Program Notes

On the cyclical nature of a leaf, of nature, of life, of what is:

On an evening in the fall of 2020, as Sydney and I were returning to our dorms from a study session I mentioned how I detested saying my music is about x. Turns out so did she, regarding her art. This little statement eventually led to 'return to root'. To pinpoint the x, to say this music is about that, reduces it to some object, idea, memory, image, or other, as if the intentions and meanings of an intricate work of art are definite, absolute, and describable. It is to leave out the of bits uncertainty and ambiguity that lie - I think inherently - in each artistic entity.

This project is in every way related to, inspired by, and in dialogue with my poem "Return to Root", but it is in no way merely about it. It involves attempts to translate, reinterpret, and decreate the poem; the elements of language, music notation, electronically-processed improvisations, video-art, and photography are layered and diffused across the project, thereby transfiguring the original artistic meaning(s). The words themselves are taken apart and scattered throughout, existing in fragments of sounds. Through this process, the original poem is destabilized, subverted, and new meanings unfold.

And so for art we take from reality - life, experience, thought - and we make, something that fulfills, questions, or reveals, that is not merely about.