SysOrk: Flexagons by Elliott Sharp

A flexagon is a flat model, usually constructed by folding strips of paper, that can be flexed or folded to reveal faces besides the two that were originally on the back and front. The composition Flexagons is similarly based on permutations of composed fragments ordered in time with instructions on how to flex and fold them. Augmenting the flex is the possibility of players "popping out" with short improvised statements that may be acted upon by the other players and thereby revealing other facets. The players operate simultaneously both as a unit and in parallel as independent agents: acting as a flock, hunting pack, or African drum choir, very much in the manner of E#'s 1998 self-organizing system SyndaKit. Underneath it all is the sense of pulse, a substrate that may sometimes be inaudible but is always present.

These recordings of Flexagons document the debut of the NYC version of SysOrk. The first SysOrk gigs were in Nagoya and Tokyo in 2012 performing Foliage and additional SysOrk concerts have been performed in Germany, Austria, and Italy. On the first night of this two-night run, Flexagons was 40 minutes in length with each of the 40 modules played for approximately one minute. This version appears in 2 parts as tracks 1 and 2. For the second night, a sped-up and compacted version of the piece was performed with each module running for 30 seconds making for a hyperactive realization.

Elliott Sharp: composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, author, leads Orchestra Carbon, Tectonics and Terraplane with compositional strategies including fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetic metaphors as well as new techniques for graphic notation to yield work that catalyzes a synesthetic approach to musicmaking as well as functioning as retinal art.