YOUR QUESTION:

08/01/2020 carlos

hi trevor,
i've been listening to you for about 15 years. and i just saw you for the first time alone, mostly alone, at the center for new music in sf with this girl on the computer, i think you call yourselves sperm church, good name and then with amendola at uptown in oakland. i also saw you on youtube play standup bass at the luggage store, a song called pentagram. i hope to see you again in the bay. you're musical ideas have always been interesting to me. a few questions: what inspired that song, pentagram, there's a lot textures and then you break into song with the bow. can you give a reference for the tonality of those parts or even the time structure? also, i recall reading or hearing something about you doing variations on chopin's work. i love chopin. i recently got into his preludes and his nouvelle but i heard his nocturnes 15 years ago. will you or have you already composed and released this concept? will you play an online concert during the covid crisis?

MY ANSWER:

The piece Pentagram is essentially a guided improvisation divided into 5 sections. The first part is based on 5 chords which are played on harmonics, the second section is based on a very simple rhythmic idea which can be varied to no end. The other sections are similarly written with multiple options for improvisational variation and return points. What inspired this piece is a need for ritual. I’ve since put this piece away for further consideration but will perhaps revisit and refine it in the future.
I did reference Chopin’s Nocturnes with my own short and much simpler pieces for piano which you can find on my Tzadik CD “Nocturnes” along with some chamber pieces for strings.