"There are two endless directions. In and out."
—Agnes Martin

Composed for JACK Quartet’s 2019 NYU residency

I/O (JACK Quartet)

Under Stars is a generative composition. Generative music is, in Brian Eno's words, "music that is ever-different, changing, and created by a system." In this system, I have given the computer a set of parameters to improvise an infinitely-long ambient piece of music.

Under Stars (excerpt)

Amorphous combines my endeavours in minimalist and ambient music, and my endeavours in composition and improvisation. My vision for this piece was to create a mass of sound that appears both stationary and constantly in motion. Clouds of harmonic clusters merge throughout, surfing in a sea of rhythm.

Amorphous (NYU Percussion Ensemble)

Commissioned and performed by the Franklin High School Trombone Ensemble

Directed by Jacob Campos

Premiered at the 2019 Music For All Chamber Music National Festival

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The Geminids is one of the most prominent meteor showers each year. At its peak in mid-December, up to 160 meteors can be seen per hour. One thing that makes the Geminids stand out from others is that it is caused by an asteroid, whereas almost all other meteor showers are caused by comets. I have many memories with this particular shower—it was the first shower I ever watched, and I’ve gotten to share it with many friends over the years. In composing this, I thought of the journey of the asteroid making its way around the sun and its debris falling through our atmosphere.

Geminids

Composed for Quince Ensemble’s residency with NYU's Nevermind the Noise

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As a child, I “accidentally” fell in love with drones. I would harmonize with the humming machinery around me, especially the motors of fans and fridges. For That Which Blooms is a look back to those days, exploring the ways in which I once sang with machines.

For That Which Blooms (Quince Ensemble)

Performed by Wesley Fowler at the 2019 Nief-Norf Summer Festival

Quantum Foam is centered on the processes of expansion and contraction, which are embedded into every element of the music and technology. When I think of these motions, I think of the Cyclic Universe model. This model shows the universe expanding following the Big Bang, slowing to a halt, and then contracting. During the contraction period, the small-scale fluctuations of spacetime, known as “quantum foam”, would change. Eventually, the universe would collapse to a singularity and another big bang would soon ensue, restarting the infinite cycle. In recent years, evidence has shown that the expansion of the universe is actually accelerating, thus rendering this model unlikely. However, I still find the concept aesthetically interesting as some kind of infinite organism in perpetual motion.

Quantum Foam (Wesley Fowler)

Commissioned and composed for the 2019 Art Song Collaborative Project's "Cries of the Earth"

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If any place should be unspoiled
It is here
Why won’t they listen?

Eighty-thousand tons
Plastic soup
Eighty thousand tons
One-point-six million kilometers
Growing closer
One-point-six million kilometers

Million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million million kilometers

Plastic bags
Children’s toys
Eel trap cones
Tooth Brushes
Lighters
Fishing nets
Crates
Oyster spacers
Bottles
And bottle caps

Plastic soup
Growing closer

When the rain comes down
On tomorrow’s brave new world
You’ll put on your plastic rain coat

Plastic soup
Growing closer
It will consume us

When the rain comes down
On tomorrow’s brave new world
You’ll put on your plastic rain coat

Cries of the Earth

Consume Us (from Cries of the Earth)

Blue Ridge is informed by the peaks and valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the largest province of the Appalachian Mountains. The piece is written in four overlapping sections, representing the 3 highest peaks in the mountain range, as well as one of the lowest and oldest gorges:

Clingmans Dome (Tennessee—6,643 feet)
Mount Craig (North Carolina—6,647 feet)
New River Gorge (West Virginia—1,067 feet)
Mount Mitchell (North Carolina—6,684 feet)

Composed for and performed by the NYU Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Wayne du Maine.

Blue Ridge

"Resonator" accentuates the resonant qualities of Hypercube's instrumentation, accumulating a cloud of droning overtones above a fast and rhythmic quartet. While much of my music consists of long-form unfolding processes, this music is full of abrupt interruptions, inspired by Tony Conrad's essay "A Few Remarks Before I Begin": "Attention needs guideposts for focus. Exploration of alternative attentiveness is a valuable cultural commodity."

HYPERCUBE is:
Chris Graham: percussion
Andrea Lodge: piano
Erin Rogers: saxophone
Jay Sorce: guitar

Resonator (Hypercube)

Alex Ring Gray is a composer, performer, and multimedia artist. With projects spanning the concert hall, sound installations, and electronic mediums, his work is concerned with psychoacoustics, environment, and process. Heavily involved as an improviser, his music is often characterized by a deeply physical performance practice juxtaposed with rich drone textures.

Based in New York, Alex works as music assistant to Philip Glass, helping with his new scores and productions. He is a close collaborator of the organizations Nief-Norf and InfraSound. He recently completed his MM at NYU, where he studied with Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe.

Alex Ring Gray

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