[STATIC]Desire

[STATIC] Desire

Duration: 19 min

Instrumentation: Amplified Chamber Ensemble

Date: 2023

The past three years have been difficult from a global economic and public health perspective. Between a pandemic, an ongoing climate crisis, ecological collapse, and a major war again in Europe, it’s hard not to have a pessimistic or ‘doomist’ outlook on the near future of humankind, or indeed, any complex life surviving on this planet in the medium to long term. One of the most damning personal revelations over the past three years has been the further erosion of an already damaged trust in the public institutions I once had faith in, and a broader loss of faith in human empathy and compassion. The fact that we, as a species, failed so miserably in our coordinated pandemic response, and that we cannot seem to come together in this moment of climate crisis to prevent our very own extinction causes me great concern. The resulting emotions are a complex mix of anger, despair and helplessness. In [STATIC] Desire, I seek to take an auditory snapshot in time, by chronicling my own personal emotional response to this transformative and dangerous period in human history.

A dense and angry piece by design, [STATIC] Desire further explores this personal and emotional reaction through a Hauntological lens, which itself examines the paradoxes found in our postmodern and hyper-connected contemporary culture. This modern society, with their everyday habits entrenched in technology, nevertheless maintains a persistent recycling of retro aesthetics and has a seeming incapacity to escape old social forms and prejudices that guide its behaviour. Additionally seen in the Hypnagogic Pop movement of the late 2000s, which referenced cultural memory and nostalgia for popular entertainment of the past, [STATIC] Desire evokes memories and traditions of the past, while being an emotional snapshot of the present and a link to the future — where it serves to exemplify and embody the creation of a new personal compositional practice that is both technologically-driven and forward-looking.

[STATIC] Desire is my first major attempt in implementing the post-cinematic practice in a large ensemble composition of significant length. Post-cinematic concepts around non-linear, modular formal structures were implemented throughout, exploring musical continuity and discontinuity between sections, and technological tools and methodologies indicative of the practice were used throughout the creation process.