Powerful, striking, atmospheric music that maintains a penetrating intensity throughout.

Duch

Some places are inexplicably special. They immerse whoever is present in a feeling of awe so palpable, it can almost be heard as if it was a whispered message. To some, these places are known as "thin places"—or places in which barriers appear thin between the everyday world we experience and another, "special" (or perhaps spiritual) world. Regardless of what one believes them to be, anyone who has found themselves in one of these special places knows it as a transcendent and wholly unique experience. Murmur from Thin Places (2022) is a musical exploration of this phenomenon, and the unique emotions experiencing such a place can inspire.

Performed by the Toronto Summer Music Festival Chamber Music Fellowship, July 2022.

Murmur From Thin Places

Green Hills Of Pennsylvania

24 - 11 - 2022

Crunchy, synth-y instrumental, hope you like it!

Cover art by NeuralBlender.

22 3 21

Transpiration

Method: Layering (ehx mel9 and roland vt4 involved, as well as a guitar, a plastic recorder and the zoom r20 - incl the room2 effect).
Narration: Reading my latest poem. 
On my 29th birthday I had given a private reading of one of Ingeborg Bachmann's short stories, titled: the 30th year. Now, doubling up, I have not given a private reading - consider this a replacement. It is  a poem of mine reflecting some aspects of that eerie relationship between fiction and reality and dispersing personal narratives.

Gedicht / copyright jo richter:

damals, als ich jenen text bachmanns
vom aufbrechen des vertrauten, ins telegrafenferne
einer vom ich unversehrten heimat vorlas, im
dreißigsten jahr, waren auch die mich ummenschenden
befremdet: wie kann man sein wahres leben nur
so im streulicht fiktiven gestaltens betrachten?

jetzt, im realen sechzigsten jahr, finde ich
keine heimkehrnovelle im schrank, die nicht
von geld, von frieden, von der verzweiflung handelt,
im angesicht weiter und weiter vermieteter wohnungen
und viel zu fleißig gepflügter felder: gerne
rastete ich auf einer brache, wäre sie noch vor sinnen.

das papier vor mir ist ungelesen, als hätte ich
nie eine schriftspur darüber gelegt, dem vorgeliebten
nie nachgespürt: war ich nur da als probe-
abdruck der selbstbehauptung anderer, die ihre
geschichte frech in stadtmauern meißeln, über tempel-
freskos weißeln, sich stilecht in poetenpergamente kleiden?

das sechzigste jahr

im sechzigsten jahr

Labarum

Don't Hide

Runaway Planet

Dark Star

An ongoing aspiration of BMI Award-winning composer and cellist, Nicholas Denton Protsack, is to seek new connections between music and the natural world. Called a "(composer) to keep a close eye on" by the Canadian Music Centre, Nicholas' ecologically informed music includes composed works, studio albums, and experimental improvisations, and has been featured in a wide variety of concert settings across North America, Europe, and New Zealand. Recent accomplishments include two first prizes in the 2021 SOCAN Foundation Young Composers Awards and commissioned works for the Toronto Summer Music Festival and the American Prize-winning Ensemble for These Times (E4TT).

	As a cellist, Nicholas is an active freelance performer and advocate of new music—frequently involved in collaborative projects that range from traditional to highly experimental concert idioms. Although primarily a chamber musician, he has also appeared as a soloist with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra.

	Nicholas is currently undertaking a PhD in music at Victoria University of Wellington (NZ), studying with composers Michael Norris and Dugal McKinnon. His other major teachers have included David Garner (composition), Jean-Michel Fonteneau (cello), Jennifer Culp (cello), and Morna Howie (cello).

Murmur From Thin Places

Nicholas Denton Protsack

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