Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, cond. Arash Yazdani
All the instrumental material in this piece is derived from a poem written in 1910 by the Estonian writer Juhan Liiv. Only later did I discover that, at the time of writing, Liiv had already been suffering from schizophrenia for several years—yet he continued to produce some of his most beautiful and profound works, including this luminous text.

I began by analyzing the spectral content of Estonian syllables, extracting rhythms, overtones, and coarticulations. The structure of the work follows this process: from vowel-based overtone chords to verse-derived harmony and rhythm, and finally to melodies shaped by the contours of speech.
By working in this way, I believe the text revealed yet another layer of both lightness and darkness embedded in the language Liiv chose. With a wealth of material generated from this analysis, I sought to shape a form that would be sensitive both to the meaning of the text and to its overtone fabric.
The final section is a multilayered composition of pre-recorded voices—some of which seemed to haunt me during the creation of this work.

New tracks tagged #Contemporary, Phonetics, Microtonality