I define myself as a composer/performer of experimental music theater. I worked for many years in Canada’s contemporary dance scene, and this has shaped my work. As a composer working with musicians, I bring the tools of choreographers into the contemporary music context. I use scores but also physical and choreographic ideas to craft sound actions. I like to build (and dismantle) instruments. Composing, for me, is about shaping spaces, movements, and lights in a sort of minimal gesamtkunstwerk, with sound and music as the driving and structuring force. If you are a musician who likes to use their body to create unusual musical situations, don’t hesitate to contact me for a collaboration!
I’m fascinated with integrating ritual elements into my work where I explore the excarnation of electric guitars, the worship of amplifiers, the baptism of loudspeakers, and the burial of computers. Technical objects are staged and deconstructed, and their cultural and historical significations are extrapolated. By playing with the religious/spiritual connotations and symbols emerging from that process, the performances aim to crack open the mundane casing of electronic music technologies and activate their latent archetypal and possibly sacred meanings. This symbolic use of electronic music technologies and the ritualization of music performance is the subject of my research and teaching at Uniarts Helsinki, Sibelius Academy.
Three works
Love & Other Things: a drama for flower clay and bone
Opera/ballet, 2018
Premiered at the National Art Center (CA)
Co-authored with Tedd Robinson
Electric Unconscious
Staged Concert, 2023
For electric guitar, flute, alto saxophone, mini-fridge, and electronics
Commissioned by Kollektiv International Totem (CH)
Kaiutin Kaste / Loudspeaker Baptism
Premiere at Oopperakesä 2024
For soprano, accordion, and Genelec 8020D
Commissioned by Sawtooth (CAN/FI) and supported by Kone Foundation
Kuva: Miikka Pirinen