Live Visual Music at UC Berkeley

A while ago, composer Benjamin Irwin (http://www.benirwinmusic.com/) asked if I'd be interested in a collaboration: I would create a silent film for which Ben would compose the music.

That was done, and the first evidence of that collaboration is here: http://vimeo.com/44174172 (this will soon be taken further).

But while we were working on that piece ("Synapse"), Ben also asked for silent images to be used during an improvisation session by the UC Berkeley Graduate Composers and Improvisers Ensemble (of which he is a member).

As is often the case when I am asked to create a silent piece to/for which music will be composed/improvised (something I very much enjoy, it is the closest I'll ever come to being a composer), I use "unrelated" music as a temporary time structure.
This time I worked with/to Steve Reich's magnificent "The Four Sections," from which I borrowed sections 2, 3 and 4.

It yielded the images used by Ben and his colleagues during the improvisation presented here.

Those images being informed by Reich's composition, they "follow" a rhythmic pattern that must have made the work of the UC Berkeley Graduate Composers and Improvisers Ensemble fairly difficult, to say the least.

But they did a terrific job, there are genuine moments of grace in this recording.

The concert was held on April 28, 2012 at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) by the UC Berkeley Graduate Composers and Improvisers Ensemble, consisting of:
Ritwik Banerjee, saxophone
Andres Cremisini, drums
Tom Ferguson, bass and electronics
Ben Irwin, clarinet
Mateo Lugo, electric guitar
David Michel-Ruddy, piano
Ian Saxton, percussion

However, Steve Reich's music really spoke to me (not the first time his music does that to me), so I posted the original "temporary" piece here: http://vimeo.com/39677281 and later did a second version, also available on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/46826640