Having had a longstanding fascination both with children’s books and the flexibility of language, I was intrigued to learn about the “one syllable” series published in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Working with the theory that shorter words were more palatable to “young readers”, these books reworked whole texts, such as "Robinson Crusoe," "The Swiss Family Robinson," and "Alice in Wonderland," altering the original language so that no word exceeded the length of one syllable.  While perhaps easier to speak and read, this adaptation of the text leads to its own idiosyncrasies.  These connections between rhythm, simplicity, and practice of a language invoke a playfulness and turns of phrases that invite their own complexity.  

in words of one syllable was commissioned by Jane Alden for the Vocal Constructivists.  This recording is an excerpt from the premiere performance, which is available in its entirety here: http://thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/listen-to-music-from-the-sound_space-performance-series?SELECT%20*%20%20FROM%20request_redirect


in words of one syllable (excerpt)

J K RANDALL, BAB, at NYU 1967 A CONVRRSTION WITH AN AMERICAN COMPOSER (SERIES)

01 JKR&BAB  NYU1 (1967)

Performed by the String Noise Duo and the composer at the Roulette in NYC, October 4, 2023

I composed in the canopy of mist… 在林霧中 for the String Noise Duo from Fall 2022 through Spring 2023. The work was conceived as part of program that would contains works by Alvin Lucier and new works written in memory of Alvin. I drew my primary inspiration for the work from a Fall trip I took with my wife to the high forested mountains of Taipingshan 太平⼭ in Taiwan, a trip where the sky was always bathed in drifting fog or differing strengths of cold rain and mist. While hiking or just looking out the window I was frequently struck by how both static and dynamic these scenes were. Thinking of either the constant movement or dynamic stillness in many of Alvin Lucier’s works, I composed this work with a number of fluid sections that reflect my memories of different moments from that trip.

in the canopy of mist… 在林霧中 was premiered at the 2023 ISCM Miami New Music Festival. The work is dedicated to Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris and written in memory Alvin Lucier, whose music has and continues to deeply change and enrich the way I listen.

September 28, 2023
Miami, FL

in the canopy of mist… 在林霧中 (2023) for two violins and live electronics

Performed by Ku Chun-Hao and the composer at the Forum Music, Taipei on August 2, 2025

“Echoes from a Mountain” for soprano saxophone and live electronics is poetically inspired by
traditional Tibetan Buddhist ritual music – puja in Tibetan. In particular, the many different types
of timbral and microtonal trills as well as the use of many direct repetitions are meant to evoke the music that the Rgya-gling – a traditional Tibetan double-reed instrument – performs in this music. In addition, following this inspiration the work ends with a rhythmic and tone-based transcription of a Chinese reading of the Great Compassion Dhāraņī (大悲咒)played in the highest non-altissimo register of the soprano saxophone to evoke an image of shrieking vultures circling the flesh and bones of a desiccated body.

I composed “Echoes from a Mountain” for my good friend Chun-Hao Ku, who greatly helped me
better understand the mechanisms that go into performing the saxophone and the premiered the work in March 2025.

Jacob David Sudol
May 15, 2025
Kaohsiung, Taiwan 

Echoes from a Mountain (2025) for soprano saxophone and live electronics

Fables (2021-2024) 
for 
Clarinet Solo and Chamber Ensemble of Seven Players

I. the Acacia
II. the Pine and the Dragonfly
III. the Moon Ronde
IV. the Dark Doves
V. the Wisteria

Program notes: 
I have a deep fascination with fables from various cultures. The shared themes and similarities in these stories hint at a long history of collective human experience, and possibly at shared fears, fantasies, and dreams rooted in our psyche. I’m particularly intrigued by how these stories often contain contradictions in their messages, reflecting like a mirror to the tangled nature of how we live together.
In Fables, I tried to create sonic fables. By that, I mean each movement’s title and the way the clarinet weaves through the ensemble are meant to stir questions in the listener’s mind. For instance, “Why is this movement called Wisteria?” I hope that the titles and the music will stir an imaginary fable in the listener’s mind, a vague sensation of an ancient story. Not a tale you’ve heard before, but one that’s been sleeping somewhere inside you. A feeling of storytelling, of little fables from a forgotten past that haven’t yet been written, a faint memory, a shared dream, a fable that hasn’t been told yet, but still somehow feels familiar.

