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Projects realized at the University of Louisville Computer Music Studio

puncture spills and viscera scrapes - Tanner Jones (2022)
cello - Stephen Marotto, live electronics - Tanner Jones 

"We had come from nests of winter,
from daffodils with raw weeks to go,
to hot skin and roadside azaleas blurring red...
...I swear to stay home next year
but know the roaming will insist."
Allison Cummings' "American Roadkill"

Irony Ward - Nicholas Hall (2016)

electronics - NIck Hall

Irony Ward was composed in 2015 as a part of an electronic computer studio project using MAX/MSP. The piece explores sampling and various manipulations of a given sample, as well as sound synthesis architecture available in MAX/MSP (i.e. reverse playback, reverse and sped up, white noise, etc.) All sounds (Rhodes piano and electric guitar) were recorded within a digital audio workstation and puzzle- pieced together utilizing various MAX/MSP objects and signal paths. The resulting composition is somewhat retro and ethereal, with hypnotic drones and polyrhythms. 

Drift - Quinn Dizon (2015)

Clarinet - Samantha Holman

Drift is a composition for solo clarinet and tape in four channels. The tape accompaniment consists entirely of pre-recorded audio of the soloist. Throughout the work the tape accompaniment and the soloist are constantly at odds, each refusing to fully accept the others interjections. Drift was composed in 2015 for Samantha Holman, and was premiered on April 8th, 2015 in Comstock Hall at the University of Louisville.

Voyager Encounter - Quinn Dizon (2015)
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On September 5, 1977, the voyager missions began with the launch of the Voyager 1 space probe. On August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 entered the interstellar space, and is currently the furthest manmade object from the earth. On board the probe, NASA included a golden record containing, among other things, audio of greetings in 55 languages, and musical excerpts from cultures around the world. Voyager Encounter uses these audio samples along with spectrogram readings from the space probe as it moved into Jupiter’s sphere of influence. The work explores the “noise” provided on the golden record and the vast and empty silence of space. The final audio sample on the golden record, Gavotte en rondeau from Bach’s Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, features prominently in the composition. Voyager Encounter is a comparison of the past and present. It is a commentary of how the great achievements of the past have influenced our exploration into the future.

Switch - Yvonne Freckmann (2012)
clarinet - Dylan Lloyd

Switch, for clarinet and live electronics, is about a clarinet having a dialogue with itself. Melodies and motives change directions, and other shapes such as palindromes play a central part in the design of this piece. This piece was written for clarinet and Max/MSP, utilizing live processing and pre-recorded clarinet samples.

Tape Study No.1 - Ermir Bejo (2011)
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Tape Study No.1 was composed in late 2011. The work lasts about 4 minutes, and is the first piece among a projected 6 piece-cycle of other electro-acoustic studies.

F5 - Derrick Anderson (2011)
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The piece is made up of two juxtaposing elements: short percussive sounds and long tones created by the close placement of those very same short sounds. As the two layers grow in intensity, they reach a climactic point at the exact same time, though their intensity then fades at a different rate. The title comes, first of all from the coincidentally named key on a computer keyboard, but mainly from the Fibonacci sequence. Though 0 in the sequence is designated as F0 and 1 as F1, the numbers then begin to move on separate tracks until 5, which is F5. That is the last point in the sequence where such a thing happens, fitting the concept of my piece.

UofL Study - José Julio Diaz Infante (2011)
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Fixed media piece created with source materials based on field recording created at the UofL Belknap campus

Magnetostriction - Michael Montgomery (2011)
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Close your eyes and bon voyage!

Dream Sequence - Rene Orth (2011)
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When beginning this work, I wanted to see if I could create a picture, a story – an experience – without the use of a visual component and with only the use of sound. Dreams, I felt, were a perfect subject to recreate.
Each movement represents a common dream that most of us have experienced at one time or another – or if not, are at least aware of them. These dreams do not reflect my own; they are, rather, the culmination of a wide variety of dreams of people who have patiently answered my strange questions and vividly described what happens in their head as they sleep. No two dreamers share the same exact dream, but common threads do exist, and these are what I have sought to recreate and expand upon.
The work is not to be played through in one sweep. Instead, the movements ought to be presented in random order throughout the concert, rarely – if never – back to back, and without indication as to which might arrive next. For when we sleep, we do not know what dreams may await us. As I used additional voices beyond my own, it is also worthy to note the other voice talents represented – all of to whom I am most grateful: Bethany Stiles, Kenneth Oeth, Caroline Knight Drury, Jason Palamara, and Jonathan Carter. Most of the original samples were recorded with a Yamaha Pocketrak CX in Louisville, Dallas, the Grand Canyon, LA, and London.

