David Crowell

eklutna (2020)

Eklutna is an audiovisual interpretation of a mountain region in southern Alaska, filmed at locations which have deep familial and individual meaning. It explores ecological interconnections between the sky, mountains, and sea. Snow from the mountains, including Mt. Eklutna, feeds the glacier that melts into Eklutna Lake, from which Eklutna River flows, cutting through and shaping Eklutna Gorge. Ultimately the river reaches the sea, and evaporation from the ocean creates clouds that drop snow on the peaks, completing the cycle.

The double exposure images in Eklutna represent these connections by visually layering different ecological zones, evoking the intense emotional connection engendered by the landscape. Eklutna is also influenced by a specific, powerful event – a temporary loss of ego – that I experienced while hiking near the peak of Mt. Eklutna several years ago. The resulting groundlessness was brief but jarring, and the music in the first section conveys this unsettled feeling with swirling electronics and fragments of vocals surrounding the two live performers. Visually, the dynamic light changes and unique colors of the North, further influenced by passing clouds, represent the truth of constant change and shifting perception.

Filming Eklutna was an adventure in and of itself, with spontaneous and planned trips to locations that involved significant hiking, climbing and mountain biking. One morning I was at Eklutna Lake by 6am to film a time lapse video of the sun rising above the mountains, gorgeous rays of light streaming in with progressive intensity, completely quiet except for the haunting calls of a loon couple echoing up and down 12 miles of water. My Dad accompanied me on almost all filming sessions, and served as first grip, artistic advisor, pest control supervisor, and most importantly of all, bear safety protocol manager! Both my Mom and Dad watched early versions of the video and offered perceptive comments which positively influenced the work. Eklutna is dedicated to them with love.

Land Acknowledgement:

Thanks to activism by the Dena’ina people of Eklutna, the circular flow of the environment described above has been partially restored through dam removal, and salmon have started returning to Eklutna River.

This work depicts and acknowledges the Dena’ina ełnena, the homeland of the Dena’ina people.

Premiere: 6/12/21 @ Custer Observatory, Rites of Spring Festival
Performer: eco|tonal

Woven in earth and sky (2021)

Woven in Earth and Sky meditates on the passage of time and development of interdependent relationships, drawing inspiration for its initial passages from Hildegard Von Bingen, Tallis, and Palestrina. The later sections of the piece represent a peak level of contrapuntal density, like the massive underground networks that develop to support the ecosystem of an old growth forest. As a conductor less orchestra, A Far Cry reflects a similar progression toward an interwoven consciousness, with individual instruments increasingly absorbed deeper into the sonic landscape.

Woven in Earth and Sky was commissioned by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection for A Far Cry and premiered on April 3, 2022. This special 75th year celebration of music at Dumbarton also featured early commissions by Igor Stravinsky and Samuel Barber, as well as music by recent fellow Musicians in Residence Caroline Shaw and Jessie Montgomery.

I would like to extend a very special thanks to Valerie Stains, Artistic Director of Music at Dumbarton Oaks, for her efforts in commissioning this new work.

Performer: A Far Cry
Premiere: April 3rd, 2022 @ Dumbarton Oaks

plumage (2018-21)

Plumage is an ongoing series of saxophone / electric guitar / electronics pieces exploring tuning and improvisational concepts. I perform all the parts (alto/tenor saxophone, electric guitar, synthesizers) in these recordings, though some of this music has been expanded into music for Clocks or Clouds, a new trio with Andrew Smiley and Kate Gentile. I premiered Plumage IV at National Sawdust on 2/28/20.

All parts performed by David Crowell

Cloud Forest (2021)

I. the unseen passed by just now

II. i was thinking of a bird overhead

In the first movement, clouds gradually descend to the forest floor. The kinetic energy of life is enshrouded by fog and mystery. The second movement follows a bird. For a person, flight is tinged with longing, but for a bird it’s all in a day’s work.

