Decipher This!

Erin Rogers is a Canadian-American saxophonist, composer, and improviser dedicated to new and experimental music. Her “decidedly future-oriented” music has been described as “whimsical, theatrical” (Brooklyn Vegan), “radical and refreshing” (Vital Weekly) and “a richly expressive display of stentorian brilliance” (The Wire Magazine). Her work ranges from chamber music performance to solo experimental improvisation to individual and collaborative compositions that incorporate live electronics, theatre, and text. In the interview, she talks about her multidisciplinary artistic practice, composing collaboratively, and her work Telegraph written for Decipher.

Music: Skylight, Building Canyons by Erin Rogers and Gelsey Bell (recorded 2022 by Ryan Streber, Oktaven Audio), performed by Erin Rogers and Gelsey Bell; Telegraph by Erin Rogers, performed by Ensemble Decipher

Hiva Sedaghat is an Iranian choreographer, dancer, and performance artist from Tehran.  Coming from a background of architecture, photography, and literature, she first got to know contemporary dance via the underground scene in Tehran which gave her the opportunity to bring together her personal, social, and political experiences through making interdisciplinary pieces that are a mixture of dance, theater, and video. In the interview, we cover this exposure to contemporary dance in Iran, evoking indigenous Iranian mourning rituals as a form of protest, and the synthesis of sound and movement in her current collaboration with Ensemble Decipher.

Music: The Sound Sleep Has Been Shattered by Hiva Sedaghat and Ensemble Decipher

Lyn Goeringer is a composer, sound artist, improvisor, and performer who makes their own instruments and multi-media pieces that focus on the unusual and everyday within sound, video, and electronics. Their work relies on intense focus and attention to bring the listener to a point of intentional hearing—a world where unusual objects bring haunting soundscapes to life, and everyday objects become sonic in ways we do not usually get the opportunity to hear. In the interview, we talk about the evolution of Goeringer’s custom-built instruments, their piece Orbs written for Decipher, and the future of electronic music and machine learning.

Music: Orbs by Lyn Goeringer, performed by Ensemble Decipher

Bora Yoon is a Korean-American composer, vocalist, and sound artist who conjures audiovisual soundscapes using digital devices, voice, and instruments from a variety of cultures and historical centuries to formulate a storytelling through music, movement, and sound. Joshue Ott is a visualist and software designer who creates cinematic visual improvisations that are performed live and projected in large scale. On the podcast, we talk about their history of multimedia collaborations, their recent project at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, and their upcoming performance at Other Minds Festival 27. We also discuss Bora’s newly commissioned work for Ensemble Decipher, featuring a large kinetic sculpture designed to imitate the string game cat’s cradle.

Music: “ClockSequence” from PHONO KINETIC by Bora Yoon, performed by Bora Yoon

Paula Matthusen is a composer who writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and realizes sound installations. In addition to writing for a variety of different ensembles, she also collaborates with choreographers and theater companies, and frequently performs live-electronics. Her music has been performed by Metropolis Ensemble, Experiments in Opera, Tigue, Dither, Mantra Percussion, the Bang On A Can All-Stars, The Glass Farm Ensemble, to name a few. Awards include the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Fulbright Grant, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers’ Awards, and the 2014 Elliott Carter Rome Prize. Matthusen is currently Associate Professor of Music at Wesleyan University, where she teaches experimental music, composition, and music technology.

Music: Lion’s Tale by Pauline Oliveros, performed by Toneburst Laptop and Electronic Arts Ensemble; of an implacable subtraction by Paula Matthusen, performed by Dana Jessen

Jamie Leigh Sampson is a composer, bassoonist, author, and entrepreneur based in Western New York. She teaches music composition and entrepreneurship at the State University of New York at Fredonia and is the Co-Owner of the publishing entity ADJ•ective New Music. Sampson has written for University North Texas Bands, Ensemble Dal Niente, and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble as well as Amanda DeBoer Bartlett and the Ritual Action Reed Trio. Her compositions have been described as “impressionistic, enabling the listener to focus on the beauty, timbre, and nuance of the singing” and “transcendentally moving” by the Brooklyn Rail.

