These original compositions were created, for the most part, within the context of my thesis research, although some pieces were composed using other, more traditional methods. For the complete thesis collection, including fragments, see the thesis music page.

Note: These pieces were rendered and balanced for head-phones. Listening to them through conventional speakers may provide a sub-optimal acoustic experience.

Incident on Pier 6

It's late at night and the dirt-bag you've been tailing for the last six hours just twigged. There was an exchange of lead and then he scived down an alley, heading for the docks. You're in pursuit, but casual like, 'cus that slug in his leg has got to be slowing him down, right? Besides, where could he possibly go?

Clockhouse

Clockhouse hypnotically blends the structures of Javanese gamelan with western blues tonalities. Think of it more as a meditative composition than traditional art music. I find myself getting lost in its inner rhythms.

Morning Traffic

This Wheelsong piece was composed by hybridizing Bach's Invention #1 in C Major with the prelude to his Cello Suite #1, but rather than Baroque counterpoint, it has been likened by others to the work of several 20th century composers.

Goddess of Fire

Inspired by, and borrowing from, Steve Reich's Clapping Music, this piece places you at the campfire of some long-forgotten warrior tribe, where the high priestess shrills and cavorts through the flames, driven by the relentless pounding of the drums.

Resolving Our Voices

This piece differs from most of the other Wheelsong pieces shown here, in that, while it is still built upon the foundations of a pre-existing composition, no structural sketch was used as input. Instead, a passage from the source work was divided into overlapping voices and played back out of sync - looping until they finally resolve themselves back into the original composition. See if you can identify the source before it resolves.

Bach Alley Shuffle

What would you get if Bach wandered around New Orleans in the 1890s? Would he have invented ragtime? This piece blends structural elements of Bach's Invention #1 in C Major with a blues riff, producing this very ragtime-feeling composition.

Blue Gamelan

In some ways, this piece is very much like the original Ladrang Wilujeng on which it is based. After encoding that traditional gamelan piece in Wheelsong constructural form, all that was left to do was to speed it up and replace the Indonesian pentatonic slendro scale with a western pentatonic blues scale. The result is this east-west hybrid piece that sounds a bit like both worlds, but is not entirely situated in either.

Tokyo Invention

This time, Bach visits Tokyo with his electric surf guitar. An hour after getting off the plane, he hasn't been there long enough to convert totally to the local sound, but it's already starting to creep in.

Waldeinsamkeit

Do you know that feeling of being creeped out, wandering in the woods at night? Did you know that there's a word for that feeling? Trust the Germans - they have a word for every kind of psychological disturbance. And where the German's have a word, I aim to give it theme music. This piece emerged as an amalgam of the gamelan and Bach works.

River of Light

My homage to the sound and spirit of gamelan - at least, as filtered through my outsider perceptions. Imagine a procession of pilgrims winding their way through a mountain pass. Slow. Dignified. Stately. And with chimes.