The three commissioning ensembles of “metamold” (Crash, Eighth Blackbird, and New York New Music Ensemble) are embedded within the work; the electronic element is sourced almost exclusively from provided recordings of their musical performances. Both their sound and interpretive inclinations are inherent within these recordings, and this carries forward into the processed audio that make up the fixed media portion of the electronics. This audio also influences the acoustic component, reflecting three very different groups of performers.
The transmission and processing of audio – as it becomes further and further away from its intended purpose as a recorded performance – becomes diluted, accruing artefacts both sonic and contextual. The disembodied version of the players is further abstracted, granulated, separated from the whole. It was impossible to ignore the connections between this concept and the experience of global-pandemic-induced isolation; for now, the only way I’ve experienced my family and friends is
abstracted, granulated, separated from the whole, disembodied and transmitted through speakers and screens.
As a result, “metamold” is at times fragmented and sectional while simultaneously being repetitive and insistent: an electronic echo that shifts quickly but maintains core elements of itself (the commissioners themselves) always at a distance through the speakers.
