m i c h e l l e y o m

 

Asato Maa Sad Gamaya

This piece was conceived as a result of my exploration with the idea of transcendence.  It was a part of my residency at Labotanica, and was premiered on the opening night of Back To Imagined Spaces, an installation about connecting imagination and physiological sensation to construct a metaphysical reality.  It is based on a vedic chant.  The full text is as follows:

Asato Ma Sadgayama

Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya

Mrytor Ma Amritamgamaya 
Om, Shanti Shanti Shanti 

Throughout the piece, I improvise the lengths of notes and volume levels to create a variety of sub-rhythms.  This creates a hypnotic stream of phonetics-based syllables, removed from its symbolic meaning.

One, Two, One

This track is an excerpt of a live broadcast on the Genetic Memory show of KTRU Rice Radio.  It was improvised using Hop, a Max/MSP patch made by composer Doug Geers. Towards the end of the set, I spontaneously sampled Dr. Beat (metronome) counting numbers, hence the title.  It was included in KTRU Live Volume 1, compilation CD released in 2010.

Heart

Heart is the first movement of Body Parts, a piece that attempt to sonically depict organs.  With inspiration from synaesthesia and subjective experiences stemming from my hatha yoga practice, I assigned each movement to one key, tempo, and time signature, asking questions such as “if my heart sang, what key would it be in?”  Heart was premiered in the sound series New Music Improvisations.