DESCRIPTION:
Part of Third Coast Percussion's Currents Creative Partnership
Live Premiere Video
May 28, 2017
Constellation - Chicago

The curious timbres, expressive noises, and kinetic structures of Katherine Young’s (born 1980, Ypsilanti, MI) electro-acoustic music explore the dramatic physicality of sound, shifting interpersonal dynamics, and associations with the familiar and the strange. Ensemble Dal Niente, Talea, String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Spektral Quartet, the CSO’s MusicNOW, and others have performed her music. As a bassoonist and improviser, Katherine amplifies her instrument and employs a flexible electronics set-up. She has recorded with her quartet Pretty Monsters, in addition to duo projects with Anthony Braxton and violist Amy Cimini, and her solo projects. The multi-movement work Diligence Is to Magic as Progress Is to Flight is out on Parlour Tapes+, as a stereo recording and do-it-yourself cassette installation box set. She is a founding member of Till by Turning.

“just water, no lemon is part of When stranger things happen, a cycle of pieces inspired by Kelly Link’s story ‘The Girl Detective.’ Link’s story embeds a noir coming of age story into a meditation on loss and the transformative potential of imagination. Each piece in the cycle explores processes of detection and creative reassembly. The buzzing sound world of just water, no lemon was inspired by a scene from the story in which the girl detective begrudgingly sits at dinner with her father, refusing to communicate or eat and only ordering water. noises external and internal get amplified, investigated, carved out, and listened into.
“This piece was written in close collaboration with the members of Third Coast Percussion, who contributed their expertise, musicality, imaginings, and memories.”

Video by Aphorism Studios.