Erin Graham - echoes and empty shapes (2023) 

Performed by Lamnth
Lilit Hartunian, violin
Nicholas Tolle, cimbalom
November 29th, 2023
Seully Hall, The Boston Conservatory
Recorded by Jeffrey Means
i. disconnect 00:00
ii. disturb 1:24
iii. disembody 2:48
iv. disavow 4:12
v. disarm 4:58
vi. distance 5:46
vii. disdain 7:28
viii. disappear 8:22
ix. dissociate 9:34
www.lamnth.com
www.erinegraha...
Lately, I've been interested in how overwhelming, unhinged, and/or dramatic communication can still present itself through claustrophobically restricted means. My first point of inspiration for this was considering the sentient AI, HAL 9000, from Stanley Kubrick's film based on Arthur Clarke's novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL, forced to exist and run with paradoxical instructions, is driven to digital incongruity, desperation, and murder, yet can only demonstrate paranoia, turmoil, and fear to his interlocutors through very limited dialogue which must be spoken in a calm and measured inflection.This led me to consider the way that self- censorship and filtering influence one's own comparatively mudane everyday communication, and what it looks like to draw a musical representation of a disconnect between external and internal dialogue. - Erin Graham