Program note

Lines are seen in this piece as swarms of timbral changes such as in the percussion between the Chinese blocks, suspended cymbal, güiro, snare drum, and tenor drum. Lines are also found in the interwoven and tangled bundle of brass pitches and rhythmic displacements, as well as an array of changing sound qualities that include, breathy tones, tongue rams, flutter tongue, multiphonics, and the wa wa mute. The perceived lines are fragmented as there are frequent spaces between the sounds, like a faded out impression of a line, a rough sketch, or a dotted abstract line drawing. The line in sound is flexible and broad, analogous to how atmospheres are thought of in relation to weather patterns–a global collection of movement. The density of the instrumental texture work as a collective, and this soft subtle mass of sound intricately changes shape, colour, speed and density, and contains various breaks, fractures, creases and cracks. The trombone and trumpet regularly have an abrupt presence that interrupts and juxtapose the more delicate parts of the music. The framework of the piece is one that is fractured with divergent streams of intersecting lines, that shifts and undulates as atmospheres of timbral complexity.

The score is also available to purchase here at the Australian Music Centre website.