Andrew Moorhead - Interleaved (2023) [Official Digital Download]

Pianist & composer Andrew Moorhead has, over the last decade, been outwardly focused on mathematical research, but his life is a melding of that with his musical pursuits, and the more complicated inner journey of healing from a catastrophic collection of injuries from a 47-foot fall in 2011. With bassist Marcos Varela and drummer Ari Hoenig, Interleaved is Moorhead's debut recording, with compositions that reflect the balance of interests and motivations, and the weaving together of three inspired improvisors in musical conversation.

An interleaved digital signal is a single signal woven from multiple threads. For example, a video file typically has both an audio and a video stream which are interleaved to create a single array so that both streams may be accessed efficiently. Stereo audio is often interleaved into a single file as well. The three main threads of my life are mathematics, music, and the consequences of a 47 foot fall I survived over a decade ago. Each of these streams is now intimately connected to the others, although one of them may dominate the forefront for a time.

The ability that technology possesses to represent auditory and visual experiences as binary data streams and convincingly reconstitute them for our senses is, in my mind, intimately connected to the Chinese philosophical principle of yin and yang. All that is necessary to represent the myriad of data we surround ourselves with is a single type of distinction, which in the case of regular computing is represented as the distinction between zero and one. Of course, a disc doesn’t actually store those symbols, but instead stores two physical quantities that can be distinguished by the disc reader. Many spiritual traditions teach us that the perception of duality is false. I think it’s interesting that many of the seemingly different dualities we perceive can be represented on a computer using only one fundamental duality (in addition to the space to distinguish one point from another and the time to experience the change). Whether or not this is all there is to 'reality': in my opinion no one can claim absolute knowledge without attempting to force their particular viewpoint.

Music is fundamental to the human experience. Any attempt to distinguish it from arbitrary sound invokes a duality. There appears to be some physical basis for what types of sounds we like, though, which is connected to the harmonic series representation of a waveform. The first and last pieces on the record are the product of some computer programming that exploits this in different ways. The middle pieces are regular old-fashioned piano trio. It was a long road that led to the creation of this record. I hope it can make its way to those who might be uplifted by it.

Andrew Moorhead: Piano
Marcos Varela: Bass
Ari Hoenig: Drums

Tracklist:
01. SeriesOSeriesOSeries
02. World Wind
03. A Key in a Pool
04. Entropy: No Going Back
05. Five Tom
06. Sun Summon
07. Someday My Prince Will Come
08. The Days of Wine and Roses
09. Fractured Hymn
10. Crystal Wind
11. Hug


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