Ghost Life is an ongoing project and its concept is always changing for me. When it first started, I wanted to combine my love of pop and ethnic music with ensemble organization. The instrumentation allowed me to put percussion up front to form its own narrative. At an age where anybody can play a single instrument and fill up a room completely with sound, I wanted all the individual sounds of the group to be tiny. I also tried to avoid any use of chord progressions, relying instead on the constanly shifting rhythmic elements and combinations to sustain interest in the pieces. I've started making virtual ensemble performances to highlight the physical elements of the sound. That element is an important factor in this music and it might be lost on just a listen through. After years of performances with little documentation, I wanted to have some represantaion that would highligt the sound generating process of the physical action.

I've been accompanying and collaborating with singer, Wheatie Mattiasich since 2012

This is a song cycle made up of 4 sections. There is a break between sections 2 and 3, but the other sections are connected. The first 2 minutes consist of a few layers of drum machines playing. Each layer is made up of little sounds and the relationship between the layers shift and evolve. Eventually acoustic instruments join in and sprout songs over the rhythmic base. Each of these beginning section starts instrumentally and ends with a vocal entrance. The last 2 sections mimic the beginning in an expanded way. Section 3 "the cathedral" eventually leads into "the world is always disappearing" (section 4) which is a vocal section. The whole scheme of the work goes like this: Relay 1 (percussion introduction, instrumental section leading to vocals); Relay 2 (percussion transition, instrumental section leading to vocals)// Relay 3 ("cathedral" organ introduction/transition, instrumental section leading to the song"the world is always disappearing"). The use of a sample that exists throughout the piece is another element that ties it all together.

My usual mode of working is to work on something for a span of time. That way I have some time get some new perspective and develop ongoing ideas. While working out the end of the Relay song cycle, I was getting frustrated by going back to the same material over and over. I decided to sit down and write a song and see it through to the end (or close to it) in the course of an hour or two. This gave me some distance from the main project at hand, and gave me a sense of accomplishment. It turned out to be a good exercise and I continued to do it. After a while I realized that I had acquired a few songs that I liked and wanted to do something with them. My approach to these songs is very different from my usual working methods and the ideas behind this project continue to progress. These songs are based on the pop model, although the structures are worked differently. There is an ongoing development within the parts, and the parts are rarely repeated verbatim. This project is meant to be performed live, and I have been rehearsing a group to play these tunes in the past few months.

music written for other people's projects

I have started working on a set of music that I would be able to play live by myself, which I cannot do with my other personal projects. The set up is live guitar with a drum machine and other samples.

A duo project started in 2013 with long time collaborator, Emmanuel Nicolaidis. These songs were recorded in September, 2014. We are planning to record a few more songs early in the upcoming year.

This is a collaborative project with Jeff Mcgrath, Chris Day, and Lesser Gonzales. I played drums in this project.

this was an attempt to bridge the gap between classical song cycles and pop music. the impetus for this project was an art opening at the current gallery, where it was first performed. for this, we decided to work with orchestral instruments and vocals. the 14 piece ensemble was made up mostly of hired peabody students. the only other time these pieces were performed was at whartscape, in 2008, at the 2640 space. with the exception of the moon song, these pieces were written in collaboration with emmanuel nicolaidis.