Reclaimed Timber

Adam Rosenblatt, Arx Duo, and Beyond This Point collaborate to present reimagined performances of Michael Gordon’s percussion sextet Timber in cities across the United States. The hour-long work is performed entirely on six slats of amplified wood and is accompanied by dynamic lighting.

For each performance of Timber, the ensemble will search a city’s neglected lots and abandoned or soon-to-be-demolished homes to uncover the required instruments: pieces of wood, weathered as a result of unequal growth and opportunity for the city’s residents. Thus, the performance will have a “sound” unique to each city’s housing history, giving audiences a new perspective on issues of housing and displacement. The homes themselves become the main voice, telling the ongoing story of neglected communities and rapid gentrification. The piece is presented with a reactive lighting installation that will visually reflect the musical structure of the piece and fill the performance space with dynamic lighting. The mesmerizing, immediate, and visceral experience that Timber evokes in audiences translates to a new and profound awareness of issues that affect tens of thousands of people every day.