Powder Prayer For Shadow Planet (live recording) by Aliya Ultan

Voice & cello - Aliya Ultan
Alto Saxophone - Nathan Reider
Tenor Saxophone - Birsa Chaterjee
Electric guitars - Henry Nelson, Mohit Dubey
Bass - Matthew Frerck
and The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble

Program Notes:
Over the past three months, I have been studying the ways in which a mass of animals, insects or humans behave in relation to a threat. A common tendency is for self serving individuals to move as closely as possible to the center of a fleeing group in order to find protection. In the case of a herd, an alignment of the thoughts and behaviors cause each member of the group to continuously follow without centralized coordination.

Through this research, I have become increasingly more interested in exploring how uncoordinated individual behavior can be perceived as collective consciousness. The hybrid ensemble of Powder Prayer for Shadow Planet is one of the ways in which I grapple with various states of collective being. Through superimposing different notational systems, the score itself is an immersive web of perception. A diverse collection of musical languages are incorporated to initiate dialogue across disciplines as well as discrepancies in “togetherness”.

On the surface, the narrative of Powder Prayer follows the voice of an individual through various landscapes. However, it is my intention as the soloist of this piece to evoke a shapeshifting quality by sifting through a multitude of textures. Each of these textures exist within a spectrum of densities reflecting that of a city or natural environment. The weaving together of both literal and abstract soundscapes leads the listener and all participating musicians to the notion of a prayer.

-Aliya Ultan