Swift for Utopa Organ and MAZE

The composition Swift was be premiered on 23 February 2021 at the Amsterdam Orgelpark. It was created for the MAZE ensemble and the Utopa Organ which can be played from a regular console or from a computer using OSC.

In Swift, I closely amplify 6 pipes of the organ while a Max Patch plays the organ via OSC. The organ is set to use very little wind which results in soft percussive sounds. These 6 microphones amplify the organ sounds while the audience is surrounded by a quad systemas if they are sitting inside the organ. 

One of the inspirations for this piece is the Common Swift, a bird that in its lifetime flies about two million kilometers and can shut off one half of their brain to go into unihemispheric sleep while flying. Except when nesting, they spend their lives in the air, living on the insects caught in flight. They drink, feed, and mate and sleep on the wing. They are the swiftest of all birds in level flight and are able to fly 170 km per hour or more. Swifts mate for life and the females and males look alike.

The musicians from MAZE were spread around the church. Their score was an interactive video created by Timo Hoogland for this work.

A full score is here.

This is the article that I wrote as part of a research team that proposed electro-acoustic possibilities for the Utopa Organ: Proximity and Communication with the New Baroque Organ.

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