this is a collection of (mostly) scored, composed ensemble works completed between 1999-2005, or so. The title is taken from an ancient book of Japanese poetry, associated with Zen Buddhism, or so I thought until I decided to upload this old materia.
It turns out maybe I only dreamt that I read these poems...or maybe someone knows if they exist? The cover, unfortunately here in very low resolution, is a drawing in a new style I discovered during that time and have developed in various ways since then. There are also some electronic tracks made for dancer and choreographer Tuesday Faust.
Strata was performed for my composition seminar concert at the time with Pauline Oliveros and it features Benjamin Piekut on cello, John Dieterich on guitar, myself on viola, and Sarah Zaharako on violin.
Some other tracks where performed in New York, at Baruch Hall, next to the Whitney Museum, by Ensemble Inc, a group of excellent musicians organized by percussionists Micheal McCurdy and Russell Greenberg while they were PhD students.
Other tracks were performed by Brown Bunny Ensemble, a diverse group of musicians on the northern California coast that regularly met to play each another's compositions, in all styles and with any instruments available, and to improvise. This group was largely organized by Kristin Miltner, David Harrison Horton, Micheal Carriera, Benjamin Piekut, Miguel Galperin, James Livingston, and myself, and existed for a good many years, as chamber group, large ensemble, and even as a death metal trio for a time. The Future of American Transportation is an adaptation, as a suite of the music presented in the sort of opera thing I wrote for my Mills College Masters thesis. Friends made up a 30 piece orchestra that performed this music. Great times. Full credits for performance and so forth will be posted here, but I have to locate the information first....I have also added here several tracks that represent things from the same time, but did not appear on the original disk, including Standing Waves for Liberty, performed by the Mills College Performance Group
another track, The Grammar of Coastlines is performed by myself and Edward Shocker, with Greg Saunier (Deerhoof) on drums...he played that night with a broken leg, as he had just that morning been hit by a car while waiting for the bus!