surround and stereo mixes
2nd Prize, #wildsound competition, 2015
Performances:
- CECM Recital, Auer Hall Indiana University, Bloomington, IN – 04/15/2013
- Symposium on Acoustic Ecology, University of Kent, Kent, UK – 11/8-9/2013
- Sound in the Land, University of Waterloo, ON, Canada – 06/07/2014
- High Concept Laboratoires @ MANA Contemporary, Chicago, IL – 09/20/2014
- N_SEME, Bowling Green University, Bowling Green, OH – 03/06-07/2015
- SEAMUS, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA – 03/26-28/2015
- Arts & Nature on the River, Four Rivers Environmental Education Center, Channahon, IL – 06/17/2017
Program Note:
I started grainstream by recording the sound of seeds and grains pouring into mixing bowls. The many discrete attacks of individual grains and the resonance from the vessels fuse into granular textures. From the simple gesture of pouring, I sculpted these sounds into evolving streams and scattered them across the multichannel sound-field. The first streams appear very close (hyper-real) and begin to accumulate in density. Gradually, processed (unreal) streams emerge with more aggressive characters and overtake the ‘natural’ sounds. Suddenly, a hail storm (real) interrupts with percussive, rhythmic character that is then washed over by swirling, ritualistic bells. grainstream is a meditation on the centuries old practice of seed-saving and the threats imposed by patenting seed DNA. My aim is to create a music that embraces the need for balancing variety and repetition in rich, sustainable systems (both musical and agricultural).