This work begins on a beach, serene with crashing waves and gulls. Deep below the surface an impact shakes the waters and disturbs the coast. The source of this impact gets louder and louder until it breaches the surface of the ocean, pulling the listener down with it. The listener explores the strata of sonic environments of the ocean while ascending to its surface. Back on the beach, the sonic landscape is the same but forever changed by knowing what lies beneath the waves.
This short acousmatic work explores the sounds of metal and water in the context of a journey through the ocean. Recordings of metallic instruments (guitar, mbira, metal percussion, melodica (metal tines)) are turned into "water instruments" by carefully enhancing each instrumental gesture with a liquid gesture (drops of water, fizzing seltzer, splashes in bath tub).
Programmed on the 2015 Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival in Richmond, VA and the 2016 National Student Electronic Music Event (N_SEME) in Norman, Oklahoma, and 2018 Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) Conference in Eugene, Oregon.