𝔥𝔶𝔭𝔢𝔯-𝔪𝔢𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔶 for Amplified Ensemble & Electronics

𝔥𝔶𝔭𝔢𝔯-𝔪𝔢𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔶 is about is about hyperreality and warped perceptions of memory and time which occur while in hyperreal cyber spaces. The piece explores the ways in which memories are stored, transferred, transformed, and modified through virtual spaces and digital devices. 𝔥𝔶𝔭𝔢𝔯-𝔪𝔢𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔶 imagines the sounds of a cybernetically mutated digital fragment of the past that has taken on a ghost-like life of its own. A digital memory that can be reduced to a file or hyperlink can take on an uncanny quality, suggestive of an illusory sense that it is autonomous and immortal. Its continuous life exists as a constantly-changing entity, in a ceaseless state of re-contextualization and re-definition. The 1940 hit I’ll Never Smile Again by Ruth Lowe is a song about memory, longing, and nostalgia. In this piece, the song sample functions as a metaphor for the way the memory moves through digital devices and is distributed through virtual spheres, as it is disfigured, chopped, stretched, crushed, deconstructed and decontextualized.

First premiered live by Ensemble Palimsest on 4/20/22 at the Experimental Theatre at UC San Diego by:

Steve Schick - conductor

IIlana Waniuk - violin
Michael Jones and Yongyun Zhang - percussions
Robbie Bui - cello
Matthew Henson - double bass

Recorded and mixed by Ess Whiteley

Mastered by Nikolas Solem