Kaleidoscope
for four trombones and eight-channel tape • December 2001, 5'08
NOTES • SPATIALISATION • EXTRACT
The four trombones occupy the centre of the performance space, each performer facing outwards into one quadrant of a circle bounded by an enclosing ring of eight loudspeakers (see figure below). The contrasts between centre and periphery complement those of real-vs-unreal, acoustic-vs-digital, live-vs-fixed-media and the piece explores the movement and development of material within these extremes – i.e. around the inside (between trombones) and the outside (between speakers) independently – as well as between them. The centre feeds material and ideas (e.g. gestural and structural shapes) to the periphery and vice versa and the trombonists move from side to side within their respective quadrants, allowing them to follow or emulate circular movement in the tape part. [N.B. the seating layout shown here should ideally be replaced by a 'wedge' system similar to that shown for Kaleidoscope: Arcade.]
