Mobius

Mobius performed at the Stone with ICE
Mobius performed at the Stone with ICE

Mobius, for two music boxes, blank punch tape, scissors, hole puncher and live electronics, was co-created with my long-time collaborator and partner, Rob Dietz.

Mobius is created for four performers, two music box crankers, electronic musician and hole puncher. To create sound on a music box, I punch tiny holes in a punch tape that is then hand-cranked through a music box mechanism similar to a player-piano roll.   Each exposed hole allows one of the music box tines to sound. In this piece, the process of creating the piece becomes the piece itself. One perfomer punches out holes in real-time while two other players are cranking the strip through the mechanism simultaneously. The strip is taped together in a Mobius fashion so that one music box plays the notes upside-down. An electronic musician then loops different fragments from the separate music boxes and manipulates these sonorities in octave displacements and reverse. Through time, the piece becomes a rich collage of music box timbres similar to the ringing of bells.

Mobius can be heard on Starkland Records (2016) Nature of Thingness.

Mobius performed with students at SUNY New Paltz
Mobius performed with students at SUNY New Paltz
Mobius being performed at Oqaatsut, Greenland
Mobius being performed at Oqaatsut, Greenland