NYU Department of Music graduate student Konstantine Vlasis has recently released a new percussion composition piece, "Ablation," in collaboration with Apex Percussion.
Check out the performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7SKdpcqTcM
Ablation is scored for four pedal glockenspiels, four bass drums, and tape. Conceptually, this work centers on the rapid melt of ice masses and the process by which ice calves from the terminal face of a glacier. The interlocking rhythmic structure alongside the muted/unmuted pedal feature of the glockenspiels are meant to distort listeners’ sense of time, and represent a shift in time-scales. The oceanographer John Englander refers to this temporal precarity as hyperglacial—a new era in which glacial melt occurs extremely quickly (rather than at its normal, “glacial” pace). The sound design of the tape track embodies this hyperglacial reality as all of the featured sounds are recordings of Vatnajökull (a glacier located in Southwest Iceland) and its adjoining soundscape.
Composer & Project Lead: Konstantine Vlasis
Cast: Konstantine Vlasis, Chris Parker, Marcus Neudigate, Jake Lyons
Videography: Josh Flint
Recording & Mixing: Yi-Wen Lai-Tremewan
Video Editing: Jake Lyons
Color Grading: Marcus Neudigate
Plus, watch some behind-the-scenes footage on the Apex Percussion Youtube channel! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMhsSalxthM&ab_channel=ApexPercussion
