Gordon: Field of Vision

Michael Gordon writes about his new work: "Swarms of ringing bells. Big drums that bang. Metals and woods like a procession in the distance. Dense metal parts, stones and branches scraping into the sky. 'Field of Vision' unfolds as a sixty-minute introduction to moving sounds – sounds that don't sit still, that circle, collide, dissolve, and move in panoramic arcs of an expanding perspective. What starts as a beat becomes resonance, rhythm, architecture. Specially constructed percussion objects of various origins, once activated, trigger a chain reaction of overtones that linger, overlap, and weave together into a thundering terrain intended to induce a quasi-meditative, almost ecstatic state – for performers and listeners alike – in which attention sharpens and dissolves, and thoughts concentrate and drift. With Doug Perkins as initiator and cartographer and the intrepid University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble, the work develops into an exploration of space itself. Who can tune the space? The answer becomes collective: the performers, the instruments, the listeners." Nicaragua-born American composer Michael Gordon is a co-founder of the new music festival 'Bang on a Can.' His music is and has been performed throughout Europe and North America, including by such renowned artists as the Kronos Quartet.