Power Structures II (2021)

Power Structures II is about radio. It’s about compression, and it’s about signal. But mostly, it’s about power. It is an exercise to
compositionally think through the idea that the electromagnetic spectrum is an intensely dominated site of occupation. The aspiration of this work is to gesture towards the dynamics of compressed vibrational signal(s) as they respond to discipline, and map their processing onto a counterpoint for acoustic composition.

The primary elements of the counterpoint are: carrier signal, transmission, and noise. A carrier signal becomes a transmission when it is modulated. A transmission becomes noise when its bandwidth is saturated to the point of unintelligibility or “occupied.” Noise becomes a carrier signal when it is compressed.

In this piece these dynamics are directly set in motion by mechanical labor, not mediated by electrical power. At different times, each musician with their instrument plays each role.

Performed by the Talea Ensemble:

Barry Crawford, Flute
Leah Asher, Violin
Christopher Gross, Cello

Video and Composition Jake Sokolov-Gonzalez