Live Recording
Ensemble Kollektiv @ MaerzMusik, March 2024.

Teeth

premiere of 'let it pass, let it pass...' (2023-24) for cello and ensemble.

Performed by,
Urban Megušar (violoncello)
.abeceda contemporary music ensemble
Tilen Draksler (conductor)

Bled Festival Hall, June 28 2024
commissioned by Urban Megušar and .abeceda

let it pass, let it pass... (2023-24) - for cello and ensemble

11°11'50.8"N 74°06'05.8"W @ 20:47

commissioned and performed by Blaurenz Duo
Rebecca Blau - flute
Rebecca Lawrence - double bass 
electronics – Isaac Roth Blumfield

live recording at Theater Pavillion, Lucerne, Switzerland on July 8, 2024

recording - Fernando Manassero
mix - Isaac Roth Blumfield

Half life | for amplified alto flute and double bass (2024)

live recording (please use good headphones with the capacity for low frequencies)

for ensemble and electronics, composed in 2023 for the annual .abeceda ensemble contemporary music festival.

program note:
Throughout human history, wolves have taken many significations: hunter, mother, protector, predator, seer, villain, beast. In much of western society today, wolves are figured as the image of wildness and man’s quest to conquer said wildness, to tame the wolf. The piece WOLF explores the opposing elements of our vision of the animal - and of ourselves: the primal drive for self preservation alongside the tenderness of being animal. 

with many thanks to my dear friends and collaborators:
Urška Rihtaršič, harp
Oskar Longyka, violin
Domen Kuznar, viola
Urban Megušar, cello
Tilen Lebar, alto sax
Tilen Draksler, conductor

WOLF | .abeceda ensemble | 2023

performed and written for Mikołaj Rytowski for the ATTACCA Festival 2024; premiered on June 1 at Druckereihalle im Ackermannshof, Basel, Switzerland

recording: Robin Michel
mixed by Isaac Roth Blumfield

The electronics for this work were recorded in part at the SWR Experimentalstudio in Freiburg, Germany with assistance from sound engineers Thomas Hummel and Luis Miehlich

link to binaural version (for listening with headphones): https://soundcloud.com/isaacrothblumfield/strange-symmetry-for-percussion-and-ambisonic-live-electronics-2024-binaural-version-use-headphones

strange symmetry | for percussion and ambisonic live electronics (2024) – stereo version

for ensemble mosaik
Khachatur Kanajan, violin
Mathis Mayr, cello
Alexey Potapov, electric guitar 
Adam Weisman, percussion
Christian Vogel, clarinets 


"in disoriented gardens, invasive wax eats flowers" for ensemble takes place within an imagined ecosystem, whose disoriented internal logic functions in a dream-like, irrational manner, creating an environment where events grow to absurd proportions, creating imbalanced, juxtaposed situations.
Contradiction is welcome and necessary to the well-being of this environment. Decaying material interacts with ripeness, mechanisms interact with organic matter. Interaction between seemingly contradictory material carves paves the way for strangeness, ambiguity, and humor.
Throughout the work, listeners zoom in on this environment and out again, as it grows and changes. At times, they witness the entire environment functioning in equilibrium, and at other moments, the ungainly growth of a singular being. In imagining this errant ecosystem, I reflect on the irrationality and playfulness of the environment that surrounds us.
- Lauren Siess

artwork - "Asparagus," Suzan Pitt

in disoriented gardens, invasive wax eats flowers - for ensemble mosaik

Recording of a reading session by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, October 2024. Photo by James May (https://jamesmaycomposer.com/).

this body folds in on itself (live, reading)

performed by Yarn/Wire at Paine Hall, Harvard University on February 28, 2025

Laura Barger – piano
Julia Den Boer – sampler & MIDI controller
Russell Greenberg – percussion
Dennis Sullivan – percussion

recording: Anthony DiBartolo
mix: Isaac Roth Blumfield

Program note:

In English, the word "dream" has a positive connotation, but there is a thin
boundary between a dream and a nightmare, and our experience of dreaming
rarely fits neatly into either category. In dreaming, a fluidity emerges between
bliss and dread, and one's desire to escape reality can collapse at any moment.
Familiar places, people, objects, animals might emerge, and as we dream we
know that it is both really them and really not them at the same time. Something
both illusory and deeply real is happening. While you listen, try to fall asleep.

The electronics for this work were prepared at the Südwestrundfunk Experimentalstudio in Freiburg, Germany through their Workstay program with assistance from Thomas Hummel, sound designer, with recordings performed by James Morley, cello, and Rebecca Lawrence, double bass


Like a dream I can' t wake up from | for Yarn/Wire & electronics (2024-25)

Churn is a lullaby shaped by unease - a response to the disquiet of the present moment. Built from loops, its form reflects a process of repetition and accumulation, echoing the effects of sustained imbalance and harm. 

Churn was premiered on August 1, 2025 at Bang on a Can's LOUD Weekend:

Todd Reynolds: conductor
Lindsay McIntyre and Vanessa Croome, sopranos
Kyla-Rae Ashworth, flute and piccolo
Tucker Hall-Klingensmith, clarinet and bass clarinet
Ruben Høgh, piano
Aaron Edgcomb and Yun-Chen Chou, percussion
Chloe Lorraine Johnson and Michael Ferri, violin
Chris Gokelman, viola
Miriam Liske-Doorandish, cello

Churn

Title: In/Out
Composer: James May
Year: 2017
Performers: Sandro Leal Santiesteban (violin), Ryan Ash (cello) [Beo String Quartet]

This piece was composed for the Charlotte New Music Festival 2017 speed writing contest, loosely inspired by The Beatles' "Within You Without You" to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

In/Out [violin & cello]

James is a composer, improviser, writer, and photographer.

In/Out [violin & cello]

James May

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