Works » By Title » S » Surfaces (20:15 / 1994-95)

Surfaces is the soundtrack to a choreography, a duet. All sound materials pair to other sound materials and are watery or voice-like but not human and not instrumental. The structure is a series of episodes that touch but don’t blend; each is self-contained. Sources include percussion, piano, flute, guitar, insects, traffic, thunder, peacocks. Breaths that evoke the strain of performance open and close the composition. The music, like the dance, describes an ascent. Sounds range from violent jarring clashes, fluttering and pensive ambiences, to rhythmic flurries.

Because it was a last minute, quickly composed replacement for another soundtrack, Surfaces reuses materials from other compositions. The first part centers on works by one composer, the second on works by the other.

The 1995 version refines rough edges from the hurried composition of the original soundtrack.