2015 In Review
Hello and happy holidays! I wanted to thank everyone for their support of my musical projects throughout 2015. Below is a recap of projects I worked on in 2015 with some free downloads, videos and other media.
In a River the Color of Lead
Early this year I released my 8th solo studio album on NOREMIXES. The album is a continuation of my exploration of the piano as an object of beauty and noise. It was released digitally and as a vinyl record (with support from Kickstarter backers). I’m very proud of this work and hope you all got a chance to listen to it.
Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet
In February I was delighted to perform with my long-time choreographic partner Nora Gibson and her company Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet in the premiere of 257,885,161-1. This ballet was a meditation on the mathematical concept of twin primes. The premiere was well received and sounded and looked gorgeous. Excerpts from the premiere can be viewed here on Vimeo.
In 2016 I’ll be working again with NGCB on an even more ambitious project EPHEMERAL, a work about time for dance, light, and environmental sound score.
EPHEMERAL
Christ Church Neighborhood House Theater, Philadelphia
Feb. 19-21
Tickets can be purchased online and you can support NGCB’s second season on their Hatchfund page.
Field Recordings / Cities and Memory
This year I began to really explore the sound world of actual places through field recording. I published several works through the brilliant UK based site Cities and Memory. Here are three pieces they published:
- Turtle River (Philadelphia) presented on World Listening Day and at the Oxford Contemporary Music Festival.
- Corca Dhuibhne (Western Ireland) field recordings and reimagined sounds recorded in Dingle and the Cliffs of Moher.
- Utopia part of an international collection of artists who created an imaginary sound world for the Thomas More novel Utopia (1515)
The last piece I wanted to share was from the Papal visit
to Philadelphia in September 2015. The piece contains recordings I
gathered over three days as about a million people descended on center
city Philadelphia to celebrate the historic visit by Pope Francis. As
with many of these recordings, I sought to remove the element of time
and create a shifting landscape of timeless space.
dark matter
This season I am Artist in Residence at <fidget> along with choreographer / artist Zornitsa Stoyanova. In November we collaborated on the performance film dark matter. It was premiered at the <fidget> Fall Experimental Music Festival.
The above photo is by Glenn Benge from the premiere.
Here’s a review from Thinking Dance
Excerpt from dark matter on Vimeo
Save the Date
In March 2016 I’ll be performing another
concert at <fidget>. This is going to be a 12-hour long concert of
sleep music! Bring a sleeping bag, pillow and blanket, enjoy some dream
tea and snuggle in for 12-hours of dream drones and tape loop
lullabies. I’ll be performing ambient music all night with visuals from
Alex Bond focusing on themes of Bardo, reincarnation, Dream Yoga and
sleep (un)consciousness.
To get a taste of the kind of music you’ll hear, please check out my 2014 sleep music album, Quiescent. It’s an eight hour mix of music for the four sleep cycles.
Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State
March 19 7pm – March 20 7am
thefidget space
Happy New Year!
Michael