Since the pandemic has halted all live performances, I was more motivated to work on music that would exist in a non-live medium, and had a more functional purpose, other than to exist on its own.  This also lead me to work on other ensemble projects that would be difficult to put together in a live setting.

Non-collaborative music I have written in the past required putting together groups of musicians to perform.  The current music trend of performing with backing tracks in a live setting was not something I had wanted to explore.  However, the non-sustainability of hiring musicians for orchestral work, along with the potential of intermingling ensembles that would be hard to put together in a live setting, have made this angle more intriguing.  I wanted the live elements to balance out the non-live elements, so the approach I am using utilizes the guitar as the primary voice, and vocals function as  landmarks on a musical structure.  The guitar would dictate the songs, but the ensemble passages would lend different textures and timbres to the pieces.  This project is a combination of all the different strands I have been exploring with my other projects.  A mix of different rhythmic and ethnic strands, with some orchestral arrangements, within a song-based form.   I was able to perform this twice in 2020 before the pandemic began.

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 music model. 

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

Ghost Life was an ensemble project based on mostly small rhtythmic instruments .  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 made some virtual ensemble performances to highlight the physical elements of the sound.  That element is an important factor in this music and might be lost on just a listen through.   After years of performances with little documentation, I wanted to have some representation that would highlight the sound generating process of the physical action.  

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.   

music written for other people's projects

A duo project started in 2013 with long time collaborator, Emmanuel Nicolaidis.  The angle of experimentation in these songs were to use sampled and programmed rhythms along live rhythmic elements to generate a song. These songs were recorded in September, 2014.  

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.