Cymatics

Cymatics is an acoustic sound composition written for Portuguese percussionist Nuno Aroso. The piece is performed with two custom made long, thin and elastic sticks named Flex Strike on a ride cymbal with deep lathing finish. In addition, the amplification reveals deep resonant sound and rich textures. Although I notated Cymatics using the time construct by means of measures and beat subdivisions, I was composing it with no time in mind. I was just aware of listening to the sound completely decoupled from time. In Cymatics I was looking for sonic models such as sweep, whoosh, tremolo, rotation, chirp, glissando, squeaky, rattle, pulse, roll, and slide.