Movement VI. from my piece Anthology, for string quartet, piano, and percussion...with some electronics in mvmnts. I. and VI. Commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Portland, OR-based fEAR no Music. This movement is inspired by Radiohead and I suppose Paul Lansky since it features the chord progression Radiohead lifted from the Lansky piece mild und liese for their song "Idioteque." It's a somewhat chill and contemplative conclusion to an otherwise virtuosic and often rambunctious piece.

VI. Alien Computer

The third of five tracks from RICKSPLUND (Steve Ricks, electronics n trombone; Christian Asplund, amplified viola) + Ron Coulter (percussion and lo-fi electronics) at the Springville Museum of Art on Friday, October 8, 2021. In the gallery space of the "Off the Wall" exhibit of sculptural works from the museum's permanent collection. Great acoustics, great vibes, great recording and playing by Ron Coulter. Visit the RICKSPLUND YouTube channel to see video of this performance: www.youtube.com/channel/UCzk-Qo6eKLctRE-MzMQCtrQ

RICKSPLUND + Coulter @ SMofA 3

Overlapping Voices (2021-22) represents my first collaboration with pianist Jihea Hong-Park, my friend and colleague at BYU. This piece was created for a concert Jihea and I organized with our students called "Stories of Our Time," where performers in her studio collaborated with composers in the seminar I co-direct to come up with piano works inspired by current issues. For our piece, we focused on Jihea's cultural/racial identity as a Korean American, and recent hate crimes against Asians in the US and elsewhere. In live performance some quotes that Jihea selected from recent articles, interviews, and other media sources are projected onto a screen and accompanied by resonances taken from the piano harmonies. We decided to represent the mixed feelings Asian American immigrants (and others) might feel by mixing two songs that would represent these different identities: "Gohyang-ui Bom" ("Spring in My Hometown")is used to represent Korean identity (a song Jihea remembers from her youth), and the United States National Anthem represents American identity. The piece grows out of these two songs being juxtaposed against one another, and as it builds momentum, additional musical elements intrude. At the climax of the piece, several audio clips from Stop Asian Hate protests are mixed together and lead to the final, perhaps uncertain, resolution of the piece. We hope the music, sound, and projected text help listeners empathize with the sort of conflict and struggle people from different countries and cultures often feel, and the discrimination they experience, when living in America.

The image uploaded with this track is a picture Jihea took of a banner by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya--multidisciplinary artist, educator, and activist--that hung outside the Lincoln Center in NYC.

Overlapping Voices PREMIERE PERFORMANCE

I wrote this song while riding my motorbike.

Motorbike Man

​i have these powers​ ​
​i'm so tired of using
and we're all ​tired of witnessing
all th​is​ witless abusing
​of everything everywhere
everyone trying to do the right thing​
trying to do the right thing​

​i listen and i barter
i advise and cajole
and all the energy i give
goes right in the black hole​
right in the black hole​
right in the black hole​

there's no tomorrow
so don't borrow sorrow ​

​the only consolation​
​as we watch the oceans rise
is that the only real control we have
is over what lives in our minds
what lives in our minds

trying to do the right thing​

don't borrow sorrow

Music to accompany your sweet splatter dreams

i. rushing down a steep steadily shrinking footpath on a 1995 green Nissan King Cab

ii. extreme long shot: blood spatters on Snowy Mountain (1'13'')

iii. the plastic wrapped corpse of your mother in burgundy crocodile leather wooden heeled cowboy boots (3'15'')

............

Commissioned by KLANG Festival
Premiered by Athelas Sinfonietta
Conducted by Pierre-André Valade

Music to accompany your sweet splatter dreams

´the worlds within out petty voids´ for flute, oboe, violin, viola and cello.

Written for and premiered by ensemble recherche.

Recorded by Chloe Deng.

the worlds within our petty voids

what is the simplest song?
where is it we've gone wrong?
could it be all these humans, striving for more everything?

so what is it going to be—
the cult of individuality,
or something less inclined to ruin everything?

we're in this together.
we're in this for good.
we're in this together.
we're in this for good.

ode to greta (we're in this)

Trombone Cloud Study 3

an attempt to make sense of this covid madness, in cahoots with my friend dave browne (https://soundcloud.com/david-browne-13), who laid down the initial track. 

is there anybody OUT THERE.

gotta stay put

i've been a good man and i've been a fool, 
said all kinds of dumb things just trying to be cool.
but one thing's for certain—one thing i know:
everybody deserves love, and onward we go.
if time is a river and love is the sea,
may the water move swiftly, may the passage be free.

love is the sea

I create music and sound...for chamber ensembles, soloists, occasionally large ensembles, and often including electronics.  I also improvise using my trombone, laptop, or both.  THESE ARE MY SOUNDS.  Please enjoy!

Overlapping Voices PREMIERE PERFORMANCE

SteveRicks

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