Music: Power Transfer by Jamie Leigh Sampson, performed by Martin Van Klompenberg; In the Next Next World by Jamie Leigh Sampson, text by Gillian Conoley, performed by Peter Tantsits, Jamie Leigh Sampson, and Tamzin Ferré Elliott

Daria Semegen’s chamber, orchestral, vocal and electronic music with dance and film tends toward the experimental. Her first score for instruments and musique concrète tape is from 1965, followed by tour de force electronic music works she crafted with classic analog studio techniques. Her work was featured in articles, books and in E. Hinkle-Turner’s 1991 doctoral dissertation at Univ. of Illinois. In 1995 her music was the subject of an international seminar at King’s College, Univ. of London. Semegen was honored along with digital music trailblazers Jean-Claude Risset and John Chowning at an international electroacoustic music conference in 2015. Alt-music’s Forced Exposure called her electronic works “heterodyning stereo-heavy monsters as vital as any of the GRM/STEIM/SECAM Darmstadt output.” Critic DJ Spooky wrote, “the dynamic range of sounds is absolutely refreshing, flying in the face of what’s been going on in contemporary music culture.”

Music: Vignette by Daria Semegen, performed by Cathy Callis

Paul Leary is an Associate Professor of Music & Technology at SUNY Oswego in Oswego, NY. After earning degrees in music composition at the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute of Music, Dr. Leary completed a PhD in composition from Duke University in 2012. Paul’s works often include hand built instruments that bring kinetic motion to his electronic works through sensors. Recent works have included a 9 foot wooden pendulum and a bike wheel rig that utilize magnetometers and accelerometers.

Music: Meditations composed and performed by Paul Leary; Perfume by Paul Leary, performed by Thomas Rosencranz; Hephaestus’ Fire composed and performed by Paul Leary

Praised as “strikingly original” (NY Times), Kamala Sankaram moves freely between the worlds of experimental music and contemporary opera. Recent commissions include works for the Glimmerglass Festival, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the PROTOTYPE Festival, and Creative Time, among others. Known for pushing the boundaries of opera, Kamala’s work has included several pieces fusing Indian classical music with the operatic form, the first virtual reality opera, several telematic operas, an opera with live data-mining of the audience, and most recently, a 10-hour opera for the trees of Prospect Park.

Music: all decisions will be made by consensus, music by Kamala Sankaram, libretto by Rob Handel, performed by Adrian Rosas, Hai-Ting Chinn, Joan La Barbara, Kamala Sankaram, Paul An, and Zachary James; “Ghosting” from Looking at You, music by Kamala Sankaram, libretto by Rob Handel, performed by Samuel McCoy, Jeff Hudgins, Ed RosenBerg, and Josh Sinton; “Bike” from Looking at You, music by Kamala Sankaram, libretto by Rob Handel, performed by Samuel McCoy, Blythe Gaissert, Brandon Snook, Mila Henry, Jeff Hudgins, Ed RosenBerg, and Josh Sinton

The music of Tomás Henriques has been performed in Europe and the USA by groups such as the Psaphha Ensemble, the Switch~ Ensemble, the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, Champs d’Action, and Ensemble Antipodes. Dr. Henriques’ research encompasses the fields of music theory, electronic instrument creation, game-interfaces, spatial audio design and computer-aided vision. This research is internationally recognized by his First Place win at the 2010 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, with the invention of the “Double Slide Controller,” the multi-patented "Sonik Spring" technology, and most recently, his work developing a 52.1 surround mixing system, installed at Ciminelli Hall in Buffalo State.

Music: Song of Solomon by Tomás Henriques, performed by Tomás Henriques; Redshift by Tomás Henriques, performed by Emily Boyce; Sudeste by Tomás Henriques, performed by percussion players from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Time Warp by Tomás Henriques, for tape

Darian Donovan Thomas is a Brooklyn based composer, multi-instrumentalist, and interdisciplinary artist. He is interested in combining genres into a singular vocabulary that can express ideas about intersectionality (of medium and identity). Necessarily, he is interested in redacting all barriers to entry that have existed at the gates of any genre - this vocabulary of multiplicity will be intersectional, and therefore all-inclusive. He has received a Bachelors in Music Composition from The University of the Incarnate Word, and was a 2018 New Amsterdam Composer Lab Fellow, 2018 SoSI Composer Fellow, and 2019 Banglewood Composition Fellow. He is currently touring with Moses Sumney and Balùn.

Music: Pith of Crepuscule, composed and performed by Darian Donovan Thomas; Wings, composed and performed by Darian Donovan Thomas

With an interdisciplinary career blending classical training in cello and composition, audio research, and computational arts education, Stony Brook professor Margaret Anne Schedel transcends the boundaries of disparate fields to produce integrated work at the nexus of computation and arts.

