Duet for violin and laptop. Fundamental harmonies give rise to polyrhythms that form the foundation of the work. Finalist at the ASCAP/SEAMUS 2007 Electro-Acoustic Conference.  SERIES FOR JOSEPH FOURIER Violin and Laptop New York Premier by Kate Dreyfuss January 10, 2009 6:20 minutes

Single movement string quartet where melodic lines emerge from progressions of tightly voiced suspensions. Composed and recorded at the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program in Putney, Vermont.     HOLD TIGHT String Quartet Premiered by Kelsey Blumenthal, Adina Tsai, Emily Owsinski, and Thomas Mesa June 27, 2008 8:20 minutes

Commissioned for sound-sculptor Trimpin’s installation ‘Conloninpurple’ for the 2006 Ojai Music Festival. COMPOSITION FOR CONLONINPURPLE Trimpin’s Room-size Deconstructed Marimba Sculpture Ojai Music Festival June 10, 2006 5:00 minutes

Sextet for piano, marimba, flute, clarinet, violin and cello. A lopsided tango motive develops in a series of variations. Premiered at Boston University Tanglewood Institute’s Young Artist Composition Program in the summer of 2007.  SIX TO TANGO Piano, Marimba, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello Tanglewood Institute August 10, 2007 7:40 minutes

My first big piece with thanks to Bach. Written for a space-themed choral competition, ‘Dinnertime on the Way to Jupiter’ calls upon two formative elements of my childhood: turtles and Bach. DINNERTIME ON THE WAY TO JUPITER SATB Choir and Piano Ojai Camerata April 10, 2001 5:28 minutes

A metal spiral staircase struck with a coo-coo clock weight, a suspended lamp hit with a zucchini, a beaded necklace drawn slowly across a towel rack, 12 toy pianos, aluminum rods and a T.V. tube are but a few of the possible sounds in Trimpin’s Seattle studio.  TRIMPIN’S STUDIO 3:10 minutes

An electroacoustic homage to the late guitarist Django Reinhardt. Created with samples from Reinhardt’s original Djangology and Nuages. ‘Djangology’ Features a rhythmic bed of abrasive record hiss and loops of guitar arpeggios. ‘Vieni, Vieni’ is a rehash of the original version. DJANGOLOGY 2:00 minutes VIENI, VIENI 2:00 minutes

Musique concrète using sounds from Pratt Trail in Ojai, California. Featuring the panting of my dogs Zorro and Oscar and a slew of nature sounds. PRATT TRAIL 4:16 minutes

Synth whale calls + tacky kick drum = magic. The japanese female voice was taken from an obscure website with audio files of common animals in Japanese. There’s also some Kraftwerk samples thrown in for good measure. KUJIRA 4:16 minutes

Inspired by a speech found on a wild google tangent. My brother Elijah with his face-melting electric guitar.  SOMETHING UNNATURAL 3:56 minutes

Sonic journey across the vast Sahara written at 3AM with noise-artist Riley Reasor.  NOMAD 4:06 minutes

I’ve finally got Trimpin’s ‘Giuter Toy’ up and running. The sculpture itself is made up of 24 computer-controlled toy guitars. There’s a wide assortment of guitars including two Sesame Street toys, a mini Kawasaki keytar, a tiger-striped double neck guitar and my personal favorite, a plastic guitar from the children’s television series, “The Wiggles” that actually wiggles the neck when you hit a note on the keyboard. I’m going to have a lot of fun with that one… If you want to hear the sculpture in action as well as a bunch of other Trimpin works, come to the Ojai Music Festival.

I went up to Montecito to hear eighth blackbird play through Rinde Eckert and Steve Mackey’s new genre-bending piece ‘Slide.’ ‘Slide’ falls somewhere in between contemporary classical music and avant-garde theatre. The concept behind the work comes from a psychological experiment in which a subject was shown a blurry slide and guessed what blurry image represented. Upon formulating an idea, the subject was show the slide in focus and asked to identify the image. The psychologists then measured the disconnect between the subjects guess of the blurred picture and the reality. This experiment speaks to our own inherent biases and unwillingness to construct a true picture of reality.    What amazed me was the staging of this idea. I don’t want to spoil the piece before the world premier on Friday June 12 at the Ojai Music Festival, but I will say that members of eighth blackbird put on mysterious scarves, rock out with Mackey shredding his guitar, stand up on chairs and talk about stick figures in one-sided phone conversations. I also loved Mackey’s sort of musical pun where he plays a slide guitar lick when they say the word slide. (get it?) Check out a recording (please don’t sue!) of Michael J Maccaferri sliding around on his clarinet in this amazing solo. I hope you all can make it to the premier.

‘Slide’ Rehearsal Excerpt: 1:54 minutes Performed by eighth blackbird Created by Rinde Eckert and Steve Mackey © 2009 Rinde Eckert and Steve Mackey All rights reserved

When in Ojai, do as the Ojaians (Ojaiers?) do. I went with my brother Elijah and his girlfriend Erin Yee to Meditation Mountain in the East end of the Ojai Valley. The skies were silvery as we sipped our free tea, courtesy of Zhena’s Gypsy Tea. After a meditation in the International Garden of Peace we made our way to Ruben’s Burritos.      It is an indisputable fact that this hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant makes the best burritos on the planet. Even my French Culture and Society teacher who lives in Brittany knew about the wonders of Rubens as he had taught at the local boarding school. If you ever have a chance to go to Rubens, get the Mexican Veggie and a horchata.

Hi all- I’ve decided to bring my site into the blogging era. All of my entries including new music, blog updates, concert information and press are now being handled through WordPress. This allows you to follow my site updates through a RSS or Atom feed. I’ve also added Twitter functionality so you can get the latest tidbit of info.       I hope that you enjoy my music and check my blog for updates. My contact information is under the about section.   Best, Albert

During my month long stay with Trimpin as his assistant, I rewired the 24 toy guitars featured in his new sound-sculpture “Giuter Toy.” Upon opening a certain Chinese-manufactured plastic guitar, we came across the phrase “Giuter Toy” inscribed on the interior. I was asked to write a series of short pieces that will be played by the instrument. The sculpture will be exhibited in the gazebo near the Ojai Music Festival Concerts at Libby Bowl. I hope that all of you can come hear it!

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