darker
The point is to be expressive, but not too expressive, to find a middle way. But that middle way is oddly intense. You may fade in and out of attentiveness to the music. [In Lang's darker] there is nothing you really need to follow, just as you may, while examining a Calder mobile from many angles, momentarily look away. You know that when you come back to it, it will still be there and it will be the same mobile even as it's moved. —Mark Swed, LA Times
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and Bang on A Can co-founder David Lang brought his pensive evening-length piece, darker, to EMPAC, for a recording residency and performance featuring Esnemble Signal with live projections by Suzanne Bocanegra.
Scored for 12 strings, darker is a slow exploration of sound. At times, it gives the ensemble the feel of a giant pipe organ or, with the aid of visual artist Suzanne Bocanegra’s live projections, the feel of splattering rain on an immoveable wall. As much a hypnotic sonic and visual object as it is a piece of music, darker weave its intricate solo lines into a delicate and subtly emotional fabric.
darker was recorded in the Concert Hall by Ensemble Signal for future release on Cantaloupe Records.
David Lang is one of the most highly esteemed and performed American composers writing today. His works have been performed around the world in most of the great concert halls. Lang is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can.
Ensemble Signal, described by the New York Times as “one of the most vital groups of its kind,” is a NY-based ensemble dedicated to offering the broadest possible audience access to a diverse range of contemporary works through performance, commissioning, recording, and education.
Suzanne Bocanegra is an artist living and working in New York City. Her recent work involves large-
scale performance and installation, frequently translating two dimensional information, images and ideas from the past into three dimensional scenarios for staging, movement, ballet, and music.
Main Image: David Lang's DARKER Photo: Mick Bello/EMPAC