I. Deep Weep - Distance (A) and Augmentation (B)

The first movement centres on a feedback loop between a transducer placed on the bass drum skin, a contact microphone, and a mixer. My question was how to make the relationships—which in the original score remain largely invisible— between these objects perceptible to an audience. I pursued two directions.

In the first (A), I introduced long aluminium poles as extensions of my body, positioning the instruments at a significant distance from one another and from myself. A two-metre pole connects me to the bass drum; another carries a cello bow for playing the thunder sheet; a third, fitted with a caliber, operates the mixer's sliders. The transducer itself is mounted partway along the pole rather than directly on the skin, so that the feedback loop runs through the metal of the pole—adding a further layer of mediation.

In the second version (B), I kept the spatial arrangement closer to the original but replaced the instruments with larger counterparts—an 18” crash instead of a 10” splash cymbal, a bass drum microphone instead of a contact microphone, a larger cone transducer. This changed the conditions under which feedback persists in ways I had not fully anticipated: the larger microphone continues to pick up residual sound even when the transducer is lifted away from the skin, so that the movement of raising and lowering the cone becomes a significant gestural and sonic event in itself. I found myself dwelling in those moments, taking more time than the score strictly indicates.