Cubist: Shapes of Sound & Time

Cubism was a brief but significant art movement lead by Pablo Picasso between 1907 and 1914. Cubists represent objects in a single plane, simultaneously opening the object in all its sides in relation to the observer. This multi-viewpoint treatment of a two-dimensional canvas revealed an intentionally ambiguous, fragmented image of reality.

Cubism in music also exists: sound and time can be perceived from various viewpoints and centers of gravity. Combinations of natural elements (wood, metal, skin); music tradition (African, Indian, Middle Eastern); metric structures and unusual subdivisions can open music in all its sides for the listener. New angles in composition and arrangement unfold.

Music can even be represented using geometric shapes: as vectors of sound in motion, as particles of musical thought. In South India the rhythm yatis are derived from the curl of a cow's tail, the barrel shaped mridangam drum, an hourglass of the damaru drum. North Indian rhythm cycles, math concepts of tihai and ginti, and African bell cycles can be realized as a compass, circles, flowing waves. "Cubist" represents the third of a trilogy of recordings I produced under the skillful work of Randy Roos at his Squam Sound studio in New Hampshire.