Program Note

​​What would it be like to travel on the first spacecraft sent to colonize Mars?   Colonizer I draws inspiration from such an imagined journey.
 
The electronics in Colonizer 1 consist of live-processing of the horn, as well as processed recordings of the horn, triggered as the horn player progresses through the piece.  I used phase-vocoding to transpose the horn below its playable range, providing deep resonant fundamentals that I characterize with vast, seemingly infinite spaces.  To create an otherworldly atmosphere, I convolved the horn with a waterphone.  Other processing techniques include spectral delay and granulation.