objects of memory, out now on line

release: – out april 12, 2011, objects of memory on richard chartier’s line imprint

from the label press release:

beneath the fabricating and universal writing of technology, opaque and stubborn places remain . . . hidden in customs, rites, and spatial practices . . . only fragments in language . . . like the deteriorating pages of a book

– Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life

These works occupy a position between an expanded notion of composition and a gallery-based art practice. The content of the works presented on this disc produce a slow series of gestures that give the illusion of stillness amidst a texture of continually developing material. The central concern in all of these pieces (the three fully scored works, the installation documentation, and the live-performance) is the construction of a sound world that is able to be environmental rather than temporal, proceeding slowly enough that it might be explored without the anxiety that it will move away too quickly. Like much of my output, I am interested in providing the listener with material that allows for an active agency of perception and that affords the ability to move through the sound autonomously. Whether the work is gallery-based, conceptual, or created for a concert hall, I am interested in viewing simple, everyday actions at extreme magnification, acknowledging failure by amplifying impossible tasks, and exploring the role of memory in forms that respect the contract between the composer, performer, and listener.

1. objects in stillness
for bassoon, viola, guitar, percussion, and four sine tones (2006). 07:26

2. a radiance scored with shadow
for amplified paper, bowed vibraphone, bass drum, and compressed air (2007). 08:19

3. a murmur which redoubles
for three guitars, electric bass, and four sine tones (2006). 07:18

4. doleros (audio tourism at ringing rocks)
reclaimed building materials, steel, baler twine, speaker cones, light, and 12.1-channel audio (2008). 19:35

5. untitled (objects of memory)
cassette dictaphones, circuit-modified portable cassette player, controlled feedback, and computer-generated and vocally-produced sine tones (2009). 26:03

1-3: recorded by Alex Kass at Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. 1: Clogs: Bryce Dessner, Rachael Elliot, Thomas Kozumplik, and Padma Newsome. 2: So Percussion: Douglas Perkins, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Lawson White. 3: Catch Guitar Quartet: Wiek Hijmans, Seth Josel, Patricio Wang, and Mark Haanstra. 4: audio documentation of installation at Diapason Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. 5: live performance at NYC Sound Festival, Centre d’Arts Plastiques Contemporains/Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France.