Dry (2013) 18'

program note

‘like being in a parched climate devoid of water. only the barest form of life is possible. one starts to hallucinate, longing for refreshment…’

I’ve been trying to strip away the elements that we think of as music, especially emotion, but also melody and harmony, to create a very stark music that, upon closer listening, reveals itself to be fully animated. In other words, a very dry kind of music, brittle but vibrant, that allows the mind to be open to hearing other elements, fragments that remind us of what music used to be. In Dry, a few downward tilting notes comprise a unit of sorts that keeps ricocheting back on itself. Through the compiling of these ricocheting notes, vigorous rhythms build and decay. I think of the sound patterns that result from these echoing notes as an invention in the mind of the listener. It’s similar to the patterns one starts seeing when looking at a Rothko painting. Dry is part of the Cold, Dry, Dark trilogy.

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