L'erotisme sacre

The title of this piece comes from the work of the philosopher Georges Bataille, who connected eroticism with the sublime, religious rituals and death. This work takes slowed-down moan samples as its primary source, from which the melodic and harmonic material is derived. In my experience, these zoomed in moans tap into an immediate physical reaction in the listener, as perhaps hearing someone scream or a child crying does. However, due to the extreme time stretching of the sound files, the nature of the reaction is somewhat ambiguous and estranged. In the end, these samples serve as a theme from which I develop all aspects of the work, creating variations and broader forms that are, hopefully, palpably connected to the original source.

Premiere: Solomiya Moroz and Keith Kirchoff at the Cluster Festival, Winnipeg, 2012.