"Contractions" was featured on The Upstate Soundscape, 4.11.12

Jim Abramson: drums, microphone
Steve Baczkowski: saxophones, record player, nonesuch (leftish)
Pat Cain: saxophones, voice, microphone (rightish)
Bill Sack: electric guitar, metals (centerish)

Abramson, Baczkowski, Cain, Sack 1/4/14 excerpt

Performance of Tohu Va Vohu by Ethan Hayden from 5/8/14.

Tohu Va Vohu (2007)- 
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." - Genesis 1:1-3

The first chapter of the book of Genesis states that God created the universe out of chaos. The Hebrew phrase for this state is tohu va vohu, which is often translated as "formless and void" or "wild and waste." Each thing God creates is part of a progression away from disorder and chaos toward order and harmony. Many Christian and Jewish scholars claim that God left the universe unfinished, making people to continue the work of creating the world, moving it away from chaos and formlessness toward order and good, and that therefore every human action either moves the world away from the tohu va vohu, or contributes to the chaos.

This piece musically explores the continuum between chaos and order. There are moments in the piece when the entire ensemble is playing together, completely unified, and there are moments in which the ensemble is totally at odds with itself, in utter disorder and chaos. The majority of the work, however, occupies the space between these two extremes, moving from one to the other, or in many different directions at once. The instrumentation is left up to the ensemble itself, and a variety of techniques, from improvisation to phase shifting, are used to create a sense of motion from one extreme to the next.

Tohu Va Vohu (Ethan Hayden)

Available soon from Marginal Frequency
http://margfreq.laminalaudio.com/2016/10/05/erik-carlson-piece-for-12-violins-parts-1-2/

Written, performed, and recorded by Erik Carlson
Recorded at the Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, UCSD, September 2016
Cover Art by Ellie Moser
C60 on high quality chrome

Piece For 12 Violins (Parts 1 & 2)

Erik Carlson: Piece For 12 Violins (Part 2) | excerpt

An excerpt of Madison Greenstone and Bryan Jacobs playing two hybrid human/mechanically controlled clarinets.

Clarient Duo (excerpt 1)

Contractions

stars from the earth stars from the stars (2019) - for amplified flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, and electronics

[Switch~ Ensemble]: Zach Sheets, flutes; Madison Greenstone, clarinets and pedals; Lauren Cauley, violin; T.J. Borden, cello; Megan Arns, percussion
Rehearsal recording, Harvard University, October 4, 2019

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more info + 24-bit/48kHz audio here: http://juliozuniga.info/works/stars_from_the_earth_stars_from_the_stars.html

stars from the earth stars from the stars

“What you’ll hear is at once wholly improvised yet compositional. These are not
compositions in the common sense of the word, but not not them either. Rather, these
pieces are really that: pieces of something hewn from a more encompassing musical
practice, gathered in composite forms. 
 
Brought together in a musicianship accustomed to the tipping velocity of
extemporization, these improvisations merge sediments, from which arises a ceaseless
and nuanced conversation with the possibilities of form. One hears T.J. hearing form
from different distances. At times circumspectly coaxing it forward, how much he doesn’t
play is just as audible as what does actually sound. We hear him considering possibilities
in the moment that they are passed over. Or, form is all immersive, creating an
unbelievable symbiosis of musical form and physical form. One follows from the other–
actions at the cello hone the ear to arising material phenomenon, which attunes the body
to hold on to them. Attuned to the materiality of the cello, and the musical potential latent
therein, T.J.’s freewheeling imagination holds court in simultaneity.” -Madison Greenstone

Contractions

T.J. Borden

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