Gabriel Prokofiev

Here together for the first time, are two releases united by parallel processes. Both Strange Blooms and Howl! were originally composed for contemporary dance projects - Strange Blooms in collaboration with choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, and Howl!, written initially as a score for American choreographer, Maurice Causey, and premiered by the Luzerner Ballet. Both works, too, use keyboards, separated by three centuries: A natural recording of a 17th century baroque harpsichord (performed by Jane Chapman) as the basis for the hybrid explorations of Strange Blooms, which are filtered through digital granular processing techniques (stretching, brassage, warping). Howl! draws on a different “tradition,” subjecting a range of sounds produced by a 1970s Arp Odyssey to cut and paste, multitrack layering, samplers and filtering. Both works celebrate hybridity and explore the synthesis of organic and mechanical, old and new, for the brave new world to come.