Composed for Daniel Boeke and Ensemble Oerknal


Fables (2021-2024)-Ashkan Behzadi

Played by Del Sol Quartet. Recorded by Stephen Bingen. Collaboration with Mei Blundell, Linda Bair, and Linda Bair Dance Company. 

...all dripping in tangles green...

November is National Hip Hop History Month, honoring a movement born in the African-American and Latino communities of the Bronx in 1973. Hip hop has always been more than music — it’s a global cultural force blending DJing, beatboxing, sampling, and lyrical storytelling, while shaping art, language, fashion, and activism.

On this episode of ENGAGE Radio, we explore hip hop’s roots, reach, and relevance today with reflections from some extraordinary guests and members of the WESU Hip Hop Community:
•	Akua Naru – internationally acclaimed hip hop artist and Assistant Professor of Music at UC Santa Cruz - https://www.akua-naru.com/ 
•	Bobito Garcia – hip hop cultural pioneer, producer, writer, filmmaker, and distinguished Wesleyan alumnus. https://koolboblove.com/ 
• Open i - Based in Middletown, Connecticut, open i crafts beat-based hip-hop and instrumental tapes that embrace a raw, hands-on aesthetic. https://openi.bandcamp.com/ 
His recent August 2025 LP elephant.314 is billed simply as a “labor of love music.”
• DJ Sabotage - A WESU community volunteer DJ who has been spinning “boom bap” hip hop for over 25 years.  
** This episode features excerpts from the Open i mixtape "Mean Streets" interwoven throughout he program. Many thanks to Open i for his support. 

Together, our guests offer an array of unique perspectives on how hip hop continues to inspire creativity, connection, and change, from Middletown to the world.

To listen, tune in to ENGAGE Radio 
🗓 Fridays at 1 p.m. | Every 2nd and 4th week of the month
📍 WESU 88.1 FM
Or stream anytime at soundcloud.com/wesufm


Engage Radio S2E3 Hip Hop History Month

I took the chance to play at a private event in Mena and tried out a new and minimalistic live set approach, as there was no space for my modular beside the Turntables. I used pre-recorded modular loops from my Verbos System and layered them on top of each other using the Octatrack, and the TR8 delivered the rhythmic backing with some classic XOX sounds.

Thanks to everyone who filled the room and danced with me for a groovy hour. The compliments  I received after the performance mean a lot to me!

Live Set 11/25 @ Mena Berlin

Sound collage from a rehearsal night, meeting fellow musicians for a gig the first time, full of laughters and good times

Sound Collage

A short solo piece exploring different extended vocal techniques for high voice

Ophelia's Monologue

Tosiya Suzuki, recorder
Tadashi Tajima, shakuhachi

March 25, 2017
Yodobashi Church, Tokyo, Japan
Recorded live and mastered by Yoshiaki Onishi

Gz is an abbreviation of Gestaltzerfall, or “shape decomposition,” a psychological phenomenon where one experiences a temporary loss of the ability to recognize certain letters, particularly often experienced in Japanese Kanjis, or Chinese characters. The elements of loss, uncertainty, and doubt are the underlying motivations for composing this work.

Named after Rumanian mathematician Dan Tudor Vuza who researched it extensively, a Vuza canon is a rhythmic, tiling canon with some peculiar musical properties. Even at the maximal density of the canon where all the voices are playing, the overall perception is a continuous flow of the basic pulse unit (in this piece, it is an eighth-note). Furthermore, at that moment, each “pulsation” is enunciated by only one voice. In other words, when one voice is enunciating, the other voices are absent. The end result is something similar to a hocket.

While this piece does start as a 12-part Vuza canon compressed into two voices, its canonic structure becomes distorted little by little, and toward the end of the work, all dissolves into layers of breath sounds.

Commissioned by Tosiya Suzuki, Gz is dedicated to Tosiya Suzuki, Tadashi Tajima who premièred this work, and to Fabien Lévy, who introduced me to the fascinating world of the Vuza canons.

in words of one syllable (excerpt)

paula matthusen

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