Electronic Music
Croche et Tient for MalletKAT and Quartertone Synthesizer (2003)
Commissioned by Michael Manion. Croche et Tient will be premiered in Cologne, in May 2004.
Using MAX or KeyKit MIDI echoing processes and a quartertone-tuned synthesizer, the piece explores territory charted in my Acid Bach series but with a more dramatic and longer tension-building form. Periodically, in the slower sections, the percussionist lets quartertone clusters sustain, creating a night-like atmosphere. The title, Croche et Tient, (Crush and Hold in english) is from a post card we received from Elsie's cousin who's in the French special forces (now stationed in the Coite d'Ivoire).
Croche et Tient MP3
Croche et Tient Performance Score PDF
Arddha Jangala (2003)
A piece morphing brazilian beats with Xenakis style electronic brass and microtonalisms. The feeling is of a 'half jungle'; on the outskirts of the heart of darkness. It is the third track from the free downloadable Transcension EP.
AgnusDeiWave (2002)
AgnusDeiWave is an ecstatic ambient voyage through choral textures in deep space; the culmination of a series of experiments in formant wave synthesis. Vocal analysis from a recording of Josquin's Agnus Dei motivates a timeless series of crashing heavenly vocal chords. My first piece on my Yamaha FS1R formant synthesizer.
Echoi (2002)
A canon of tiny sounds in giant spaces. Physical modelling delicacy of the most extreme kind. Three imaginary guitars resound with tiny clicks and scrapes in a virtual cathedral of immense size.
Arctogæal (2002)
Arctogæal is an exploration of icy timbres dervied from the artificial gongs used in Espace des Cloches. It's a brief, but chaotic conversational journey. Arctogæal is one of the tracks from the album, Espace
Turning the Pearl II (1992)
Turning the Pearl II is one of the previously unreleased tracks from the album Obliterature, newly remastered from 1991-1993 which is available now as a freely downloadable album Obliterature. An exploration of intense pitch bend and bending harmonies, Turning the Pearl II continues the mind-bending timbral experiments of the entire Obliterature series, such as Bright and Boundless and Conduct of the Moon and Clouds.
Métamorphose de Narcisse (2002)
Métamorphose de Narcisse, is completely derived from one very short recording of Dali speaking of the painting he painted for Dr. Sigmund Freud, Métamorphose de Narcisse, recorded by Robert Descharnes (and used with his permission). It utilizes time and pitch shifting and various other audio processes to tranform his brief speech about the painting into a surrealist commentary. Beginning with a straight recording of the sample, it proceeds to ecstatically mangle and hysterically distort into particularized gestures the sound of Dali's voice. Stylistically the piece harkens back to my early noise experiments, Golem I and II and to more recent pieces from the Obliterature series.
Métamorphose de Narcisse - MP3
Métamorphose de Narcisse - The Painting by Salvador Dali
Eroica Spettrale (2000)
Sonic rainbows descend from the clouds of the Eroica. The beginning of Beethoven's Third Symphony hyper-spatially paraphrased through time extension, pitch warpings and deep space phase-shifting effects; immensely vast, sublime, beyond... Same types of textures as Espace des Cloches, but instead of bells, heavenly choirs and orchestras reign... Credits: Ludwig van Beethoven, musical vision. Realized in part with SuperConductor software. Eroica Symphony interpeted by Dr. Manfred Clynes. Adjuctant consultant/composer Elsie Russell. Csound realization with reverb and phase-shifting orcs by Sean Costello; Feedback Delay Network Reverb model from Julius O. Smith, III. It is the second track from the free downloadable Espace album
Eroica Spettrale - MP3
Lamentation Sidérales (2000)
The title means the "Lamentations of the Stars." A slow, darkly ambient exploration of slowly morphing timbres and chords using a tuning based on the harmonic series (by Wendy Carlos). A glass harmonica instrument re-created as a giant bell-like organ slowly plays chords designed to create movement from the pulsations of beats between closely spaced harmonics. Composed May 20, 2000, Brooklyn. It is a track from my free downloadable album, Espace.
Espace des Cloches
An exploration of deep reverb spaces and very sustained sounds. Gong-like bells resound in a vast phase-shifting continuum. Definitely more ambient than is usual for me; a harkening back to the Obliterature pieces. Composed November 1999, Brooklyn, NY. It is the first track from the free downloadable Espace album.
Csound orchestras and score 
Credits: Csound realization with new reverb and phase-shifting orcs by Sean Costello, DX7 Algorithm by Russell Pinkston (Gong DX7 orc by the composer). Feedback Delay Network Reverb model from Julius O. Smith, III.
Golem I and Golem II - Dramatic and Abstract Noise Compositions
Two pieces from my undergraduate days at Louisiana State University using their fabulous bank of Moog modules, a crazed and fanatically beliggerent set of pieces using extremely distorted FM sounds. A set of 3 pieces, (the third piece is apparently lost and was realized at the Juillard School of music from material developed at LSU), exploring how extremely fast timbral and textural changes could produce movement.
Lachrimae Crystallinum
I've been finalizing the pieces for my ambient-ish CD, Espace and have finally realized a version of my piece, Lachrimae Crystallinum without those tiny clicks and pops. The piece uses an FM glass harmonica patch that has extremely high harmonics and even with Csound I was getting what appeared to be aliassing errors. Finally went back to my TG77 and piped it through my new sampler for effects, and voila. Original Notes:
A composition in the spacious ambient vein of Lamentation Sidérales, but more classical in its tonality. Using a scale derived from the harmonic series this composition builds upon a melodic motif inspired by the Beethoven Piano Sonata, Les Adieux, op. 81a. This piece is primarily a meditation on distance and the spaces between memories and attempts to evoke the musical emotions of Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, etc... deep sadness...
It is a track from the free downloadable album, Espace.