performed by Collective Lovemusic

Bass Flute, Emiliano Gavito 
Bass Clarinet, Adam Starkie
Guitar, Christian Lozano Sedano 
Cello, Lola Malique

abandoned objects, for mixed quartet (2021)

Program Note:
eidos; qualia oscillates between presence and absence, implying a continuity between being and non-being, appearance and disappearance. It is inspired by Yuk Hui’s discussion of recursivity, a concept that he likens to the mastery of shanshui painting: “when one sees something when there is in fact nothing; when there is nothing where one sees something.” I convey the idea of recursivity musically by rendering the soundless as equally audible as the sounding. By positioning the musicians around the audience and by gradually foregrounding the presence of space, I transform the soundless—the relation of one body to another—into something that is perceived both visually and aurally. In the final section of the piece, silent everyday objects (e.g. cardboard boxes and ceramic pots) emerge from their habitual silence as restless, unrelenting voices demanding to be heard.

Performed by Talea Ensemble at the Annex Theatre in Vancouver on April 23, 2022.
My deepest gratitude to Giorgio Magnanensi and Vancouver New Music.
Thanks also to conductor James Baker for assisting with the initial rehearsals. 

Performers:
Barry Crawford, flute
Marianne Gythfeldt, B-flat clarinet
Carrie Frey, viola
Chris Gross, cello
William Kuo, live electronics + guitar pedals

Sound technician: Sam Torres

eidos; qualia | 23.04.2022 | Talea Ensemble

Program Notes:
Listen for the subtle,  short, interrupted sine waves within electronics that cause the speakers themselves to emit ‘pops’ and
crackles, interrupting the acoustic instruments and tape playback. We’re not hearing the sine wave but rather the effect of the sine wave on the speaker’s mechanics turning the speaker itself into an acoustic element; thus giving these objects an active role rather than accepting them as a passive (playback) tool. Usually this treatment is avoided and seen as a mistake but in this piece it functions to address the physical mechanics of the speaker, of its own body, and demanding it to become more. To add to this, the percussionists are playing custom made “speaker-instruments:” subwoofer speaker cones transformed into an open air (and in a sense, large contact) microphone. This configuration allows the percussionist to physically perform low resonant tones and high washes of live filtered noise not possible outside this setup, with the hope to merge electronic and acoustic instruments into one composite organism, dependent on this merging to become more than just an extension of itself. The live processing portion of the work is that of rapid panning of the live acoustic instruments between two stereo speakers. This panning reaches audio rates and thus from this rapid oscillation causes its own square wave-like tone: the electronics sounds blooming from the acoustic in a symbiotic, intertwined creature like lichen.
This piece engulfs two prior pieces of mine that I’ve been working on for the past few years, “Harbinger” and “Speaker Spit.”

Instrumentation: Amplified vln, vc, piccolo, trumpet, e. gtr, midikeys, b-flat clarinet and live processing

Premiered and Performed by Nadar Ensemble
Mastered by Murat Colak
Mixed by Kelley Sheehan

Creature Like Lichen (2022)for chamber ensemble

"Limae Labor", Amplified string trio and e-guitar, Ens Repertorio Zero, 22/03/2014, Festival Archipel. Commission of Archipel, R0 and Vortex.

Limae Labor

for chamber ensemble, electronics, and lighting

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this piece is inspired by the devastating beauty of nacreous clouds. these clouds are both very rare and hauntingly beautiful, with luminous pastel colors streaking across the sky. 

despite their beauty, these clouds are irrevocably harmful to the atmosphere. while their beauty comes from the diffraction of light as it passes through tiny ice crystals in the air, their appearance acts as a catalyst for the reactions of toxic chemicals that deplete the ozone layer and contribute to the ozone hole in the antarctic. 

this piece is a meditation on the beauty and destruction of the world we’re making. 

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premiered by collective lovemusic at Paine Hall at Harvard University April 28, 2023

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performed by collective lovemusic:
Emiliano Gavito - bass flute
Adam Starkie - bass clarinet
Emily Yabe - viola
Christian Lozano - e-guitar

volatile horizon

volatile horizon (2023) | collective lovemusic

premiered by and composed for Madison Greenstone and Alexandra Smith.

