bass clarinet, baritone, 7khz sine waves
In 1983, a team of researchers with the Japanese Antarctic Research program conducted an experiment freezing tardigrades, a microscopic animal that is known for their unearthly resilience. A frequent inhabitant of moist moss, the team froze the microscopic creatures in a frozen sample of moss at -20 C for 30 years and 6 months. In 2014, a separate team defrosted the tardigrades, and over the course of two weeks, the animals very gradually regained control of their limbs, and a few even went on to reproduce successfully.
During this 30 year span, the tardigrades entered “cryptobiosis,” a “physiological state in which metabolic activity is reduced to 0.01% of what is normal”.
With fixed media that explores the frequency spectrum below 30 hz and above 7000 hz inside the bass clarinet multiphonics, cryptobiosis examines sounds that are more felt than heard, volatility, purity vs. impurity, and the ambiguity of inanimate vs being.
premiered by Raphael Sacks and Oran Etkin
Spring 2021, National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY
Hildegard Composition Competition Concert (pre-recorded due to COVID restrictions)