Music
As a musician my work spans the genres of electronic music, ecomusicology, chamber percussion, and percussion. I have performed in bluegrass bands, funk bands, jazz bands, percussion ensembles, classical orchestras, marching bands/percussion groups, laptop orchestras, improvisational chamber ensembles, world percussion groups, and performed on multiple newly-invented electronic instruments such as the Stratos Airglow and Lia Mice’s Chaos Bells. As a composer my music intersects chamber percussion, acoustic ecology, instrument design, and ambient electronic synthesis. As of 2023 my work mostly involves sonic art installation design, field recording, ambient music, and lofi hip hop. Scores and recordings are all available for free.
Thanks for listening!
Electronic Music
Midi Chime Collage: Edisto Island
Field recordings, MIDI Chime sessions, and electronic improvisations
In the Spring of 2023 I traveled to Edisto Island, South Carolina to capture the sights and sounds of the beautiful coastline and marshlands there. This collage features the video and audio from 6 different locations I recorded throughout both Edisto River and the State Park beachfront. There are three locations along Edisto River all around a backwoods treehouse I stayed in for a few nights: porch of the treehouse (with view of the Chimes), on a bridge across a small side creek, and facing the river during the sunset. At the State Park I recorded the saltmarsh boardwalks, the Boneyard Beach (named for the eroded trees that scatter the shore), and ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge. The series of recordings creates a sound map of the unique space that is hugely threatened by climate change and tourist capitalism - only 1.5 miles of protected coastline remain. The Midi Chime recordings were taken mostly on the boardwalk and the Boneyard Beach, simply because that's where the wind is! More information about the Midi Chimes and Edisto recordings can be found in the Art Installation and Field Recording sections of this site.
Roots
Graphic score realization with field recordings and granular synthesis
Roots is a graphic score realization with field recordings and reactive synthesis. I built a stethoscope microphone with which I recorded various wooden knocking sounds from within trees in Chewacla State Park. The pattern of the graphic score begins with three parent roots that expand in a rotating pattern of 1, 2, and 3 branched roots. From left to right, the individual “rings” of of the root system represent a section of time and the rhythmic distribution of the knocks within it. These knocks trigger melodic granular synthesizers built with Max MSP inside Ableton Live.
Symbiosis
Sonification and visualization of the interactive voltage in houseplants
Symbiosis is both an interactive performance system and an indeterminate piece of ecomusicological sound art. Plants emit passively fluctuating biometric voltage which can be measured and mapped to music with capacitive sensors and software tools. Symbiosis is built with Arduino, Max MSP, Ableton Live, and Imaginando Visual Synthesizer and features three of my personal houseplants: an Aloe Vera, a small Guiana Chestnut, and a few vines of Devil’s Ivy. Each of these plants controls different sequencers and parameters of synthesizers which results in a multidimensional soundscape of ambient interaction.
Chamber Music
Reflections on the Paintings of Vincent van Gogh: Undergrowth with Two Figures
For solo pianist/percussionist
Of all the artists, composers, and authors I have come to appreciate, Vincent van Gogh is one of the few that I cannot remember being unaware of. His work blends reality and surreality that bends the aesthetic of thematically simple topics. When I look at Undergrowth with Two Figures I think about the isolation and the intimacy that these two characters appear to be in. I think about things that two lovers might say to each other while shrouded in the dark background of the forest. This piece is a representation of the conversation that I believe these characters could have.
The Curiosity of Visual Anomalies
For ROLI Seaboard and percussion trio
One day, laying on my bed in the blinding sunlight that came from my apartment window, I had a particularly vivid sense of “eye floaters.” This piece features two percussionists opposite one another behind the audience, a third percussionist on stage, and two speakers halfway between facing inwards towards the audience. The speakers output the main musical voice: the ROLI Seaboard. After asking the audience to close their eyes, the three sources of sound combine together to create a 5-point stereophonic space analogous to the visual space that the eye floaters exist in. This audial uncertainty in this piece illustrates the phenomenon of eye floaters.
Reflections on the Frogs of Joe Petro III
For flute, clarinet, percussion, and marimba
Grimsey
For percussion and violin soloist
Since I was young, I’ve had this painting. I would stare at night thinking about the personalities of all the different frogs; their voices, size, or how their actions were depicted. I thought about how it would sound in this twilight glade with differently pitched chirps ringing out from every direction. This piece illustrates that setting and paints images of two of my favorite frogs. These two character pieces are framed by the rising and setting of the sun, bringing the serene atmosphere of Petro’s work to life.
In the summer of 2016 I had the great fortune to travel to Iceland with my father and grandfather. While I was there I visited the small island of Grímsey off the northern shore, just inside the Arctic Circle. When I arrived at the tip of Grímsey I stood on the edge of a tall cliff feeling the wind and watching the colossal waves crash onto the rocks below me. Behind me was a curvature of lush grassland that was perfectly smooth, like it had been cleanly carved out of the island with a knife. The piece has three sections: an introduction, an enclosed sonata, and a mirrored conclusion. This narrative paints the image of my journey: going, living, and coming from this serene landscape.
Performance
and Popular Music
The Chaos Bells - 2023 Guthman Showcase
I was fortunate enough to be chosen to showcase the Chaos Bells designed by Lia Mice at the 2023 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. It was my privilege and honor to design a composition and performance to show off this incredible instrument!
The Chaos Bells in Lia Mice’s own words:
“Winner of the 'Highly Commended' Award in Best Innovation of a Sound Tool or Technique at the 2021 Sound Of The Year Awards, Chaos Bells is a very large (2 metres wide and tall) instrument that features 20 gesturally performed pendulums. Chaos Bells' unique sound design in which bell sounds can drone and become chaotic is how it gained its name. A staccato (short) tone is produced by striking or tapping the instrument either on the pendulums (to create a clear tone) or the instrument frame (to create a cacophony of tones). Tilting a pendulum produces a drone (sustained tone).”
Bluegrass with The Fox Blossom Venture
Between 2012 and 2014 I toured and recorded with a bluegrass group named The Fox Blossom Venture in and around northern Arkansas along with 5 other talented musicians based in Lyon College, Batesville. We played bluegrass and gospel standards as well as recorded our own original alternative roots EP titled Autumn Leaves. We played at restaurants, heritage museums, state park visitor centers, colleges, weddings, and recorded tunes at multiple studios in Conway and Heber Springs. During my time with this group I played percussion, harmonica, and sung harmony.
Drum Stories with Randy Brush
Between 2011 and 2013 I had the incredible fortune to study and perform with master percussionist and teacher Randy Brush. Randy was a essential formative part of my musical education- he believed that the best way to improve as a player one must compose and create as much new music as possible. He was an amazing hand percussionist, and through him I gained exposure to world music that very few percussionists in the rural American south get to see. Randy’s dedication to musicality, narrative, and personal artistic expression lives with me still every single day. During my time with him we recorded and performed an album of improvisations using a wide variety of western percussion, non-western percussion and new avant-garde instruments of all kinds.
