Virtual Phases

Virtual Phases is an experimental exploration of small and fabricated spaces with techniques often reserved for epic landscape studies and drone exploration. Discarded items such as old fabric, scrap metal, foil blankets, and crumpled paper created cave-like scenes that were filmed with a specialty probe lens to further enhance the unusual qualities of these imagined locations. We were invited to create a video to pair with Till MacIvor Meyn's new composition, which was a lovely collaborative process resulting in Virtual Phases.

Till MacIvor Meyn: In 1967 Steve Reich composed a ground-breaking work in which two pianists play the same music on two separate pianos, but one of them begins to play slightly faster, bringing the music in and out of phase. This is very difficult to achieve in performance. The effect is mesmerizing, especially considering that the materials and the concept seem so simple, but with complex ever-changing results. With my own Virtual Phases, I decided to compose a work expressly for electronics (tape, as we used to say), with the idea that I would have my virtual lines do things that would be next to impossible for live performers. I created a 13-note ostinato (purposely prime and odd-numbered), which is subsequently doubled. The second voice speeds up causing a perceived flurry of notes (phasing), settling down and locking into a novel configuration with new counterpoint. Later, a third voice joins and also phases with the other voices. Throughout the piece, timbres are constantly changing as a result of instrument changes, filter manipulation, and panning effects. I attempted to explore as many different combinations of counterpoint between the two and three voices as time would naturally allow. The concept for my composition would not have been possible without the work of Steve Reich, who I met and spoke with at length in 2011; I have been inspired by his music since I first heard Drumming as a teenager in 1987.