Heavy Sky

Archebiosis

backstab

This is the world premiere of the new work for double-bell horn, developed during the Virtual Brass Academy with Christine Chapman and Ensemble MusikFabrik, July 2020. This performance took place on July 30th, 2020 - in Cologne.
I am indebted to Ensemble MusikFabrik and the fantastic work they did with us in introducing us to the worlds of double-bell instruments, and to the ever-expanding repertoire of new music for these instruments they are bringing to the world.

The work explores a sense of dual forces that act and react upon each other, and how the relative mediator (the performer) indeed interacts with the score, the instrument and it's two bells, and finally how the theatre of the piece - both through actions and the position of the instrument - is transmitted to the audience. In the four sections of the piece that each explore a different facet of the manipulation of the horn - first through the use of a contra-bassoon reed to produce aggressive yet fulfilling multiphonics; then in the second and third exploring the two bells and their range of possibilities. The final section condenses the instrument down to only it's single-bell form and the mute and interacts briefly with it to express a settling within the performance. Gasping, grunting, growling and grandeur are all some of the ideas explored in this short miniature.

Image: LIGO/Caltech/MIT/Sonoma State (https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/6/1/15721268/gravitational-waves-ligo-future)

Understated Matter - for solo double-bell horn [premiere]

Music, mixing and production by https://soundcloud.com/p-e-n-i-n-s-o-l-a-r
Please check on Bandcamp the full album with various  collaborations: https://peninsolar.bandcamp.com/album/in-between-obfuscate-coordinates

My sonopoem 'Coordinates' refers to the book 'Objective Becoming' by Bradford Skow, prof of Philosophy at MIT on the comparison of different theories of time, spacetime, robust passage and experiences.

'Coordinates
Time does not pass, we pass through time
In stages or blocks and become
Spatially and temporally scattered we 
Have experiences at other places
Inaccessible to us here and
At other times unavailable to us now
Yours and my P1 and P2 positions extend
How fast do we pass?
Can we reminisce about the things to come?
Flashes in between coordinates
Perhaps glitches in the protocol or
Ultra-rational diagrams
Have been and not yet spiral and interchange.
Time-biased preferences are falsifiable
One life is better than another if and only if
The total amount of pleasure minus
the total amount of pain in the first life
Is greater than the corresponding quantity
In the second one.
Can sacrifice change the perspective?
And if I live with you n latitudes and
Longitudes, simultaneous instants
Pre and post my vertebral consumption
In between we will rest
Wherever you are, whenever you happen to be
Stay put'

In Between Obfuscate Coordinates - P è n i n ș o l a r & Ilaria Boffa

Disquiet Junto Project 0450: Texture Analysis
The Assignment: Create a piece of music from sounds related to working with rocks.

Welcome to the 450th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto project. Thanks to everyone who has participated, supported, and pitched in along the way.

This project is the third of three that are being done over the course of as many months in collaboration with the 2020 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 2 through 6 under the motto “Tektonik” (“Tectonics”). For this reason, a German translation is provided below. We are working at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who is in charge of the educational activities of the festival. This is the second year in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern. Select recordings resulting from these three Disquiet Junto projects will be played on a listening booth at the Steinatelier on September 5, as well as being aired on Radio RaBe (rabe.ch), an independent local radio station partnering with the festival.

Step 1: Download the field recordings made at Carlo Bernasconi AG, a company that has been working in stone for over a century. The sounds range from machines to manual tools to spatial ambience.

Step 2: Listen for aspects of the recordings that attract your ears. Focus on textures in particular.

Step 3: Create a piece of music combining elements from as few or as many as you chose in Step 2.

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0450” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0450” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your tracks in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0450-texture-analysis/

Step 5: Annotate your tracks with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #disquietjunto and #musikfestivalbern so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Additional Details:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, August 17, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, August 13, 2020.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0450” in the title of the tracks, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 450th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Texture Analysis — The Assignment: Create a piece of music from sounds related to working with rocks) at:

https://disquiet.com/0450/

This is the third of three projects in collaboration with Musikfestival Bern 2020 which will take place in Bern, Switzerland, from September 2 to 6. More on the festival at:

https://www.musikfestivalbern.ch/

https://www.facebook.com/musikfestivalbern/

The Rocks - disquiet0450

Time Slip

Mariánská skála

I remixed/remangled/reimagined a previous ice-originated piece, one that had already been through numerous incarnations, all based on my original ice recording in 2013 (I think).

Interestingly, you can still hear moments of tinkling iciness buried in the noise…


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The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it.

Welcome to a new year of Disquiet Junto communal music projects. This week’s project is as follows. It’s the same project we’ve begun each year with since the very first Junto project, way back in January 2012. The project is, per tradition, just this one step:

Step 1: Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.


More on this 471st weekly Disquiet Junto project — Phase Transition / The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it — at:

https://disquiet.com/0471/


Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Understated Matter - for solo double-bell horn [premiere]

Sean Quinn - Composer