Composer and plastic artist Tristan Perich has created four separate, yet somehow still distinct landscapes here on Compositions (via his imprint Physical Editions). With release dates strung across this calendar year, each piece will explore what's surely become his one-man realm: 1-bit electro-acoustic brilliance. Perich's maiden installment, Parallels, was recorded at Octaven Studios and Shirk Studios, and is scored for tuned triangles, hi-hats and his patent 1-bit (albeit 4-channels) electronics--both commissioned and expertly performed here by Meehan/Perkins Duo.
Like its whole, Parallels, in part is curio of dichotomy: an intently percussive de rerum natura of pitched vs. unpitched. You'll no doubt revel in its sounding symbiosis. Tone begat noise; noise becoming tone. Perhaps it's the innate duality of 1-bit sound--one or zero, on or off--but, spatially, the piece winds in/out of focus that's hardly bicameral. Laid out with Swiss precision into seven sections all through-composed on the poster-sized print of the entire score enclosed in the physical copy, I loved what happens at 3:10. Same precision, higher pitched, the tonal shift is a near epiphany.
Perich's Compositions series continues in May with Telescope, composed for two bass clarinets, two baritone saxophones and 1-bit-cum-4-channel electronics care of Argeo Ascani, Alex Hamlin, Sara Budde and Eileen Mack. August will hear a release of Dual Synthesis for harpsichord and 4x1, performed by Daniel Walden. The last installment, Active Field, will be released in November. And it's a freakin' whopper, indeed. Ten violins with 10-channel, 1-bit electrodes courtesy of Ensemble Signal and Brad Lubman, who's one of only a handful of conductors I'd trust with such high stakes.
Best known for his 1-Bit Symphony back on Bang on a Can's Cantaloupe Records (i.e. that full-length via microchip inside the jewel case), Perich’s inventive spirit and creative mining of both sound and object shine even brighter on the inaugural Parallels. (Apropos, though, his last Composition drops in fall as an "Artist Edition," replete with a custom-made raw circuit board.)
Record release party is tonight, Wednesday, March 25, at Sky Gallery in Brooklyn. Todd Meehan/Doug Perkins will be performing Parallels. The whole endeavor is presented by Gowanus Art + Production and will incorporate an instillation of Perich’s visual art, namely his motor-driven Machine Drawings. Sky Gallery is located at 460 Union St., Brooklyn, adjacent to the Green Building.
Tickets start at $15 in advance, $20 at the door, and you can purchase 'em through Eventbrite here.
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