...these images in air
...these images in air
Fixed Media With or Without Video
Composer's Note:
The guitar samples for ...these images in air were recorded in 2004 with Dan Leonard, a wonderful guitarist in the DC area, to whom I was introduced by a mutual friend. We hit the "Record" button in the studio and Dan improvised in various rock/blues styles for next hour. I had planned to get to work on this project quickly, but in 2005 I began an administrative appointment that continued through the summer of 2016, and while I wrote music during this time, I did not return to this project.
In 2018 I made some progress, but I found that the environment I had created for Dan's improvisations had "sanitized" the gritty, screaming, wildly ecstatic qualities of his playing. Things finally came together in 2021.
The title of my piece comes from the first line of an early poem by Dylan Thomas:
Conceive these images in air,
Wrap them in flame, they're mine;
from the Poems of Dylan Thomas (New Directions, 1971)
These lines seemed perfect for the sound I associate with the visionary Norwegian composer/guitarist Terje Rypdal, whose comments below from an interview (notesontheroad.com, August 2012, by Gideon Egger and Ying Zhu) speak to qualities in his music:
"I've been living here [Tresfjord, Norway] for almost twenty-five years now, but before that I moved back to Oslo...but I could never compose there. That's why I moved here. It was just a cabin then but I'm very dependent on nature, on the mountains around here. It doesn't work in the city for me."
My brief electronic work is a tribute to Terje Rypdal whose work has had a profound influence on me since I first heard his recordings in the mid-1970's.
Authored (or revised): 2021
Duration (minutes): 5
First performance: New Music DC 2022 in partnership with the University of Maryland School of Music
SKU
ACA-GIBR-018This is an archival item from ACA's catalog, and not currently available for purchase.
Description
Composer's Note:
The guitar samples for ...these images in air were recorded in 2004 with Dan Leonard, a wonderful guitarist in the DC area, to whom I was introduced by a mutual friend. We hit the "Record" button in the studio and Dan improvised in various rock/blues styles for next hour. I had planned to get to work on this project quickly, but in 2005 I began an administrative appointment that continued through the summer of 2016, and while I wrote music during this time, I did not return to this project.
In 2018 I made some progress, but I found that the environment I had created for Dan's improvisations had "sanitized" the gritty, screaming, wildly ecstatic qualities of his playing. Things finally came together in 2021.
The title of my piece comes from the first line of an early poem by Dylan Thomas:
Conceive these images in air,
Wrap them in flame, they're mine;
from the Poems of Dylan Thomas (New Directions, 1971)
These lines seemed perfect for the sound I associate with the visionary Norwegian composer/guitarist Terje Rypdal, whose comments below from an interview (notesontheroad.com, August 2012, by Gideon Egger and Ying Zhu) speak to qualities in his music:
"I've been living here [Tresfjord, Norway] for almost twenty-five years now, but before that I moved back to Oslo...but I could never compose there. That's why I moved here. It was just a cabin then but I'm very dependent on nature, on the mountains around here. It doesn't work in the city for me."
My brief electronic work is a tribute to Terje Rypdal whose work has had a profound influence on me since I first heard his recordings in the mid-1970's.