12/15/09 NEW AUDIO FOR YOUR EARS
Check out the “listen” page for an excerpt of the premiere of “Comet Tails (Which Way?)”; it will hopefully soothe you during the holiday meltdown.
11/11/09 PREMIERE!!!
My new piece for cello and vibes is called “Comet Tails (Which Way?)”, and it will be premiered on Dec. 1st at 8 pm, Auer Recital Hall, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University Bloomington (and my fingers are now out of breath). For those of you in the area, I’d love to see you at the concert. Bring friends. Bring pets. Just make sure that they don’t bark and that they turn their cell phones off. It’s a student composer concert, so there will be plenty of exciting music to hear, smell and taste.
Now I am working on a solo piano piece for a studio collaboration between Don Freund and Jean-Louis Haguenauer. I would love to say that I am thrilled to be writing for my main instrument, but it has, so far, been sheer intimidation. That road has so many footprints on it already, and I’m not sure I really have much to add to the canon. I have been having fun using interval chains, and this has led to some pretty cool spastic rhythms and expansive textures. But I wish the piano had some built-in effects units that I could use: maybe a ring modulator or granular synthesis patch. Guess I’ll save that for a later piece!
I’m also working in the electronic studio on a piece for electric guitar, Max/MSP and ProTools called “Madame Psychosis”. So far it has been loads of fun. I get my fingers dirty playing electric guitar, and I get to twiddle knobs and make crossfades. It will be part of an ongoing series of pieces for electric guitar that are in honor of characters/scenes/vernacular of David Foster Wallace novels.
LISTENING TO: Flaming Lips Embryonic, solo piano works of Salvatore Sciarrino and Giacinto Scelsi
DIGGING: Kale, 30% Bi Bim Bap and Udon at Ami, Genmaicha green tea, the last two sunny Tuesdays
NOT DIGGING: the lame Thai restaurant on the corner of 4th and Dunn (learn how to cook rice and lower your prices!), my allergies, the lack of a good grocery store in Bloomington
10/25/09 I’VE BEEN PODCASTED!
Richard Zarou is a composer and writer that is doing a great service for composers like me. He started a blog and podcasts a series of interviews with young composers, allowing us a chance to present our work and our silly opinions. He recently featured me, and you can listen while you work.
Go visit Richard’s site to hear what he is doing.
10/15/09 THE IDES OF OCTOBER ARE UPON ME
So my first piece written in B-town is almost finished. It’s a piece for cello and vibes (vibraphone, in case you are a purist) and it is unlike anything I have ever written. Looks like I will have a December premiere if my ducks will line up properly. I need to find a vibes player (or a vibraphonist, or a mallet percussionist, or a…), so anyone in B-town that knows anyone can shout my way. The piece is called either:
a. “Comet Tails (which way?)”
b. “Which Way Comet Tails?”
c. “What Would Comet Tails Do?”
d. “WWCTD?”
I’m also working on a piece for electric guitar and Max/MSP to add to my collection Brief Interviews With Hideous Guitars. This new episode is going to be called Madame Psychosis and it sounds like this:
#$^W$%^&!!!#^$^
It will be performed live by me and my laptop at the Electronique Muzik Konzert at the Jacobs School.
More specifics will follow. Stay tuned.
For those of you that might know me from THE PENNIES, check out our Myspace page for some updates. I recently found some demos for songs that were slated to be on 10,000 Things that were recorded by Kevin Coultas live to 8-track tape, and I am posting them to our page. Visit my links page to find the address.
LISTENING TO: Somei Satoh, Jim O’Rourke The Visitor, Flaming Lips Embryonic, Grizzly Bear Veckatimist, George Crumb Ancient Voices of Children, Morton Feldman Patterns in a Chromatic Field
DIGGING: Turkuaz Cafe (Holy Pide! I’m in garlic heaven!), Saturday Farmer’s Market, Runcible Spoon’s house-roasted espresso, Bored to Death, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Top Chef Las Vegas, 50% off bi bim bap at Cafe Ami
NOT DIGGING: Bloomington’s seemingly inexplicable traffic, trixies galore, that silly Balloon Boy (you wasted your 15 minutes and almost had F-16s looking for you, you little ingrate!), the espresso at a certain bakery near school