Cloud Forest was supported by an Individual Artist Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and composed during a Spring 2021 fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks. I would like to extend a special thanks to Dumbarton Oaks’ music director, Valerie Stains, for her support of my work and for the gift of time and contemplation which the residency provided. Special thanks also goes to Preston Stahly and the Tribeca New Music Festival for commissioning and presenting the premiere of the piece (as well as for creating the beautiful video documentation below), and to the wonderfully talented Argus Quartet for their inspiring spirit of collaboration.

Please see below for video excerpts of both movements, premiered live at the Tribeca New Music Festival on April 10th, 2022. A full video is available upon request for presenters interested in programming the work.

Performer: Argus Quartet
Premiere: April 10th, 2022 @ Tribeca New Music Festival

Director: Preston Stahly
Video Editing: Sara Laufer
Audio engineer: David Arosemena
Cameras: Sara Laufer, Katie Sadler, Carlos Galek Sefchovich

Luna (2020)

Luna exerts gravitational pull over the lapping polyrhythmic waves hitting its shore. Luna finds a meeting place for Baroque contrapuntal language and the hypnotic groove of Minimalism. Above all, Luna searches for beauty in the richest of all string instruments, the lyricism of the human voice projecting metaphorically, and at the end of the piece, literally.

Luna was originally composed for violin trio, but the premiere and subsequent recording sessions were cancelled as a result of coronavirus. Holed up with my quarantine partner, cellist Iva Casian-Lakos, I substantially revised, adapted, and added to the existing piece. It was recorded, mixed, and mastered over a month-long period.

Luna is dedicated to Iva for her artful interpretation and beautifully rich, dark sound.

VIDEO

Performer: Iva Casian-Lakos (cello + voice)
Premiere: November 19th, 2021 @ Rites of Spring Festival

Low Light (2022)

Low Light was composed in January 2022 towards the end of an extended stay in Alaska. The piece attempts to capture the unique physiological and emotional effects of low light in the North, where it’s possible to enter a dream world even in waking life. The music materialized on daily walks at dawn and dusk, especially poignant times during an Alaska winter (the image to the right was taken on one of those walks).

Low Light uses a microtonal guitar fretboard in 19EDO (equal division of the octave) that contains close approximations of just intonation intervals as well as possibilities for altered consonance and intense dissonance. The music follows a largely consonant path while using dissonant microtones as a “flavor”. Though the music is fully notated, it was composed in a highly improvisational manner, and the performer is encouraged to interpret the rhythms similarly.

Many thanks to longtime friend and colleague Dan Lippel for performing this piece so beautifully and for inspiring me to compose for microtonal guitar.

The recording posted here is a demo but captures the right feeling. I’m looking forward to doing a studio recording soon.

Performer: Dan Lippel
Premiere: May 22nd, 2022 @ Soapbox Gallery

Saiga (2018)

The primary vocal sample in Saiga is a Buddhist recitation of prayer recorded outside the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet, while the children’s voices were captured at an outdoor summer festival in Japan. Both samples share a dedication to the moment, from the spiritual searching of the chanting monks to the exuberant, rambunctious sounds of kids playing and shouting. The two samples were edited to weave in and out of the music, speaking at the same time or in response to the other. This communal, conversational quality breaks apart in the second section of the piece, with the voices reimagined in a dream world of vibraphone bell sounds and synthesizers. The new vocal sample (entering first at 4:24) was recorded at a monastery in Thimpu, Bhutan (all three samples were found on freesound.org and are used with permission by the uploaders).

Saiga was commissioned by John Tyree and Chistopher Gunnell.

Performer: John Tyree & David Crowell
Premiere: November 3rd, 2018 @ Boston Conservatory

music for percussion quartet (2015)

Music for Percussion Quartet is performed beautifully by my long time collaborators Sandbox Percussion, and appears on their newly released album And That One Too (Coviello Classics). This piece was originally commissioned by the University of Tennessee Percussion Ensemble, in collaboration with Sandbox and other universities around the country.

