Introduction
My title - Unburying, from Liminals, Emerging - relates to a tendency I find in myself. I'm continually foraging into the deep past in efforts toward mapping meanings into an imagined future. Cathartically, It's a kind of "unburying" of the subconscious. A Jungian way of being in the world, and what we might call a process of individuation. Moving between conscious and subconscious, wakefulness or dreaming, we hover within liminalities. Having been consumed by these states, I find myself slowly emerging. How does one communicate a soundtrack to these experiences? (Journal entry, May 2022)
My research stems from the curiosity of moving beyond the fixed pitches of western tuning and into a sound continuum of extended sound possibilities.
I ask questions like: can an acoustic grand piano be completely sonically-reimagined? why should western ears continue to be so accustomed to only one tuning system? In contrast, can “pure sounds” meet ethnically diverse microtonal tuning constellations? Can a newly invented tuning system dialogue with magnetic preparations to evoke timbral affects from Balinese Gamelan or Indian classical music? Collectively, how can this new instrument merge with spatialization and electronics to create embodied experiences for audiences? And how can all these elements be harnessed within a liminal psychological narrative?
My research has resulted in the creation of the microtonal prepared piano. In the process I’ve created my own tuning system, the Justly-Intonated Sedeng. Using this tuning constellation I’ve contextualized the microtonal prepared piano for three settings which has resulted in three album-length recordings for future release.
Postcards of Nostalgia: microtonal prepared piano and sound design
Buried Language: microtonal prepared piano, saxophone trio and percussion
Juniper Fuse: two microtonal prepared piano, two percussion and soprano saxophone