Category: solo

Albums, solo

Cyclical Traces

Digital EP released Feb. 2022.

These five pieces, created over a period of five days in May – June 2021, were composed from field recordings, detuned piano, modular and software synths, and found objects. They were originally made to accompany the Auxart 1 installation by Philip Krohn, and were later (re)mixed to stereo.
Recorded and layered as long improvisational takes, these pieces represented a somewhat new way of working – a kind of sonic diary that captured a particular moment in time, including its weather, insects and birds. Accepting of accidents, embracing small gestures, embedding accretions of time. Lightly edited into loose forms, the five sections wander slowly across a landscape, and sometimes stumble across a surprising shape.

Photo by Sarah Marguier

Albums, solo

m_puls

Digital EP, released April, 2020.

Anonymous spaces, silent inhabitants, dramatic inquiries, narrative suggestions. Random impacts, borrowed objects, fragmented voices, FM synthesis, room tone. Sudden junctures, nostalgic returns, soft entryways, aggressive escapes.

Albums, solo

Bounds

bounds

LP, 39:30
composed 2012 – 2013
Aufabwegen AATP47

Bounds treats recorded sound as infinitely malleable; from grains to pulses to pitches to rhythms, loops and cycles; interruptions, repetitions, spaces, pauses; strings in a continuum. Sounds sourced from percussion instruments, subjected to techniques of micro-editing and impulse-response reverb. Acoustic events become alien tones in strata of (artificial) real space.

Album art by Harrison Higgs

Albums, solo

Lair

lair

Cassette, 26 min.
Draft Records D020, edition of 100
Artwork by Harrison Higgs.

Meticulously edited studio constructions composed of metallic rattles and impacts, vocal whoops and grunts, and digital silence. A refined use of digital editing techniques gives way to jagged repetitive structures, arrhythmic punk and wild cinematic spaces. Percussive elements are fused together, extracted from found objects, field recordings, synthetic tones, crashes, and drum machine thuds. The textures of hip hop, electronic, industrial and noise are filtered through the craft of musique concrete and sound design. These miniatures serve as a more synthetic and noisy partner to Knives (released in 2009 on Senufo).

Continue reading “Lair” →
Albums, solo

Furl

furl
Sonoris sns-09 CD. Composed 2007 – 08, released 2010.
Cover art by Harrison Higgs.

Reviews

 
 

Open clusters, animal patterns, resonant “ghosts”, dynamism, percussive bursts and awkwardness.  Sources include voice, plucked springs, dry branches, various metal objects, Fender Rhodes, struck pipes, detuned hammer dulcimer, bass drum, clapping, trombone, dry bamboo, signal generator, blown pipes, Chinese mouthharp, church organ, prepared piano, prepared synth, and recordings of the Chicago O’Hare Airport, a rushing stream, mineral deposits in water, snow crystals, heating vents and industrial areas in Portland, OR.

Continue reading “Furl” →
Albums, solo

Knives

Senufo Edition 01 LP, numbered limited edition of 180
composed and released 2009

Physicality, suspense, cinematic effects, rhythmic ruptures, and dynamism. Compositional processes include improvisation, blind layering, random muting, re-amping, impact alignment.  Many of these tracks were used in the dance performance Bandage a Knife.  Sources include organ, prepared synthesizer, trombone, string trio, voice, plucked springs, leather, blown pipes, ice shards, signal generator, drum kit, drum machine, clapping, breaking glass, bowed acoustic guitar, plucked and bowed hammer dulcimer, Fender Rhodes, snapping twigs, piano, feedback, stones, and field recordings of freezing rain on plastic, a rushing stream, a market in Kyoto.

Albums, solo

Flock & Tumble

flocktumble

CD, 53 min.
Sonoris sns-06
composed 2006 – 07, released 2008
Cover art by Harrison Higgs

Choral clusters, animalism, extended spaces, natural acoustics, awkwardness, percussive bursts. Site-specific improvisation, blind layering, sonic hybrids, envelope manipulation, faulty tape recorders, live feedback/distortion devices.  Sources include voice, hammer dulcimer, glass xylophone, metal objects, feedback, signal generator, detuned piano, harmonica, wood pieces, fireworks, chimes, bamboo swords, sawblades, glass on tile, bass drum, flute, plucked autoharp, tuning forks, snare drum, 300 lbs of rock salt, a book, and recordings of rain in a half-finished cabin, melting snow on leaves, rain on a plastic roof, struck wood (from inside a well pipe), a graveyard and a schoolyard in Portland, OR, ice crystals and wind in the Columbia Gorge, WA.

Continue reading “Flock & Tumble” →
Albums, solo

Amnemonic Site

amnemonic

CD, 46 min.
Alluvial Recordings, composed 2004 -06, released 2007.

Percussive bursts, linked events, micro-envelopes, spatial dissonance and crowd noises, Amnemonic Site: a “place of forgetting” – a temporary zone of amusia (the loss of ability to understand music).  Sources include wood, fabric, tuning forks, fireworks, beans in various containers, Balinese gamelan, oscillator, blown organ pipes, brass organ reeds, Serge modular synth, metal pieces, and recordings of parks and New Year’s celebrations in Chinatown, Manhattan.

Continue reading “Amnemonic Site” →
Albums, solo

Uva

uva

mini-CD, 20 min.
20City 20-9
Composed 2001, released 2003

Sequential transformations, the slow revealing of hidden sonic events, linking of sonic layers, re-recording inside resonant objects and room tone. Sound as invention through disorientation (uva / grape / wine / disorientation / mutation = ova / fertility / emergence of form).  Sources include ceramic rods, bowed autoharp, metal chain, small glasses suspended in water, and recordings of wind in the Columbia River Gorge, WA.