Diamond Body
Diamond Body musical composition arranged for quintet (violin, cello, contrabass, percussion and electronics) and video score (single channel – 4k) 2018. Diamond Body is a meditative reflection on the psycho-spiritual subtle body, also called the body of light, defined as various intangible layers of vibrating energy that make up all living beings within and beyond the corporeal layers of flesh and bone. As musicians we temporarily borrow and shape these same vibrating energies as our medium of expression.
The imagery for Diamond Body was created by combining a custom dynamic particle system with macro videography of light reflections, refractions and shadows cast through naturally occurring crystal gems. The sounds for Diamond Body were created with granular synthesis originating from bowed and struck metals. These sounds were then excited through the prepared body of each string instruments. The players performed the video score comprised of traditional and extended string and percussion techniques along with the accompanying resonating instrument body. The electronic sounds were diffused to each string body by a performance engineer operating a custom Max patch and matrix mixer.
Diamond Body was showcased at Crossroads 10 Program 1: Unseeable Light/A Chorus of Voids, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in June 2019.