Frigus Sonos: A Winter in Akron

Being from the North Coast of California, I had never experienced the might of a North East Ohio winter. Of course, the coldest winter in 40 years would hit once I moved there. Sitting in my studio, I would look out my window and gaze over the city in awe of all the snowfall. I titled this album as such because all the pieces we either composed during or inspired by events that happened during the 2013-2014 winter in Akron. 

Winter in Akron
This piece is all about sonic imagery. The opening theme (5-3-1) represents gentle snowfall and I designed the quickly following howling theme to capture to the slightly alarming, but not immediately threatening, imagine of immense lake-effect snow falling so fast it made seeing almost impossible. The two themes are interwoven just as the snowfall surged from intense to light. An additional higher pitched theme enters approximately halfway through which represents the sound of car horns that were quiet in the distance as the snowfall softened their intensity. A minimalist approached was taken to this piece to capture one last imagine: the snowfall slowly simplified the visual horizon as everything started to blended together into a solid blur of white.

Reasoning
Reasoning is a multi-movement piece composed around a melodic theme that John Barry used in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice. Fragments of theme are presented throughout the three movements in various transpositions. However, the complete theme is not fully realized until the end of the third movement. Harmonically, the first movement begins in C# minor. Modulating through the circle of fifths and related keys, the piece reaches the key of F major at the end of the third movement where the main theme is presented in its complete form. 

It is important to note that in performance or listening, the flow from one movement to the next is meant to be play without break. I designed an ambient pad and theme to connect all three movements thus, movement 3 begins with the same theme as movement 2 and the end of movement 1 is the beginning of movement 2.. When playing the movements separately, movements 2 and 3 cannot be independently identified until approximately 20 seconds in.  

Movement 1 - Precipice 

Movement 2 - Anticipation

Movement 3 - Realization

Tajihan- From East to West
 Featuring Juret Behti on Clarinet and Vocals with electronic accompaniment. This piece is a merger of two very different styles. After befriending a visiting scholar from China (Mr. Behti) in Akron, Ohio, I wanted to attempt a piece that merged both our backgrounds and interest. Before meeting Mr. Behti, I had not been exposed to Uyghur music and this piece served as both a welcome exercise in composition and a cultural learning experience for me. The origins of the vocals come from the traditional Uyghur song Tajihan and I composed the first half of the accompaniment around the vocals. The second half evolves into a complex, modern electronic piece with dense sonic texture. However, I wanted the Uyghur element to remain thus I added a part for solo clarinet that blends my melodic ideas with Uyghur clarinet style.  

Quantum Dance
Work in progress but coming along nicely.

More to come.....

There are four pieces to this album that I have yet to fully complete. As the composer, engineer, and producer of all these pieces or songs, the time it takes to complete just one piece can be considerable. Unlike composing for acoustic instruments, where one would create a score for musicians to read, interrupt, and perform, the sound and performance all falls onto the multiple, hat wearing composer when creating an electronic piece of music; of course, this is only true if the composer is working alone...which I am. With that being said, I hope to have the remaining four pieces completed soon. Until then, enjoy the above. - Magja


Frigus Sonos - A Winter In Akron
1. Winter in Akron
2. Reasoning
    -Precipice
    -Anticipation
    -Realization
3. Tajihan
4. Ode to the Horsepower King - In Progress
5. Distances - Multi-Movements - In Progress
6. Sinidisem - In Progress
7. Mics in Open Spaces - In Progress