Winter is an improvisation for Bohlen-Pierce electric guitar and electronics composed on October 12, 2017 in a hotel by the sea-side in Izmir, Turkey. It was informed by the gradual takeover of the world by populist strongmen who exploit their populations to their own benefit. This feels like a darker, more unpleasant phase in life like a winter which one must endure until things get more enjoyable.
In the performance at the Goethe Institute in Izmir, I improvised on my 9-string Bohlen-Pierce electric guitar accompanied by DJster also doing a machine improv with slowly moving “cold” sounds in the Bohlen-Pierce quintuple scale, a scale which is nearly identical to 41EDO but uses a different musical syntax.
I played video sequences in slow motion which I took from my hotel room over the time I was looked into my hotel room. The use of the footage was inspired by Bill Viola’s video installations. While the weather was still pleasant in Izmir during this time of the year, it is the the movies’ slow motion that add to the discomfort I wanted to portrait: The endless wait for things to change.