metamold

metamold by Bekah Simms + Crash Ensemble is out now (May 17th 2024) on Crash Records. The piece was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University for three ensembles: Crash Ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, and New York New Music Ensemble. The commissioning ensembles of metamold are embedded within the work; the electronic element is sourced almost exclusively from provided recordings of their musical performances. Both their sound and interpretive inclinations are inherent within these recordings, and this carries forward into the processed audio that make up the fixed media portion of the electronics. Described by The Journal of Music as "one of the highlights of [New Music Dublin 2021]" and possessing a "sheer range of ingenious material, expressive range, and sonic complexity," ‘metamold’ is a delightfully genre-avoidant work that revels in groovy vintage microtonal keyboard riffs as much as it does amorphous resonant noisescapes.