura de una ausencia.

Espejos aborda el vínculo entre texto y música incluyendo dentro de su construcción estructural el concepto central de dos poesías concretas de Octavio Armand, concepto que está íntimamente ligado al funcionamiento del lenguaje; este concepto es el de presencia-ausencia. Para dar cuenta de este concepto la obra utiliza una metodología que se basa fundamentalmente en la ausencia de la materialidad del texto, lo cual da lugar a la presencia de un nuevo material (sonido) que funciona como suplemento; de esta manera la obra devuelve una re-presentación sonora de la estructura formal de las poesías, pero despojada de su materialidad textual original.

Espejos

Espejos - para ensamble pierrot, guitarra eléctrica, vibráfono y batería - (2020)

Hailed as a “saxophone sorcerer and sonic alchemist” (Google Gemini) and acclaimed for his “ethereal saxophone playing” (Vital Weekly), Dylan Ward is a musician/improviser/sound artist specializing in contemporary music. Ward has released recordings on the Neuma, Mother Brain, and XAS record labels that have been described as “meditative, jarring, and cosmic…highly creative” (Take Effect Reviews), and praised for presenting music that is “clear and coherent in its discourse, original in its sounds, and as beautiful and intellectually stimulating as it is playful” (Pan M 360). Ward has performed nationally at the Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend Festival, Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab, NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, and Mostly Modern Festival, and appeared in venues including Lincoln Center, Constellation Chicago, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Mesa Arts Center, and Sheen Center for Thought and Culture.

In July 2022, Ward released his debut solo electroacoustic album, Tourmaline, through Neuma Records. The album explores ideas of sonic transmutation and alchemy, featuring music by Alexandra Gardner, Viet Cuong, Seth Andrew Davis, Kenneth Michael Florence, and Emma O’Halloran. From the Cave of Crystals to the cosmogonic Ogdoad, from Paul Klee’s depiction of the Angel of History to the structure of a Michael Jordan documentary, Tourmaline covers a wide range of creative concepts in pursuit of the alchemical magnum opus. 

Ward holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Missouri–Kansas City. His creative work has received support from the NC Arts Council, Charlotte Arts & Science Council, City of Charlotte, Infusion Fund, Foundation for the Carolinas, UMKC School of Graduate Studies, Charlotte Street Foundation, Semans Art Fund, Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, and William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust. 

https://dylan-ward-saxophone.squarespace.com

Circuit Bender–Part 1

Dylan Ward

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