Timber (2009) composed by Michael Gordon
Generative animation by David Bithell and Cody Bustamante

Left Edge Percussion
Terry Longshore, artistic director
Reed Bentley
Greyson Boydstun
Jenny Gray
Jake Riggs
Drew Wright

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Program Notes:
I began working on Timber in 2009 at the invitation of the Dutch-based dance group, Club Guy & Roni, and the percussion ensembles Slagwerk Den Haag and Mantra Percussion. I had written many orchestral works over the decade, beginning with Decasia in 2001 up to Dystopia in 2007, and I wanted to clear my mind of pitches and orchestration.

For that reason, I decided early on that Timber would be for non-tuned percussion and that each percussionist would play one instrument only. I thought of composing this music as being like taking a trip out into the desert. I was counting on the stark palette and the challenge of survival to clear my brain and bring on visions.

I imagined that the six instruments would go from high to low, and that, through a shifting of dynamics from one instrument to the next, the group could make seamless and unified descending or ascending patterns. After working on rhythmic sketches with Mantra Percussion in early 2009, I went to Amsterdam in June to workshop my ideas with Slagwerk Den Haag. I had the plan but I was searching for the right instruments.

After some experimentation, Slagwerk's Fedor Teunisse brought out a set of wooden simantras. These slabs of wood, which looked like standard building materials from a lumberyard to me, had a gorgeous sound. It was distinct enough so that the clarity of the percussive hits could be heard, and was also extremely resonant, producing a complex field of overtones. With inspiration from this discovery, I returned to New York to finished the music for Club Guy & Roni's extravaganza 'Pinball and Grace,' which premiered in October of 2009.
— Michael Gordon

Note on the animation:
In creating a visual work to be shown alongside this performance of Michael Gordon's Timber, we set out many goals for ourselves. We wanted to create a work that: complements the visual nature of the live percussionists on stage, but doesn't overshadow them; inhabits similar conceptual and aesthetic terrain as Timber, but isn't merely a visual interpretation of the composer's ideas; and can be exhibited as a stand alone project in galleries and museums.

The work we created utilizes the timing of Timber as a structural backbone, but is realized via generative computer code such that each performance is unique, each shape or pattern never to be drawn exactly the same again.

The visual language we explored developed out of Cody Bustamante's series of drawings Emergent Forms / Unnatural Selection in which modular forms appear to grow into accretions with complex inner life and potential. Images derived from this series as well as those created specifically for this project are overlapped, set in motion, and grouped into procedurally calculated meta-shapes. As we were drawn to the intricately shifting internal rhythms in Timber (and the haunting quality of resultant sounds seemingly played by no-one), we looked for shapes and larger forms that result in complex patterning when moved or rotated against themselves.
— David Bithell and Cody Bustamante

Left Edge Collective is a new music organization founded and directed by David Bithell and Terry Longshore at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University. We compose, perform, improvise, create interdisciplinary projects, and host an annual festival of contemporary performance which focuses on presenting and premiering new works by members of Left Edge, works by nationally recognized guest artists, and collaborations between artistic disciplines.

Left Edge Percussion is a contemporary percussion group in residence at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University, led by artistic director Terry Longshore. The group tours and performs throughout the Northwest and actively collaborates on innovative projects with composers and artists of various media. The members of the group have been featured around the globe at prestigious festivals, competitions, conferences, and workshops and bring a diverse array of influences and collective energy to the ensemble.

Recent Left Edge Percussion performances include the Center for New Music in San Francisco, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University, Gold Lion Arts in Sacramento, Northwest Percussion Festival (Ashland, Eugene, and Bellingham, WA), Britt Music & Arts Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Shows, Hipbone Studio in Portland, Ashland World Music Festival, the Oregon Fringe Festival, and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), in addition to regular performances at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University.

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