A collaborative project between Iran Sanadzadeh and David Moran culminating in three pieces for Cello and The Floors.

Our collaboration examines the intersection between digital and acoustic instrumental interfaces. These pieces emerged from an interrogation of our ensemble practice and a commitment to refining our shared musical language.

They explicate our investigations of the relationship between gesture and sound, the physical and acoustical properties of our instruments, and the development of a meta-instrument.

Recorded 29.11.21 at Soundpark Studios, Northcote.

Recorded and mixed by Theo Carbo.

Video recording & Editing by Alexander W. Possingham.

Made possible with generous assistance from Arts SA

diametric.convergences@gmail.com

No.1 explores the gradual divergence of the two instruments and instrumentalists from unison starting points. The opening sections see the instruments activated in the same way, with mallets, while the intermittent electronic sounding of The Floors through an oscillator is transmuted into the breathing pattern of the players. The discrete qualities of the instruments appear gradually before fading to silence. The second half of the piece begins similarly, this time with the instruments activated through pression. Again, individualised characteristics of the instruments emerge before a dramatic crescendo to the finish.

 

In No. 2 an augmented cello is created through the interactivity of the ensemble. The Floors make use of cello samples exclusively and the ensemble interplay hinges on blurring the sounding of both instruments, playing with density structures, and trading roles between soloing and accompanying. The piece's structure derives from its exploration of three sound worlds - low dirge-like melody and drone, pizzicato textures, and visceral tone clusters.

 

No. 3 examines an ensemble convergence through the discrete elements of our instrumental practices. The cello commences pizzicato with paper under the string for sharp percussive effect, while the sound sources for The Floors, though starting in a timbrally similar fashion, evoke longer phrase cycles and ambient sound. The second section of the piece witnesses an interplay between plucked high tones on The Floors, and microtonal harmonics and long tones on the cello. The culmination of this section is the overlaying of two out of time 'ground-bass' figures on both instruments.

 

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