HYPERCUBE Presents U.S. Premiere of Eric Wubbels' VOIDED CROSS

HYPERCUBE presents the U.S. premiere of Eric Wubbels' Voided Cross (for Michael Heizer), a high-intensity 45-minute work that saturates the boundaries of space, ear, room, and time on Tuesday, May 7th at 8pm at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music. Scored for saxophone, electric guitar, piano/accordion/synth, and percussion, HYPERCUBE pushes the limits of sound and execution in bringing this work to life, bridging electronic and acoustic worlds. Voided Cross is featured alongside the New York premiere of Casino (Remix) by Erin Rogers and they solidify then tilt by Nicholas Deyoe.

Tuesday, May 7, 2019 at 8pm
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St., New York, NY 10018
(212) 594-6100
Tickets: $10 Advance at Eventbrite/$15 at the Door
http://bit.ly/HypercubeEventbrite57
http://bit.ly/HypercubeDiMenna57

Voided Cross (for Michael Heizer) [2018] by Eric Wubbels U.S. Premiere for saxophone, electric guitar, keyboards (piano/accordion/synthesizer), and percussion commissioned by and written for HYPERCUBE I. unconscious, volatile II. mechanistic, inorganic, harsh III. respiratory, hypnotic, flexible IV. relentless, clangorous (total duration: ~ 45')

"It takes a very specific audience to like this stupid primordial shit I do... I like runic, Celtic, Druidic, cave painting, ancient, preliterate, from a time back when you were speaking to the lightning god, the ice god, and the cold-rainwater god." - Michael Heizer

"By all accounts complicated and not terribly sympathetic as a person, American sculptor and visual artist Michael Heizer nevertheless has created a body of work that has become a kind of aesthetic touchstone for me. From his early association with the Earth Art movement of the '60's, Heizer has codified a rigorously essentialized style that sets natural phenomena into tense balance with art-world formalisms. From a basic conceptual vocabulary of elemental shapes he generates extraordinarily visceral manifestations: circles, cubes, and cones carved into the ground as gaping pits; massive boulders "levitated" over pedestrian walkways in Los Angeles; or, as in "City," his main project for the past 40+ years, a complex of concrete mounds and abstract shapes in the Nevada desert on the scale of Chichén Itzá. Heizer's work proposes a new aesthetic type (outside of the pre-modern world, anyway) - a kind of visual art for the reptile brain.

Voided Cross seeks to inhabit a similar aesthetic world in sound, taking "raw" timbral and sonic objects from this particularly versatile electro-acoustic instrumentation and presenting them in blunt, direct, often high-intensity realizations. The piece is heavily amplified throughout, to generate an extreme quasi-sculptural sonic presence, an ecstatic physicality of sound that saturates the spaces of ear, room, and conscious attention.

The title refers to a shape in ancient heraldic iconography, and in this context has no intended religious implications. For me it's certainly a political piece, though, and the extremity of its expression reflects an attempt to metabolize, transform, and (in some admittedly limited sense) counter the particularly toxic, violent, nihilistic elements of contemporary American social and political life.

Many thanks to Andrea, Chris, Erin, and Jay of HYPERCUBE for their dedication, hard work, and skill in bringing this piece into existence." - Eric Wubbels (2018)

Casino (Remix) [2018] by Erin Rogers NY Premiere for soprano saxophone, electric guitar, keyboard synthesizer, and percussion Commissioned and premiered by Hypercube (total duration: 7') Stressed out gamblers seek a smooth, windowless counter-world with high ceilings, carpeted floors, and the calm of overwhelming noise. - Erin Rogers (2018)

they solidify then tilt [2018] by Nicholas Deyoe for tenor saxophone, electric guitar, accordion, and percussion Commissioned and premiered by Hypercube (total duration: 20')

they solidify then tilt was composed in 2017 and 2018 for Hypercube. The sound world of the piece is inspired by Alison Carter's At Night from her book A Fixed, Formal Arrangement. In this piece, each instrument has an identity, but spends substantial periods of time blending together, and masking themselves. The harmonic world is driven by a collection of guitar chords in unstable positions caused by partial depression of the guitar's whammy bar, which causes the high strings to detune disproportionately to the low strings. The slow and careful manipulation of the whammy bar essentially creates six slightly different glissandi. Inside of these shifting sonorities, the saxophone, accordion, and percussion latch on, extend, and distort the harmonies further. When gestures return (which is frequent) they have shifted slightly. When I read Carter's poem, I imagine my own quiet anxiety in the dark and the way that I question what I see, and what I know is or isn't there. I can walk from one end of my house to the other in the dark, but can also be still in my bedroom and convince myself that something new has appeared. "And at night without an overhead, the things I can't see, they don't go away, they solidify then tilt, and on the other side of them, a wall, constructed of very solid bodies,"

Text that inspired they solidify then tilt: At Night

"At night without an overhead, on the side is the wall, with a window in it, and the window has a slatted shade, dicey at best, and there is a certain exterior through it, at the feet, a speakerbox, a wall, at the headboard, and at night without an overhead, the things I can't see, they don't go away, they solidify then tilt, and on the other side of them, a wall, constructed of very solid bodies,"

from A Fixed, Formal Arrangement by Allison Carter published by Les Figues Press

HYPERCUBE

"fearless and flawless... some of the most exciting playing I have ever heard." Sequenza21 "Jarring, compelling" The Washington Post

HYPERCUBE has built a reputation on high-energy performances with impressive execution. The NYC-based quartet embraces the boundaries of chamber music, featuring cutting-edge works for saxophone, guitar, piano and percussion, while spanning electric and acoustic worlds.

HYPERCUBE has appeared as guest artist at Music on the Edge (Pittsburgh), The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, the Charlotte New Music Festival, The Garrick Theatre (Newfoundland), Roulette (Brooklyn), Versipel Festival (New Orleans), Nief-Norf Summer Festival (Knoxville), LPR presents (NYC), and the 40th International Festival of New Music "Manuel Enríquez" (Mexico City). With a national and international touring schedule, 2019 appearances include the Now Hear This Festival and Ritornello Chamber Music Festival (Western Canada). In addition to their performance season, HYPERCUBE participates in residencies at universities and conservatories across the US and Canada working with students at Cincinnati Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Memorial University (Newfoundland), Duke University, Oberlin Conservatory, Acadia University (Nova Scotia), Wesleyan, and CalArts.

From championing original works such as Louis Andriessen's Hout, Philippe Hurel's Localized Corrosion, and Chaya Czernowin's Sahaf, to commissioning new works by composers Nicholas Deyoe, Farzia Fallah, Eric Wubbels, Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh, Dennis Sullivan, Amin Sharifi, Erin Rogers, Nomi Epstein, Philip Schuessler, Christopher Adler, and Juan Trigos, HYPERCUBE has collaborated with composers such as Sam Pluta and Chris Cerrone, to freshly adapt works for the quartet. HYPERCUBE will release its debut album this year on New Focus Recordings.

HYPERCUBE is Erin Rogers (saxophones), Jay Sorce (classical & electric guitar), Andrea Lodge (piano & accordion), and Chris Graham (percussion). Photo: Jason Tran http://www.hypercubemusic.org

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