SCIENCE IS ONLY A SOMETIMES FRIEND was originally conceived as an outdoor performance piece for eight glockenspiels and public performers. This version of the piece is inspired by the challenge of creating a specific sonic environment with live performers and, at the same time, inviting casual observers to contribute sounds of their own. The glockenspiels pulse together in steady time throughout the hour-long performance as individual pitches enter and exit the thick texture, like characters walking on and off a stark geometric stage.
The constant chiming of the glockenspiels creates a halo of harmonic activity around the performers that shifts depending upon the location of the listener. This mysterious whistle is anticipated, yet oddly vague, sometimes more present and other times hidden. The piece tests the science of attention and the counterpoint of daydreams.
The concert version of Science… is scored for eight glockenspiels and organ, which replaces the secondary contributions of the public performers.
THE AARON SIEGEL ENSEMBLE is the group of close collaborators that brings the compositions of Aaron Siegel to life. The ensemble includes members of the top new music ensembles in the city, some of the most sought after improvisers in the world, and a host of innovative songwriters and indie rock musicians.
The Ensemble has performed together at venues around New York City including Roulette Intermedium, Issue Project Room, The Chocolate Factory Theater, Renee Weiller Recital Hall, and as part of the You Are Here Arts festival at Chashama art space in Times Square.
The debut CD of the Aaron Siegel Ensemble, Every Morning a HIstory, was released by Brooklyn-based Peacock Recordings and was praised by Signal to Noise as being “representative of the flowering DIY chamber music scene in Brooklyn.”
AARON SIEGEL is a composer and percussionist who makes acoustic experimental work that raises questions about the relationship between performers, audience members and the space they occupy together. His music has been performed by Mantra Percussion Ensemble, Flux Quartet, pianist Emily Manzo, Kyklos Ensemble and his own ensemble. In 2009, percussionist Joe Bergen recorded his Our Reluctance is Overstated (for six timpanists) on the online label shskh.com. He is working on commission for the Ictus percussion ensemble to be premiered in Fall of 2009. The Aaron Siegel Ensemble will premiere the full version of Preparing the Past (for four hand piano, two vibraphones and two glockenspiels) in the spring of 2010.
Aaron is a member of Memorize the Sky, The Anthony Braxton 12+1 tet, White, Blue, Yellow and Clouds, Assembly and his own group, Where from Here.. As part of these and other ensembles, Aaron has toured extensively in the United States and Europe. Memorize the Sky has released two recordings: Memorize the Sky (2007, 482 Music) and In Former Times (2008, Clean Feed Records) both of which document an ongoing improvisational collaboration with bassist Zach Wallace and reedist Matt Bauder. The Cabinet, a solo percussion CD (2006, Longbox Recordings) was praised by The Wire in as “an exquisite set that has a meditative ease and grace.” He has released limited edition CDs of his electronic music including Rooms and Spaces and Sounding Place. His playing is featured on several recordings with Anthony Braxton including the mammoth 9-CD Box Set, 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006. In 2009 Siegel released Fiddle and Drum a collaborative project with the fiddler, Sam Amidon. For more information, visit aaronsiegel.net.
“An evocative composer” – Allan Kozinn, New York Times