Bassist Mark Dresser and I have been working on duo music for several years, and in April, we recorded those compositions for an upcoming album. Later that month, we performed the music on a telematic concert between UCSD and UCI, with audiences at each location. After spending so long collaborating with Mark on this music, it was really rewarding to finally perform it live, especially since we were each in a black box theater so we were able to get fantastic sound quality.
On the concert, we also performed a new intermedia piece composed by artist Mariángeles Soto-Díaz and me, titled “As It Breaks,” which uses custom software to improvise visually with art materials she created from recent news headlines, in dialogue with the musicians. I’m excited to continue collaborating with Mariángeles as we expand this piece further in the future, as an ongoing space for responding to the current moment.