M.A./Ph.D. composition student, Andrew Harlan, will have his newest work, HYPHA, performed by the New York Ensemble, loadbang, on March 7th at 7:30 pm at the National Opera Center in Brooklyn, NY. The work was commissioned after Harlan won first prize in the ensemble’s 2017 commission competition. The concert will also feature a world premiere by Chaya Czernowin, a NY premiere by Andrew List, and works by John Cage and Helmut Oehring.


HYPHA, scored for bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, baritone voice, and electronics, utilizes a fixed media element which was developed at the UC Berkeley Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) from August  2018 to January 2019. HYPHA operates somewhere in between classic concrète, ambient music, ASMR, and horrifying sound design for some dystopian forest. The fixed media element consisting of field recordings, synthesizers, and tons of samples made from recordings of a recorder. The relationship between loadbang and the tape is constantly shifting; sometimes the instrumentalists orchestrate around the tape part, sometimes fracturing the borders of the electronic world as disruptive agents. The instruments animate/complicate the sound world by adding a sense of urgency and depth to the surroundings.