Alex Mincek: »Strato«

Pendulum XI: »Strato« (for amplified string quartet and electric guitar), is part of an ongoing cycle of pieces inspired by the simple swinging motions of pendulums, along with the more complex forces that allow a pendulum’s movement to continue or dissipate. While the pieces in this series do mimic literal aspects of pendulum behavior, they are more commonly characterized by metaphorical relationships between abstract oppositions in constant, fluctuating oscillation. The latest piece in this series, »Strato« (»strato« is a reference to both »strata« and »stratocaster«) focusses on stratified layers and of sound and time (formal sections) that are continually transferred and rotated in and out of phase, as if each layer and formal block is in its own orbit, while still meaningfully interacting with all the other layers and sections. Each instrument performs stratified musical structures in a stratified physical manner. For example, the guitarist is prescribed independent, contradictory back-and-forth actions for each hand (what the left hand does causes the left hand to malfunction and vice versa…), often resulting in a dense, noisy murmur. The idea of convergence plays an important role in the formal narrative, like a pendulum coming to rest at a symmetrical point of equilibrium.

(Alex Mincek)