So I could not send answer (2011)

for two cellphones and computer.

Both performers use amplified cellphones to text poetry back-and-forth as a randomized audio track unfolds to overwhelming volumes. Written for Police Academy (Mike Perdue & Mariel Roberts).

When the Lights Change (2010)

duet for two keyboards and vocalists

Players react to randomized video projections with assigned stage tasks while performing music material based on Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. Written for the Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble.

The Black Brave Ocean (SUITE)

Based on 21 chords, the Black Brave Ocean evolved into 5 installations – individual compositions that are, ostensibly, bad copies of bad copies, creating structural and tonal variations that eventually collapse into a series of theatrical games and concluding with no performers at all through audio playback.

Remember & Crossings (EP) Studio Sessions

Stuart and I met in June of 2007. After many years of discussing the lack of finesse and musicality in “electronic” music, we collaborated on a structure of graphic notations and electron manipulations. The result – a romp of improvisatory drumming and an iPod on shuffle. Check out the overhead cam from the studio recording with Dustin Cicero at Manhattan School of Music in 2010.

Drift (2009)

for drumset and any amplified instrument.

Meant to be a lead sheet for a metal band – like a jazz fakebook on pills. Written for futureCities (Anne Rainwater & Jude Traxler).

futureCities

Cross conservatory-trained precision with a love for electronics, experimentalism and math-metal, and you have futureCities: Anne Rainwater and Jude Traxler, piano and percussion.

trax_sequencer1 (2009)

In 2009, I built a homemade audio slicer that cleverly manipulates any audio track it receives. It quickly thereafter become one of my favorite musical robots. This is a short preview of trax_sequencer1 randomizing Erin Frith singing Hurt, by Nine Inch Nails.

Digital Hum (2009)

the first 360 digits of Pi for piano and percussion

Written for Anne Rainwater and her obsession with the finite infinite

Traxler (Teaching) Studios

Katie Traxler and I run a recording and teaching studio out of our home in NYC, offering recording, mixing, mastering and post-production services as well as private lessons in percussion, guitar(s), piano, and composition.

Divisions of Progress (2009)

for piano, computer and any five instruments.

Each player provides an audio track to be randomly sliced and redistributed throughout the audience. As the piano soloist triggers new sections, each performer plays a series of game mobiles that evolve in complexity throughout the piece. Written for the 2009 Bang on a Can Festival. Richard Valitutto, piano soloist.

Fallout (2009)

for two performers arguing on any subject.

With simple rhythms, two (or more) performers have improvisatory spats on random topics. Lasting only sixty seconds, both parties must continually react while speaking / shouting in the rhythms provided. Written for Andy Kozar & William Lang.