Kelp + Amethyst = Coprolite was co-commissioned by the Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie and Gaudeamus, with financial support from the ULYSSES Platform and the European Union.

The work is based on a recording of a piano improvisation I made six years ago, using an acoustic piano equipped with a silent system that triggered a second MIDI-controlled piano sound tuned approximately a sixth-tone higher. The file was saved as “Kelp,” probably because the music suggested a slow, drunken swaying of something submerged underwater.

This composition is a hyper-systematized reworking of that simple improvisation. I structured the original quarter-note pulse into three distinct treatments:

• Part A: a sequence of irregular time signatures (each four beats long), evoking the hesitant, stumbling nature of the original improvisation
• Part B: regular quarter-note pulses at a fixed tempo, as a sharp contrast
• Part C: regular quarter notes, but with strongly fluctuating tempo

In addition to the improvisation material, I incorporated a set of two intervals corresponding to the first three overtones of a singing bowl (B4, F6, D#7) used by my addiction therapist during mindfulness sessions. These intervals appear in the Thai gongs, as well as in the piano and contrabass in Part B. I regard this pitch set as a kind of ward or protective charm supporting my sobriety, which began around the same time I received the commission. The reference to “amethyst” in the title relates to its ancient use as protection against drunkenness (from Koine Greek ἀ + μέθυστος: not drunk).

A coprolite is fossilized excrement: something hardened, preserved, and valuable, yet made from something banal and discarded.