Actuate/Resonate (2018)
large ensemble with electronics

Lines on Black (2018)
for voice, flute, violin, saxophone, piano, percussion, and electronics

binary/momentary iii (2018)
cello and electronics

for Delia Derbyshire (2018)
bass, guitar, and electronics

Matrix for George Lewis (2017)
2 electronic silent brass trombones

Seven Systems (2015)
2 piano, 2 percussion quartet with electronic playback and actuated snares

binary/momentary logics: flow state/joy state (2016)
String quartet

binary/momentary ii: flow state/joy state (2017)
Trumpet, 2 trombones, piano, and percussion

delay/line (2016)
Flute and delay line

Points Against Fields (2015)
Bassoon and playback

Broken Symmetries (2012)
Violin soloist, feedback electronics, flute, tenor saxophone, piano, and percussion

Chain Reactions/Five Events (2013)
String quartet and live electronics

Machine Language (2012)
Percussion soloist, 2 percussion, 2 violins, 2 bass clarinets, accordion, and fixed sine tones

MODULES (2014)
Brass quartet, percussion, analog synthesizer, and live electronics

hydra (2015)
Violin, piano, fixed media, and live electronics

Four Sixes (2014)
Percussion Sextet

Sixty Cycles (2013)
Sopranino saxophone soloist, feedback televisions, violin, and cello

Portraits/Self Portraits (2011)
Violin soloist with large ensemble

ATD V (2010)
Saxophone and electronics soloists with small ensemble

Tile Mosaic (after Chagall) (2010)
Two pianos, two percussion, and resonant pails

Standing Waves (2009)
Medium sized ensemble and electronics

Matrices (2009)
Percussion trio and electronics

7:6 (2006, rev. 2010)
Distorted, amplified cello

Lyra (2007 rev. 2010)
Amplified string quartet

Signal Flow (2009)
Percussion quartet and electronics

SWITCHES (2007)
Distorted, amplified cello and drumset

American Tokyo Daydream IV (data structures/monoliths) (2007)
Saxophones, electric guitar, and accordion

A Circle of 8 in a Prime of Primes for Sara (31), by Sam (29)
Sheng, pipa, suona, handbell choir, and live electronics

American Tokyo Daydream III (The Surprise) (2006)
Piano, string quaret, and live electronics

noise + mobile (2005)
Piano and electronic playback

Some compositional ideas have long gestation periods. In 2002 I wrote a piece called Chain Reactions for Pierrot ensemble. I had just gone to Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening™ retreat and I was looking for ways to create semi-notated scores which created a kind of inevitability about the notation system, even though the music was largely improvised. Chain Reactions/Five Events is an extension of this earlier work. In the years since this piece, I feel that I achieved this "implied composition" more through software than notation. This piece is a merger of these different ways of working. The first half of the work is "improvised" by ensemble and laptop. The second half is fully notated for ensemble with improvised electronics. Yet, the arc of this piece is slow: one long 25 minute build-up.

Chain Reactions/Five Events was commissioned by Mivos Quartet and the Lucerne Festival and was premiered at the Lucerne Festival Academy during the summer of 2013.

Mivos Quartet:
Olivia De Prato, violin
Joshua Modney, violin
Victor Lowrie, viola
Mariel Roberts, cello

Sam Pluta, electronics

View the Complete Score