No additional processing - only acoustic clarinet and metal sheet.

no dogs in space (2022) bass clarinet and metal sheet with transducer

Recorded live at Constellation, 3111 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL. 04/02/2024

Collective lovemusic

Emiliano Gavito - performance/recitant
Adam Starkie - clarinet
Christian Sedano - electric guitar
Sophie Wahlmüller - viola
Finbar Hosie - electronics, mixing

The Hyacinth Garden

'Arabuko' is named after the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest located on the coast of Kenya. The piece envisions a walk through the dark forest, and the players serve as a character on this walk.Forced to reconcile with the darkness of the journey, slowly (and literally) reveal their fears to us.

This piece is no stranger to SoundCloud, although it now appears is in its extended form - not the final form, i must admit; as it will continue to grow. And to be fair - for a piece that's based on a journey through a forest ('Arabuko' is actually a forest in the coastal region of Kenya), the idea that the piece is still growing seems fitting.

Connie Li, violin
Krysta Hippolite, cello

© 2018 Nyokabi Kariuki. All Rights Reserved.

Kabi Junior Recital (Live Recordings)

Arabuko | Violin & Cello (Live)

Of definitions of “ground” was composed in reaction to the sound of the electrical utility frequency or ‘mains hum’, which can sometimes be heard through loudspeakers and amplifiers. It is generally considered an ‘unwanted’ noise, often caused by interconnection of electrical equipment that results in there being multiple paths to the ground, also known as a “ground loop”. Many of my concert experiences, as a composer or listener, have been coloured by trying to eliminate or ignore this sound. And so, I wanted to create a work where this sound is instead the focus. The harmony of the work is built around this hum and its harmonic series, and much of the instrumental writing attempts to simulate related electroacoustic phenomena, such as harmonic distortion and feedback. 

Because the electrical utility frequency is different in different countries (for example, in North America it is 60 Hz and in Europe it is 50 Hz), there are two different versions of the score, depending on where the piece is performed. In reflecting on the way this sound connects us to place, the work subtly incorporates field recordings which also differ between the two versions, linking to the sites of the premiere performances in Québec and Belgium. The piece is then a meditation on the way sound can “ground” us or connect us to a feeling of familiar ground.  

Of definitions of “ground” was commissioned by Le Vivier for Ensemble Hopper with support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Recording: 10 May 2019, Église Sacré-Coeur, Chicoutimi. Recording engineer: Pascal Beaulieu

Of definitions of "ground" (60 Hz version)- Ensemble Hopper

Rain [live recording] - Anna Thorvaldsdóttir 

flute - Emiliano Gavito
guitar - Christian Lozano
voice - Léa Trommenschlager 

recorded by Simon Hanot

Rain [live recording] - Anna Thorvaldsdóttir - lovemusic

White Radiance TM (2020)
for voice, ensemble and electronics (12 min.)

Commissioned by Donaueschinger Musiktage for Elaine Mitchener and MAM.Manufaktur für Aktuelle Musik

"White Radiance TM" looks at the politics of skin bleaching creams, as it is elaborated upon by the Jamaican philosopher and writer Sylvia Wynter. Pushed by major Western cosmetic corporations they constitute—in Wynter's words—"the emergence of a global free-market-driven and consumer-oriented mimetic desire that is anchored to a single genre-specific Western European bourgeois model of being". By coopting the language of these commercials and putting it against Wynter's own powerful words, White Radiance (the brand name) tries to expose the mechanics of the strategies to generate this mimetic desire.

But the piece does not limit itself to a deconstructive gesture; it also seeks to reconstruct a new way of being together—"of being human as praxis", a guiding phrase in Wynter's writing. Taking Michelle M. Wright's concept of an "Epiphenomenal time" that is rooted in the now—in contrast to the notion of a linear time that is rooted in an origin and history—this piece tries to manifest what Wright calls a "horizontal interpellation" of subjective agency, rather than a "vertical interpellation" along hierarchical structures. Specifically, towards the end, the piece does not provide a synchronized score with a "master-timeline" that all performers are subjected to. Rather, it employs individual parts that are not synchronized and which encourage the performers to interpellate their musical agency through horizontal, rhizomatic negotiations among one another. These interdependencies manifest a way of moving through time collectively, rather than following a single timeline/narrative/history, that honors individual agency as something inherently dependent on one another—a praxis that can only ever be done in the making of it, not in the achieving of it.

__________
Donaueschingen, DE
October 16th, 2020

Rain [live recording] - Anna Thorvaldsdóttir - lovemusic

collective lovemusic

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