The word bathymetry essentially means the topography of the ocean floor. It is one of the key factors that effects how waves break — underwater canyons can focus wave energy for a more powerful break, rock formations can cause waves to bend their energy for a peeling break, etc. I began casually but earnestly studying bathymetry as an ocean-obsessed teenager trying to figure how my favorite surf spots worked — how the bathymetry effected how different kinds of swells broke. 

‘Bathymetry’ is an album and performance piece for percussion and a single Moog monophonic analog synthesizer. The synth most often functions in a bass role — a kind of ocean floor to the primarily treble sounds of the percussion ensemble. The idea of bathymetry is sometimes more literal, sometimes more poetic. In some movements, the synthesizer in the bass sometimes determines the behavior of the percussion sounds above it, shaping and refracting the rhythms in a way that is evocative of how the ocean floor shapes the waves passing above it. In other movements, a dark, underwater, mysterious world is created.

The percussion is a mix of found instruments (pingpong balls, glass bottles, etc), orchestral percussion (vibraphone, various drums, etc), and drum sets, while the synthesizer is a monophonic Moog with patches I designed. Many of the found percussion instruments are sounds I’ve long been fascinated by: a bending metal sheet, a struck mixing bowl with a bit of water, a tapping chopstick, the scraping teeth of a comb. In these sounds, there is some kind of relation to various forms of tactile micro electronic music, to foley sound design, and to youtube asmr videos. To find these sounds, I scoured my apartment and yard, the Sandbox Percussion studio, and various hardware stores. 

On my Moog SlimPhatty (pardon the name) I designed sounds that interact in compliment or contrast to the percussion sounds. Restricting myself to the use of one relatively simple synthesizer with a rich, complex tone and mining its various possibilities became a core idea of this piece. In addition, the vibraphone plays a central role in almost every track whether struck with mallets, muted with hands, or bowed with cello bows.

In the production of this album, I am going for something between an electronic album and a classical percussion ensemble piece — something that can be listened to like an album of electronic music but that maintains a strong element of performance. Sandbox Percussion were a fantastic partner in finding the right sounds and giving performances both beautiful and virtuosic. Joseph Branciforte recorded and mixed the album, deftly helping me navigate a balance between creative production and maintaining the spirit of Sandbox’s performances.

-Matt McBane

Symbiotique was commissioned for Call Street Percussion in 2022. The title is a portmanteau of the words “symbiosis” and “tique.” Symbiosis is a term used to explain relationships in nature that are mutually beneficial, and tique refers
to a habitual, repetitive motion. The piece was written so that all players are autonomously responsible for their contribution to the music. If one player was missing, the full piece would not be realized. Similar to a marching bass drum line, every part is an equal contributor to the work as a whole. All four players must master their part individually and work together to sound as if one person were performing the piece.

The pitch bending is a standard vibraphone extended technique, but in Symbiotique it features a slight twist. Pitch bending is often written as only a downward bend in pitch, but this piece features both upward and downward bends as well as simultaneous upward and downward bends in pitch.

Symbiotique requires a high level of teamwork and cooperation. It could be re-orchestrated to be a much “easier” piece of music, but my intention was to create a challenge for the quartet to work together in a new and interesting way. The combination of extended techniques and the interconnectedness of the players’ parts will engage performers and audiences alike in a profound visual and sonic experience.

–Tyler Tolles