Performer: Sandbox Percussion

spirit spout (2018)

Spirit Spout is a new collaborative project with electric bassist/guitarist Simon Jermyn that also features Jim Black, Iarla O Lionaird, Joe Branciforte, Linda Buckley and Gideon Crevoshay. The album is out now on Skirl Records. I produced, mixed, engineered, composed / co-composed and performed (saxophone, guitar, synthesizers) on this record.

Okapis (2017)

OKAPIS is David Crowell performing and producing music in Brooklyn, NY, armed with his studio of synthesizers, guitars, woodwinds, mbiras, singing bowls and just about anything else that can make a sound and be recorded.

Also featuring Gideon Crevoshay and Greg Chudzik.

pacific coast highway (2015)

Like many kids who grow up in California (six years of my childhood in the Bay Area), I spent a lot of time on the beautiful coastline with my parents, going north to Stinson Beach and thereabouts regularly on Highway 1. As a touring musician, I would end up in California at some point every year or two, and would always plan at least a few days to drive up and down part of the Pacific Coast Highway, from El Capitan State Beach north of L.A. to Big Sur or Mendocino in Central and Northern California. There is a particular feeling of hitting the road with professional obligations aside, connecting to the past while also reveling in the present. That freedom, nostalgia, and slight melancholia is encapsulated in this piece.

Another layer of personal history lies in the recording itself. Will Chapin, my good friend and fellow guitarist in Empyrean Atlas, recorded it at our old Flatbush apartment in Brooklyn, NY, 2015, on a magical 1972 Fender Red Striped Competition Mustang combined with a 1965 Pre-CBS Fender Deluxe (not a Deluxe Reverb!). The Mustang was a quirky guitar with a few fatal flaws, but also an enormous amount of unique sonic character. I eventually sold it and still regret it to this day.

Pacific Coast Highway is dedicated to Will for his friendship and brilliant performance.

Produced, mixed and engineered by David Crowell
Mastered by Charles Van Kirk
Performed by Will Chapin

Celestial Sphere (2013)

Celestial Sphere is an astronomical concept of observation which arranges objects around a vantage point regardless of distance. This concept had resonance for me as I was composing the music, imagining the ears as celestial observer and the stereo field as various pinpoints of sound in the sky. Particularly in the first section (approximately the first 6 minutes of the piece), the listener feels they are in the middle of the music as parts swirl around them; at first in the far Left/Right speakers, and then with additional parts entering closer to the center of the panning spectrum. A full auditory sphere envelopes the ears, and the music feels strongly three dimensional. Adding to this spherical effect, each part is performed at multiple tempi. Since they move at two different (although closely related) tempi, the faster eventually laps the slower, like a faster runner would a slower runner at the track.

Celestial Sphere was commissioned by a consortium of 12 percussionists, organized by Ian David Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum presented the initial premiere on the People Inside Electronics Series at The Monk Space in Los Angeles, November 2013.

Released by Ian Rosenbaum on his album Memory Palace (National Sawdust Tracks, 2017)

waiting in the rain for snow (2010)

Composed for the NOW Ensemble and released on New Amsterdam Records. In 2017, choreographer John Malashock created new work for Waiting in the Rain for Snow and other classic pieces from the NOW Ensemble repertoire. Video coming soon of live dance performances in San Diego. 

EUCALYPTUS (2011)

Released on Innova Recordings. The title track was composed for two performances at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, in collaboration with the Carlito Carvalhosa exhibition Sum of Days. 

Two pieces from album below - Eucalyptus performed by David Crowell and Kaleidoscope performed by Brian Archinal.

VERY FEELING (2014)

Very Feeling is a collaborative improvising trio with Patrick Breiner on tenor saxophone, Tyler Gilmore on electronics and live mixing, and David Crowell on alto saxophone.

spectrum (2010)

Released in 2010 by Innova Recordings, performed by the David Crowell Ensemble.

Three pieces from album below.