activating shadows

Playing with perceptions of power and the internal darkness that follows us around, 'activating shadows' depicts a latently woven narrative between two entities - 'human' (clarinet) and 'shadow' (trombone). The conversational filigree that is tossed between the performers; often squabbling and somewhat sinister, the straitjackets are thrust off amid the chaos of the opening three epigrams in the battle for existence between what 'lives' in light, is 'activated' by light, and who survives. The final two "movements" eventually settle to a state of mutual co-existence, and more attention to the warmer sides of the entities emerges only for a brief time.

This work is dedicated to Lisa Cheney and her blooming family; for her inspiration to look past the surface of shadows to find their inner beauty.