A DREAM IS A HOUSE for remembering the future

Collaborators, Compositions, Performances, Uncategorized, , ,


A DREAM IS A HOUSE for remembering the future from Biba bell on Vimeo.

A DREAM IS A HOUSE for remembering the future, created in collaboration by Biba Bell (Dance) and Joo Won Park (Music), is an hour-long immersive performance created for twenty-one Wayne State University (WSU) dancers and the WSU Electronic Music Ensemble in Minoru Yamasaki’s McGregor Conference Center atrium. A DREAM IS A HOUSE brings together sound, light, movement, embodiment, and storytelling together in the cathedral-esque modernism of Yamasaki’s architecture, evoking creative research driven by memory palaces, buildings as bodies, dream scenes, dancing with ghosts, and personal and collective ritual making. – from Vimeo site

My ensemble (EMEWS) and I worked with Biba and her Dance Class to make a site-specific, multi-channel piece over the Winter 2022 semester. The above is an excerpt of a 60-min piece. McGregor Hall’s architecture and acoustics were ideal for music and movement. I am happy about the result. The in-person experience was something unique, but Noah Eliott Morrison‘s team documented the essential experience of the piece in the video. 

Although EMEWS has worked on the piece since March, I started working on it in August 2021. Biba and I spent Fall 2021 trying ideas and finding voices. The video below is a shorter version of A DREAM…  presented at an end-of-semester showcase.

A dream is a house for remembering the future 12.07.21 from Biba bell on Vimeo.

The Fall version’s 15min stereo audio expanded to a 60-min piece for a laptop ensemble and a guitarist, each emitting sounds from a portable amp. The music evolved and adjusted every week as the choreography changed, and the ensemble ended up performing based on the score below.
I think music can have an altered life. I plan to perform an audio-only ensemble version in an upcoming show. Let’s see how it goes. 




HUMAN: a multi sensory puppet experience for ages 5+

Collaborators,

I worked with Asheville Creative Arts and Nehprii Amenii (Khunum Productions) on a puppet theatre piece over the past nine months. My role was to provide post-apocalypse underwater sounds as a sound designer. HUMAN ran for two weeks in May. Pictures and links below show some scenes from the show.

More info is here. Audiovisual documents will be published soon!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CdinWgfOVEL/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcgA-9CgSZB/

Notes and Comments : Remix EP

Compositions, ,

I write notes and comments in books, journals, and PDFs. Underlines and scribbles of my thoughts do not change the work, but they help me remember what I liked most about the work and the artist. The four tracks in this album are the sonic equivalent of notes and comments. I highlighted the most memorable characteristics while trying my best to preserve the intent of the original piece. The last track is not a remix, but it is my way to document a few good things about the summer of 2020.

The original tracks are

Alex Koi, Last Goodbye (2020)
alexkoi.bandcamp.com/track/last-goodbye

Michael Malis, Imperfect Intervals IX – Gently, Freely (2021)
michaelmalis.bandcamp.com/track/imperfect-intervals-ix-gently-freely

Molly Jones, Solar Wind (2020)
mollyjones.bandcamp.com/track/solar-wind

Jienan Yuan, Invisible Embrace (2021)
youtu.be/7sU4ilzXnmg

* All tracks were used with the permission of the composers/publishers. Profits made from the sale will be distributed to the remixed artists.
* Overall mix of the EP is relatively low and uncompressed for quiet listening.

credits

released February 2, 2022

Molly Jones, Alex Koi, Michael Malis, & Jienan Yuan, composers
Joo Won Park, composer & remixer

Page Turner’s Agony (2021)

Uncategorized,

A page turner, in my experience, has one of the most stressful musical roles. A single mistake could ruin the concert, but the audience does not recognize the turner’s craftsmanship when the task gets done skillfully. Performing music with a computer shares the same position. A mouse click or fader movement on stage does not get praise since anybody can do it. Yet, electronic musicians practice sequences and combinations of those simple actions to express and share something unique. I hope that this piece shows the possibility of digital virtuosity.

SuperCollider code:

PageTurner.scdDownload