Interfacing with the Surface [2013]

horn, cello, MIDI keyboard & electronics [10’]

commissioned by Ensemble Tzara




performance history

2/21/2014 - Ensemble TzaraKunstraum Walcheturm. Zürich, Switzerland.

2/20/2014 - Ensemble TzaraGare du Nord. Basel, Switzerland.

1/14/2014 - Fifth Floor Collective. Davis Square Theatre. Somerville, MA.

12/19/2013 - Ensemble Tzara. Constellation. Chicago, IL.

12/17/2013 - Ensemble TzaraOpensound. Somerville, MA.

12/11/2013 - Ensemble TzaraRoulette. Brooklyn, NY.

12/6/2013 - Ensemble TzaraPostremise. Chur, Switzerland.


1/20/2020 - PPCM. Kunstuni Graz. Graz, Austria.

1/12/2018 - Retro DiscoNUMU. Baden, Switzerland.

12/4/2015 - Retro Disco. St.Gallen, Switzerland.

4/10/2015 - Retro DiscoWeimarer Frühjahrstage für zeitgenössische Musik. Weimar, Germany.

11/14/2014 -  Klangforum WienWien Modern Festival. Vienna, Austria.

6/15/2014 - Ensemble TzaraGOM Gruppe für neue Musik Basel. Basel, Switzerland.

program note

Interfacing with the Surface is an attempt at creating a sonic object over which we only truly witness its exteriority, its surface. The barrage of sampled flotsam and jetsam is massively differentiated and detailed on a micro-level, but its insistence and constancy render it monolithic and undifferentiated. As an Object, it is without Substance and is all Accident. The piece is a withdrawn object, eluding our grasping of it. It withdraws not only from the observers outside of it, but also from the operators within it. It is in excess of itself, and it spews this excess upon us without deliberation.