Ken Ueno, WATT (2000)

WATT, written in 2000 for the yesaroun' Duo, is scored for baritone saxophone, non-pitched percussion and boombox and takes its title from the work by Samuel Beckett of the same name. This piece takes as a point of departure, John Coltrane's late avant-garde albums like Insterstellar Space (1967). This album features only two performers, Coltrane and drummer Rashied Ali, the same instrumentation as the yesaroun' Duo. The bulk of the piece is a long development, beginning with sparse hits poking out of the silence, and gradually growing into a funky frenzy of sound. The surrounding music juxtaposes long periods of intense fury and long periods of near motionlessness. These two opposite sound worlds grow from or interrupt each other. At the close of the piece, the long development section is recapitulated, this time played on a boombox and manipulated electronically - the first 1'45" of the opening of the piece is collapsed to sound in 20".

WATT is ¿ whaT:

The convergence point of the seemingly familiar - the groove, the beat, turned around and on top of itself, put together by being taken apart- what is also WATT - taken apart, and put together - turned around, under itself - the beat, the groove - the seemingly unfamiliar convergence point of things already known.

Ken Ueno is a composer who actively involves himself in a wide range of activities in order to evangelize for modern music. Informed by his experience as an electric guitarist and overtone singer, his music fuses the culture of Japanese underground electronic music with an awareness of European modernism. In an effort to feature inherent qualities of sound such as beatings, overtones, and artifacts of production noise, Ken's music is often amplified and uses electronics. The dramatic discourse of his music is based on the juxtaposition of extremes: visceral energy versus contemplative repose, hyperactivity versus stillness. As DJ Moderne, he hosts and produces a weekly live half-hour public access television show devoted to introducing new music and new music composers and performers to the public at large. As a vocalist, he is unique in having created a technique for singing multiphonics and overtones.

Ensembles who have played Ken's music include the Hilliard Ensemble, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, eighth blackbird, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Albany Symphony's Dogs of Desire, the American Composers Orchestra (Whitaker Reading Session), the New York New Music Ensemble, Non Sequitur, the So Percussion Group, the Yesaroun' Duo, the Atlantic Brass Quintet, and the Auros Group for New Music. Recent performances include those at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, and at the Norfolk Music Festival, as guest composer/lecturer. An upcoming documentary on the Hilliard Ensemble for German TV station ZDF/Arte, Wenn Engel singen. Das Hilliard Ensemble, will feature their performance of Ken's Shiroi Ishi. This past summer, he attended the one-month composition and computer music course at IRCAM.

Upcoming commissions include those for: Odd Appetite (Meet the Composer grant for the Galapagos Art Space, April 3, 2003), the World Saxophone Congress (July, 2003), and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra (Fromm Music Foundation commission for May 16, 2004). For the 2003-2004 season, he will serve as composer-in-residence with the Radius Ensemble. His first work for Odd Appetite (cello, perc., + electronics) is currently featured on Sonic Circuits X and will be included on their anthology disc to be released on Innova Records. Zansetsu, written for himself as vocalist with electronics, was recently awarded First Prize in the 25th "Luigi Russolo" competition.

A former ski patrol and West Point cadet, Ken holds degrees from Berklee College of Music, Boston University, and the Yale School of Music. Currently, he is a PhD. candidate (ABD) at Harvard University, where from fall 2000 to spring 2002, he was the Director of the Harvard Group for New Music. He is a co-founder/co-director of the Minimum Security Composers Collective and is the vocalist in the experimental improvisation group Onda.

Ken's music can be heard at the New Music Jukebox.