Signal Flow Festival 2021, Day 1
Mills Music Now
Friday, March 5, 2021 | 7:00 PM
Presented by Mills College Music Department and the Center for Contemporary Music.
Featured works by Kristian Dahlbom, Rowan Avery Matthews, and Cory Sibu Tripathy.
Cory Sibu Tripathy
The two pieces I will be presenting today are products of the current moment. The first piece was created despite the vast distance between myself in Detroit and the performers in Los Angeles, while the second piece formed after I began my work with electronics last summer turning introspection into conversation. This set of music naturally emphasizes the essentiality of communication despite our current crises.
Trio for Viola, Cello, and Piano, First Movement
This piece seeks to explore the physicality and spatiality of sounds as they expand,
decay, and drift into static: life emerges from the many iterations of sameness as
an empowering appropriation of the mundane.
Elizabeth Asher, Viola
Chris Cho, Cello
Noah Sonderling, Piano
Improvisational Environment for Drumset and Electronics
This piece utilizes new techniques and interactions to obfuscate and exploit the distinctions
between human and machine - an invitation to further understand our human nature through
the machines we create and with whom we interface daily. This piece uses sound design
in Max/MSP and a neural network in Wekinator for the electronics and the performer
to influence the ensemble decision-making.
A special thanks to Zeena Parkins, Tomeka Reid, Laetitia Sonami, and James Fei whose
guidance, encouragement, and lifelong dedications to the intricacies of sound and
the people who create them will be a continual source of inspiration.
Mastered by Christopher Davidson
Cory Sibu Tripathy is a drummer, composer, and improviser based in Detroit. His compositions range from densely detailed, composed structures to vast, sonically layered environments for improvisers to navigate. As a drummer he builds on older traditions and seeks new forms of communication and expression as he collaborates with a diverse cohort of artists including his own electronics.
Rowan S. Avery
charlotte
watch the rain breathe in and out your sorrow // it's okay to cry if you're still
here tomorrow // let your head hang low if you're dangling by a thread // hear the
whispers from the center of the spider's web // keep on weaving you're not leaving
keep sticking out til you're dead
where are we now? we are sleeping
an experimental interview featuring the track C0l0r5 from my album dys.morphia, on
the topic of a dear friend's dreams, fears, and hopes
as an arrow
bite my tongue i've got nothing to say i// 'll bide my time until you go away // you're
getting yourself into trouble go back to your friends // i'm not what you're thinking,
i shapeshift this is how it ends // you think you're an angel but tell me i'm the
devil // i'm on my best behavior... but do you wanna revel with me? mon ami? // you
compliment my lipstick you've never seen that shade of blue // you explain my favorite
band and ask me where i got my tattoos // you say you're a saint but you say that
i'm a sinner // you hide me from your momma and won't take me with you to dinner I
SEE. // listen bud listen well this is hello and farewell // i hypnotise with these
thighs and with the sparkle in my eyes // but youre a guy who thinks i should should
fuck you or i should die // pray for me i wish you well but i'll be seeing you in
hell // ill see you in hell, straight boy, i'll see you in hell ;)
entropy boogie
what's left here except all my regrets? // i won't forget what i learned here // i
saw red flags i turned the other way // i should've paid mind and kept my ear on the
ground // kept my ear low lying on the ground // when it all comes round // it's
only sound just sounds. just sounds. just sounds. just sounds! just sounds :/ just
sounds! white noise, just sounds.
