Electro Fractal Gamelan was written for the Kammerklang development project Worship the Machine, which paired music with
trapeze. Worship the Machine visited the idea of androids playing nostalgic music in some kind of wasteland.
The electronic backing track to this work is based entirely on sine wave blips revolving around the harmonic series on A. There
are 8 lines which do the same thing on a different pitch class and at a different speed, creating a fractal effect.
The binary rhythms and continuity of the notes evokes the effect of kotekan in Balinese Gamelan, where two parts play interlocking
patterns to produce a rapid constant line.
After a while, one begins to hear phantom rhythms in the electronic track. I wrote the vibraphone part by selecting a few such
rhythms and allowing the vibraphone player some choice in the pitches used to explore these rhythmic cells.
Over the duration of the track reverb and overdrive are gradually added, and eventually, to complement this, the vibraphone player moves to a tremolo passage with some freedom of pitch as well as timing. While the backing track is fixed, each performance of this work on the vibraphone will be unique.
Composer Bio: Peggy Polias (b.1981)
Website:
peggypolias.com
Peggy Polias is a composer and music typesetter based in Sydney. Polias prepares scores, instrumental parts and other print music materials for some of Australia’s leading composers. In 2010 she graduated with a Master of Music (Composition), supervised by Professor Anne Boyd at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
In 2011, Polias participated in the Halcyon First Stones project and the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra Composer Workshops. After having a baby in early 2013, Polias has resumed composing in 2014. She continues to explore the influences of Javanese Gamelan, minimalism, feminism, fractals and handicrafts in her music.
from
Kammerklang: Beta,
released August 12, 2015
Composer: Peggy Polias
Solo Percussion: Kaylie Dunstan
Sound Engineer: Jayson McBride
Performed and recorded live at Kammerklang Ablaze (2014).