nand (2023)

nand will be premiered by the Splice Ensemble at their 2023 Splice Festival in Boston. My recent obsession has been the timbre and rhythmic gating of the NAND-gate feedback circuit described by Nick Collins in Handmade Electronic Music. Even though the system is quite simple (producing repeating phrases consisting of square waves, filtered noise, and silence), each gesture has microvariations that increase the entropy and attract my attention endlessly. My favorite timbres from this circuit occur while parameters are being changed–when capacitors are firing at surprising times, before they can settle into a stasis.

One of these circuits will be used in the live performance, controlled by the computer (via Arduino) based on what the ensemble is playing. For example, percussion icti can trigger a change to new circuit parameters, or audio analysis of the trumpet can direct the circuit to attempt an imitation of the live instrument.