Composite and Parallax

Composite and Parallax, for alto sax, percussion, and immersive audio, complements the instrumentation of Bent Frequency Duo with a electronic sound palette of what I imagine to be a surreal, giant non-pitched iron instrument surrounding the audience. Throughout the piece, patterns between the two live instruments, as well as patterns within the electronic audio, shift against each other in a way I found to be evocative of a parallax effect: an effect where the direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions. A common example of parallax is when looking out the window of a moving car, light poles move by faster than the trees behind them, which move by faster than the moon. In composing the piece, I tried to create some sonic illusions akin to this example, while also trying to tap into some of the feeling of catharsis (or perhaps nostalgia) of staring out the window at the moon as it appears to follow the car, as the rest of the world races by.