Burning Memory (2023) · for five amplified instruments and electronics
composed for and premiered by Ensemble Kontakte
studio recording, 25.09.2023, Mandala Studio, Turin (IT)
instrumentation: Sax. (Sop., Br.), El. Guit., El. Hrp., Pf., Db., Electronics.
duration: 7'23''
notes: music about music about music. Burning Memory is a piece about how an album built from old samples works (Everywhere at the End of Time). It takes inspiration from The Caretaker’s reflections on memory loss, but focuses on the sound itself rather than the concept. The ensemble is quite special — tenor saxophone, electric guitar, electroacoustic harp, piano, and double bass — and fully amplified, with each instrument microphone-captured; the electronics consist of fixed-media samples recorded from the ensemble itself. The piece was written for a group of colleagues devoted mostly to improvisation, yet here they navigate composed materials, interacting with the electronic residue: sound gradually corrode, textures fragment, and familiar patterns dissolve, creating a continuous flow of decay that resists linear time. In listening to its own decay, Burning Memory becomes a meditation on fading, on fragments, and on how music can reflect on itself while it unfolds.