For double tenor steelpans and electronics
First performance: Colin Malloy, 26 March 2022 at University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
The video above is the world premiere performance by myself at University of Victoria on 26 March, 2022 for my PhD recital.
Oil Drum is a work for double tenor steel pans and fixed electronic media by composer Matthew Burtner I commissioned in 2020 that explores the connections between the steelpan and the oil industry. I first met and worked with Matthew in the summer of 2019 at the Tócalo Tucson Chamber Percussion Seminar at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Matthew has a long history of composing eco-acoustic works that seek to explore the ecological environments around us.
I found working with Matthew to be musically and intellectually invigorating so I approached him about composing a piece for me in late 2019. We made a plan for him to deliver the piece in fall 2020, but due to the lockdowns and restrictions from Covid-19, I still have not been able to premiere the work. The premiere is now planned for March 26, 2022 at the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC.
The fixed media portion of Oil Drum consists of heavily processed samples of steelpan and 55-gallon oil drum combined with white noise. The samples were created by Matthew and myself and were processed through his Eurorack setup.
A significant breakthrough in the development of the steelpan as an instrument occurred when builders started using old oil barrels to build instruments in the 1950s. Trinidad was a major oil producer and there were innumerable old barrels available from when Trinidad had been a staging ground for the US Navy during WWII. Since its early days, the steelpan has had connections, if indirect, to the oil industry. During the piece, oil production data for Trinidad and Alaska are sonified to connect Matthew’s background growing up in Alaska with the oil industry in Trinidad. The processed samples also provide a viscous backdrop for the live steelpan.
In December, 2019, I recorded Oil Drum in the recording studio for inclusion on Matthew’s forthcoming album release through Parma Recordings. You can listen on Spotify.