Music: After | Apple Box by Margaret Schedel, performed by Ensemble Decipher

Howie Kenty is a Brooklyn-based composer and performer, occasionally known by his musical alter-ego, Hwarg. His music, called “remarkable” with “astonishing poetic power” by the International Compendium Prix Ars Electronica, is stylistically diverse, encompassing ideas from contemporary classical, electronic, rock, ambient, sound art, and everything in between. His works are often politically oriented, and occasionally incorporate visual and theatrical elements. Howie is half of the electronic operatic duo Ju-eh+Hwarg and plays guitar in the progressive rock band The Benzene Ring. He recently earned his PhD in Music Composition from Stony Brook University, and is on the faculty of the Kaufman Music Center, teaching music technology, composition, and theory.

Music: When Were You Silent? by Howie Kenty, performed by Ensemble Decipher; Futility by Howie Kenty, performed by Ginevra Petrucci; “Ottavia E Mars” from Outer Side by Howie Kenty, performed by Ju-eh+Hwarg

Scott Deal engages new pathways of computer interactivity, networked systems, and electroacoustics. His recordings have been described as “soaring, shimmering explorations of resplendent mood and incredible scale.” In the network arts, Deal is an award-winning creator, producer, author, and performer. Deal and composer Matthew Burtner were awarded the Internet2 IDEA award for their creation of Auksalaq, a telematic opera described as “an important realization of opera for today’s world.” He is the founder of Earth Day Art Model, a 24-hour, worldwide telematic festival. Deal is the Director of the Tavel Arts and Technology Research Center at IUPUI, Indianapolis.

Music: Auksalaq by Matthew Burtner and Scott Deal, performed by Joan La Barbara (singer/narrator), NYU New Music Ensemble (Esther Lamneck), and Percussion Ensemble (Jonathan Haas); AVATAR Improvisations, performed by Scott Deal

Sarah Weaver, Ph.D. is a New York-based contemporary composer, conductor, technologist, educator, and researcher working internationally as a specialist in Network Arts. Weaver has composed solo, chamber, and large ensemble works for groundbreaking musicians for twenty-five years, integrating influences of jazz, contemporary classical, improvisation, computer music, world music, and individual music languages of performers. She is an innovator of live performance via the internet by musicians and artists in different geographic locations, encompassing numerous artistic projects with collaborators and interdisciplinary projects with groups such as NASA Kepler/K2 Mission and United Nations. Weaver is the director of NowNet Arts, director of the Sarah Weaver Ensemble, and editor of the Journal of Network Music and Arts (JONMA). She is on the faculty of New School College of Performing Arts, Performer-Composer Masters Program. Weaver is a member of ASCAP, College Music Society, National Association of Composers, and board member of the JackTrip Foundation.

Music: “Sound in Peace" by Sarah Weaver, performed by Joe McPhee and Sarah Weaver; TeleCello Concerto by Sarah Weaver and Chris Chafe, performed by Tintinnabulate and SoundWIRE; "Universal Synchrony Music: Kepler/K2" by Sarah Weaver, performed by NowNet Arts Ensemble

Lainie Fefferman is a composer, performer, teacher, organizer, and general proponent of new and forward-thinking music. Her most recent commissions have been from JACK Quartet, Tenth Intervention, and So Percussion. "White Fire," her electroacoustic meditation on the heroines of the Hebrew Bible has been touring internationally and is coming out as an album in 2021. She is a co-founder and director of New Music Gathering. She got her doctorate in composition from Princeton University and is a programming/performing member of Princeton-based laptop ensemble Sideband. She is currently a professor of Music & Technology at Stevens Institute of Technology and recently concluded her time as artist in residence at Nokia Bell Labs.

Music: Overshare by Lainie Fefferman, performed by Ensemble Decipher

Welcome to Decipher This!, a podcast about music and technology. On the podcast, members of the technology-focused, experimental music group Ensemble Decipher interview their collaborators on composing and performing music with vintage, contemporary, and emerging technologies. In the first episode, the Decipherists talk about the group’s history and pieces they’ve written for the ensemble.

Music: toy_5 by Eric Lemmon, Remember Me by Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and coat by Rob Cosgrove, performed by Ensemble Decipher

Co-hosts: Joseph Bohigian, Robert Cosgrove, Eric Lemmon, Chelsea Loew, Taylor Long, and Niloufar Nourbakhsh

Members of the technology-focused, experimental music group Ensemble Decipher interview their collaborators on composing and performing music with vintage, contemporary, and emerging technologies. Subscribe to hear upcoming episodes with Lainie Fefferman and Sarah Weaver.