MUSIC
portraits/landscapes
an audio-visual double EP, 2021
“portraits/landscapes” is an hour long work I’ve recently completed which features visuals ranging from videographic still lifes to generative abstractions, and music spanning genres from ambient music to indie folk to experimental pop and the spaces in between. created in 5 channel video and ambisonic audio, the work was originally designed for presentation in the Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater at the University of North Texas, and is currently being adapted for presentation in a variety of alternative formats, including 3 channel video and virtual reality/360 video.
all visual work, text, and audio created and recorded by myself.
stills from the work:
christian service songs
three short works for large ensemble
this series consists of source material from an old hymn book found in the attic of my great grandmother’s farmhouse in Guymon, Oklahoma. I have taken small melodic fragments from the hymns bookmarked by previous readers of the book and morphed, divided, and stretched out these elements to create an abstraction of this music which was once so profound for my grandmother and her community, and which has since been to some extent forgotten and abandoned. in doing so, I hope to embody the state of my own connection to my great grandmother, to worship music, and to the christian god, which was once strong and alive and is now similarly gone, past, and forgotten, in many ways existing only in small artifacts and memories.
Music for Sitting
2019-Present
My “Music for Sitting” series is a collection of electronic pieces aimed at an exploration of music that doesn’t take the listener anywhere and isn’t focused on a destination but rather seeks to explore a variety of static spaces in each track, with an emphasis on a certain stillness and focus. Each track explores one or two main ideas centered around timbre and sound world. These pieces either remain focused on a singular idea or employ a transition from one sound space to another.
This collection has been mostly released as part of “landscapes” from “portraits/landscapes.” Please contact me if you are interested in hearing the unreleased material form this series.
lure
“lure” is an exploration of the interplay between process and intuition. I wanted to address the implications and possibilities of both methods of music-making, and how that might relate to the lyrical content of the piece. Additionally, it continues to subtly incorporate a sort of dialogue between classical and vernacular idioms, specifically in the vocal style (I’ve had the great privilege to work with Samantha Sugrue, a very talented jazz vocalist, on the recording of this piece). A studio recording of the piece has been completed and is now available on all major streaming platforms.
The full score and electronics needed for performance can be found below, as well as a piano transcription.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-FmKXvcc47Cw1iWmVcOgokpxuVOvJMx6?usp=sharing
Listen to Lure here: https://connersimmons.bandcamp.com/track/lure
GUYMON, OKLAHOMA
explorations in electronic music
"Clearly a descendant of modern and modal jazz, this work is relaxing, but fascinating, to explore as a listener." - Danlis Music, Composer's Toolbox
"Guymon, Oklahoma” is album I finished recording and producing in 2018, but which I began working on in some capacity as early as 2015. The tracks on this album are more experimental than what I had previously written with The Frites, featuring less conventional approaches to instrumentation, groove, harmony, and form, but they are a bit more palatable and pop-influenced than some of my more recent work.
the voyager
The Voyager (Fall 2018) was written to be played alongside the series entitled “The Starry Messenger” by visual artist Wiley Reid. Like the visual series which inspired its creation, it draws heavily on source material from the music and sounds aboard the space probe of the same name launched by NASA in 1977. This source material is especially present in the electronics portion, which is composed primarily of processed samples of the Golden Record that is currently aboard The Voyager, traveling aimlessly through space. The piece is written for Saxophone, Percussion, and Electronics. The Score and Electronics can be found at the link below:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=10GpzPER9lc1P3-BrsQeYY6DrijsHVLuQ
