West Coast String Summit 2023: Alex Abahmed & Meredith Bates

West Coast String Summit 2023: Alex Abahmed & Meredith Bates

March 9, 2023
The Roundhouse

Inertia is an electroacoustic work for solo violin and electronics. The piece consists of live violin, pre-recorded samples, real-time effects processing and a sound palette inspired by film music/sound and Arab music.

Program Notes: Inertia is an electroacoustic work for solo violin and electronics. The piece consists of live violin played by Meredith Bates, pre-recorded and processed samples, real-time effects processing and a sound palette inspired by film music/sound and Arab music. It’s the second track on my album, Thonis, under the alias AHA and published by Syrphe. The album is named after the ancient port city Thonis-Heracleion, which was found in 1999 sunken beneath the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria, Egypt. It was created by a continuous attempt to retrieve something intangible that had been lost and was inspired by the desire to reconnect with an alternative existence.

Every piece has been some form of outlet for me. It’s always clear to me, when looking back, how the work I was doing is affected by life events or mental states. I believe that the piece reflected my inability to focus on anything that needs to get done and the frustration that comes with that. Inertia was initially intended to be played with a homemade accelerometer meant to give Meredith agency over the electronics by transducing the movements of her bowing arm into a MIDI message. However, creating the device and ensuring it worked was a great distraction from writing a piece of music. The newest iteration of the piece doesn’t include the accelerometer as it no longer has a use in the score and may be used to write something new where it can be integrated more thoughtfully in the future. The piece was recorded during a performance at Simon Fraser University’s Music and Sound Festival and was edited afterwards into what is heard on the album.

– Alex Abahmed

Part of West Coast String Summit, which took place March 9-11, 2023 at The Roundhouse, ANNEX and 8 EAST, presented by Vancouver New Music, Vancouver Improvised Arts Society, NOW Society in partnership with the Roundhouse

West Coast String Summit – Mar. 9 – 12, 2023

Videography: Mingtao Kong
Audio recording: Dan Kibke
Editing: Heather McDermid