TRYING TO TALK WITH A MAN
Here is a link to Adrienne Rich reading her poem that was used for the text of this piece “Trying to talk with a man”. This poem’s imagery pins the reader between a romantic relationship turned mildly threatening, the narrator’s confrontation with terrifying and previously unacknowledged aspects of her herself, and the quiet menace of nuclear research. I had written the majority of this piece during the pandemic lockdown and the idea of being forced to confront an internal silence, now that everything else had been stripped away, struck me with such force.
The electronics for this work reflect a growing eclecticism in my sonic material. I share the musique concrète composer’s conviction that every sound is potential musical material as well as their historical dislike for synthesized sounds. Every sound that I use is a sound that I have encountered out in the world. Some of them I have recorded myself, some are recordings I have received from friends, and some are the products of public archives. In a way, the diversity of my sound worlds is my acknowledgement of the immeasurable vastness and beauty of the universe we live in. To be tongue and cheek, this makes possible a sort of auditory “where’s Waldo.” (Can you spot the the seashell jewelry, the circular saw, the sweeping up of glass off the floor, the flute tones convolved with a wine glass played on the rim?)