i'm making big decisions and big revisions i'm fishing for life's collisions in my
life, in my life // i'm making big mistakes at the highest stakes and my head it aches
and my heart it breaks it breaks.//
my heart breaks, but i know i caused my fall // closed off my brain to warnings //
should i slow down? how long until i'm wise? // my greys are in but no mastery of
this // life no mastery of this life. is there any after life? god i've wasted all
this time!!! lost time :( lost time! lost time :/ lost time... lost time! lost time
I NEED MORE TIME
i'm making big decisions and big revisions i'm fishing for life's collisions in my
life, in my life // i'm making big mistakes at the highest stakes and my head it
aches and my heart it breaks
it breaks it breaks it breaks it breaks
the sun
these times remind me // of what i left behind me // the memory surprised me // it's
fucked up inside me // well they stuck me inside // all to fix my broken mind // but
instead i find // all the wounds inside :c // and i cannot hide // all i do is cry
// it's lost its fun to hide from
THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE
SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN
THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE
SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN
THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE
SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN
THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE
SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN
THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE
SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN
THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE
SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN
THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE
SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN
THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE
SUN
special thanks to Atessa Shakar, Russel Rogers, Van Jackson-Weaver, and Mamie Willis for film crewery, and to a strong community of anti-capitalist artists who helped contribute tools & skills to make this whole shindig a possibility. quarantine is an excellent reminder that the future of the arts rests solely on the shoulders of artists- and we must work together to fight back against art being stolen from us. here's hoping for an equitable and accessible future.
I consider my inner chaos as I craft my work, and use it to push my poetry, visual media, and music in whatever direction the hell-brain guides while using what I have learned (and continue to learn) from my peers in those fields. I thrive on combining these practices, words melting into paint melting into sound, and so on- the goal is immersion for the viewer and listener, and more selfishly, freedom to express my hyperfixations and special interests in a place where few bat an eye at spectrum based strangeness. It is my belief that by enveloping ourselves in one anothers’ hearts and minds (no matter how large the differences between us), we can better understand the world we live in and shape it accordingly and lovingly for the future- and selfishly… for ourselves. -SRAM
Kristian Dahlbom
Topographic:cape
Divination for two.
A performer and their electronic counterpart exchange kinetic and sonic action in immediate collaboration. Both parties’ common language is three-dimensional space which is established when the body inhabits the space, chooses to traverse it, and listens to the space resound. This communication is facilitated by a homemade instrument that interprets movement information to conjure sound from gesture. Similarly, the evoked sounds conjure physical response from the performer.
The tender earth implores you to pay close attention to it and move accordingly.
Performed and Composed by Kristian Dahlbom
Filmed by Joey Gage & Mitch Stahlmann
Mastered by Christopher Davidson
I am tremendously grateful for the support and guidance from my teachers and mentors Laetitia Sonami, James Fei, Zeena Parkins, Tomeka Reid, Brendan Glasson, Sue Slagle, Nalini Ghuman, Steed Cowart, John Bischoff, and David Bernstein. Thank you Joey and Mitch for your assistance and patience in realizing this work. Thank you Christopher for generously offering to master the audio for the entire festival. Thank you Alexander Zendzian for your help in organizing the promotion and broadcasting of this festival.
Kristian Dahlbom is an electronic musician and intermedia artist originally from Los Angeles, California. His work spans live human/computer collaboration and improvisation, video generation, sound processing, and synthesis. As a performer, Dahlbom places emphasis on the corporeal relationship to the electronic systems he devises for sound creation. His approach to sound making is two fold: conjure sound from thin air and unearth the sounds that lie beneath. Realized through an intimate ritual performed between himself and his homemade electronic instruments, his work reckons with space, gesture, presence and communication. He is most interested in mutability, liminality, transformation, and the mystical quality inherent to all queer beings.
Notes to assist viewing:
- Viewing in full screen mode is recommended. Press the button with four arrows in the lower right hand to enter full screen mode.
- Headphones or external speakers are recommended for an optimum audio expereince.
Signal Flow is a student-run music festival held every Spring at Mills College featuring the culminating work of graduate students working in composition, electronic music, improvisation and sound art. This year the festival will be held online via Mills Performing Arts and at signal-flow.org.
This presentation will become available for on-demand viewing at 7:00pm PM PST on Friday, March 5, and followed by this linked ZOOM reception at 8:00 PM PST.
Content will remain available until 11:59 PM PST on Sunday, March 21, 2021.
Thank you for completing a Viewer Survey.
More information on Mills Music Now and the Mills College Music Department's Graduate and Undergraduate programs.