This piece consists of 2 layers of sound and some silence. The first sound layer is a recording of popcorn kernels dropping into a china teacup at random intervals. These recordings are played back through the violins, viola and cello with the use of small audio transducers that employ the body of the instrument as a speaker cabinet. The second layer of sound is that of the instruments being played live. The score the quartet reads is a drawing of a modular tree which is the pattern that many trees follow in nature as they grow with each branch being a smaller copy of the one that it preceded. The players explore a specific texture with each respective branch in order to reveal the structure of the tree.
About this recording,
This is a rough recording from a performance at the Last Bookstore in downtown LA from December 2014 with the Isaura string quartet. There was a lot going on that evening, including a Christmas party and people shopping for books, so there are plenty of other little sounds for you to enjoy.