This video shows the instruments in action during a New York rehearsal.
In addition to my role in the Music Department at Williams, I lead an active life as a performing musician, often involved in international projects. My New York City based percussion group, Talujon, is currently involved in a new project with key collaborators in Paris, New York, Indonesia, and Williamstown centered around Espaces Libres, a new work by French composer Théo Mérigeau. After working with Théo in Paris two years ago, I invited him to compose a work for Talujon and Gamelan Yowana Sari that we would perform in New York, France, and Bali. For the percussionists, Théo created a set of instruments that are a sort of percussion super-flute, or maybe an accordion, made of PVC pipes with tuning sliders and joints fabricated using a 3D printer. The percussionists activate the instrument with foot pedal air pumps and manipulate sliding tubes that change the pitch by changing the length of the pipes. Needless to say, the parts are specific to the instrument and not easily replaceable.
Paris, New York, Indonesia, and Williamstown
An instrument maker in Paris prepared all of the parts for us and shipped them so that we could begin rehearsals ahead of a late June premiere in Bali. Everything worked perfectly until I left my pair of sliders in the car on a hot day, and found that they had shrunk to such a degree that they would no longer slide. As it was too late to have new parts sent to the U.S., and the parts cannot be purchased or otherwise found here, I was incredibly fortunate to have access to the Williams Makerspace. I wrote to David Keiser-Clark to see if it would be possible to print replacements there, and despite being out of town himself, he jumped right in. After some work getting the correct file from France, David was able to order the print from a hotel room in Philadelphia, and I came to the library the next morning to pick them up. With a complete set of working instruments we are now in transit to Bali eagerly anticipating the premiere of this work.
This project is international in so many ways, and crosses so many borders—musically, culturally, and logistically. It brings together artists, instrument makers, musical ideas, and people from three continents and multiple disciplines. And these pipes and tubes will have visited three continents, and counting, before they are done. It was extraordinary to see how the Makerspace at Williams could be the hub of all of this activity and a place where we could realize the vision of this diverse and far flung group of artists.
See the instruments in action during a New York rehearsal here: https://www.instagram.