Radio Music - Zach Thomas (2011)
radios, live electronics - Zach Thomas

Radio Music is a composition for four radios and electronics. The live radio signals are processed in real time via a program written in Max/MSP. Processing techniques include granular synthesis and various convolution filters.

Icaro - Adriana Guzman (2011)
flute, live electronics - Adriana Guzman

An Icaro is a Shamanic power song learned from an elder shaman or transmitted in dreams by spirits. Every being in the rainforest has an Icaro and its melody is powerful. Shamans have sung traditional Amazonian Icaros through several centuries with different purposes. To call defenders, cure illnesses, reinforce the effect of medicinal plants, attract the love of another, call the spirits of the deceased, cause rain, wind or thunder, for bewitching, and for hunting or fishing certain animals. This piece combined material influenced by Icaros sung by actual shamans in Ayahuasca ceremonies with sound samples recorded from authentic pre-Hispanic globular flutes belonging to the Colombian Tuza culture (1250-1500 A.D.).

Cthreelhu - Joey Crane (2011)
voice - Matteo Barnett, electronics - Joey Crane

This piece is dedicated to the late Vampire Squid and the late Victor Borge.

Snake Repellent I - Zach Thomas
violin - Jason Palamara, cello - Joey Crane, electronics - Zach Thomas, spatialization, Krzysztof Wolek

Snake Repellent is a structured improvisation for two instrumentalists and live electronics. All of the processing occurs live in a program written in Max/MSP by the composer. Live audio from the instrumentalists is fed into the program controlled by a third performer, while a fourth performer determines the location of the processed sounds from the center of the room with an iPhone, via wi-fi.

Emit And Excite And Emit - Joe Burchett (2010)
mandolin - Joe Burchett

In the final stages of a star much like our Sun, it blows off its atmosphere in all directions and leaves its hot, dense core exposed. The ultraviolet radiation emitted from the core excites the surrounding gas that is racing away through space, causing it to shine brilliantly as a planetary nebula.

The Shaman's Voice Adriana Guzman (2009)
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The shaman’s voice is a tape composition created with recorded sounds of authentic Colombian clay Ocarinas with shell shape by the Tuza Culture (1250-1500 A.D), a ceramic complex located in the Colombian southwest. The sounds of these pre-Hispanic instruments probably imitated the natural environment of this people, and it is believed that they were used in ceremonies and rituals calling for the rain and the blessing of the crop.

Move In Place Joe Burchett (2009)
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The intention of Move In Place is to convey the feeling of motion, while using surround sound audio to build rhythmic and harmonic textures within that moving space. The effect is that, outside of the spatial arrangement (for example, in a different room), the driving rhythm is felt but it is upon entering the aural space that one perceives the textural complexity. The piece is wholly comprised of five individual notes played on a guitar that were recorded and digitally manipulated to produce the various pitches and timbres heard. 

Music For Your Brain Olives - Zach Thomas (2009)
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This piece exploits the acoustic phenomenon of beating which occurs when two imperfectly tuned intervals sound simultaneously. More specifically, it uses very closely tuned intervals smaller than a semitone which are presented in opposing speaker channels placed throughout the room as a means of controlling formal development. All sounds present are processed from a harmonica and white noise. The title refers to the olivary nuclei in the brain which are used for the auditory processing of binaural beats

Ngs Not Sa - James Young (2009)
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The concept for ...ngs not sa... came from the final incarnation of Miles Davis, from his experiments in jazz fusion in which the sensibilities of jazz and rock are intertwined. Oftentimes, within Davis’ band, the music would focus into a mad, energetic chattering of percussion and winds, each player working separately towards a unified goal. Davis’ restrained, expertly placed trumpet drove and contextualized the soundscape. This work, ...ngs not sa..., is an attempt to emulate that style, where what is said is much less than what is felt