outpouring beneath my skin

outpouring beneath my skin [2024] for mixed quartet, prepared snare drum, accessory instruments, and playback.

• Program Notes:

"There are moments when the body is as numinous as words, days that are the good flesh continuing" (Robert Hass, Meditation at Lagunitas)

Here, the essence of an unbridled force, a torrential overflow, finds itself cradled within the fragility of the ephemeral. The boundaries between the tangible and the transcendent, as the intricate network of pulses within. Or the interwoven tapestry of existence, where strength and vulnerability coalesce. Each sound, stretched string, broken voice, boundless burst of air. These other veins coursing with the lifeblood of the ensemble. Instruments become vessels (of exploration), conduits of the unexpected. Within their resonant chambers lie worlds concealed (and waiting).

"Implied inner palpability as transpersonal dictation all works composed as a musical ark as if rowing in an isthmus of lightning"

(Will Alexander, Inner Palpability)

Recording of the premiere at the Haute école des arts du Rhin (HEAR), 24 May 2024, Strasbourg, France.

Special thanks to Iván Solano, Tom Mays, Guilherme Ribeiro, Fernando Strasnoy, and Lorenzo Paniconi.