body_scapes is an ongoing fixed media project in which the music is created from sound captured on different parts of the body.
The inspiration comes from practicing meditation and noticing the various sounds and hums that would arise during deep breathing. Using a stethoscope microphone placed over the heart and a contact microphone on the neck, I recorded multiple mediations, breathing exercises, and vocal improvisations as the basis for my pool of samples that would then inform the direction of each composition.
body_scapes, N°1 | Source Realized (2021)
Fixed Media & Video
Performance History
SEAMUS National Conference, Western Michigan University, 3/31/22
The Hartt School, University of Hartford, 5/8/21
Source Realized (the first piece in the series) comes from the first few meditation sessions, when I noticed my resting heart rate was abnormally fast. As I continued these sessions, I noticed that when I exhaled, I would start humming. When I first realized this was happening, I would shy away from it, but I soon understood it would be better to just allow these moments to come through. As I did, the heart rate slowed, and the more and more I let this hum out, the more in tune with myself I felt.
The title of this work, Source Realized, suggests there’s a voice inside us we may shy away from. Our true thoughts, feelings, and aspirations can be repressed, and we can begin to become numb to who we are as individuals. But letting it out, even if in small doses over a long period of time, can start to heal us
body_scapes, N°2 | Creating Calm (2022)
For Solo Laptop Performer
Commissioned by Kyle Grimm
Performance History:
Daniel Martin Minogue, The Free Center, Hartford, CT, 3/4/22
Creating Calm plays with the notion of anger and other heightened emotions. The piece explores when it is right to accept those feelings and move on and when it is right to lean into them.