Nathan Davis - Neutral Buoyant

Facts "Nathan Davis ""writes music that deals deftly and poetically with timbre and sonority"" (NYTimes). Inspired by natural processes and acoustic phenomena, his works reveal and exaggerate subtle complexities of sound, forming an architectural sound-world through which the listener travels in experiencing a piece. In Neutral Buoyant, Nathan turns his attention to the bowed psaltery (an American folk instrument) in a series of composed improvisations made with and without electronic processing. Approaching the psaltery as a glorious collection of monochords, Nathan employs violin bows, electromagnetic bows of different kinds, and guitar slides to activate the harmonics of its 32 open strings. Evoking ambient works by Eno and Laraaji, and spectral soundscapes of Saariaho, these six pieces display undulating drones, prismatic shifts of harmony, and microtonal vibrancy, creating motion while suspending time."