Guest Artist Series: Reclaimed Timber Project, with Beyond this Point and Arx Duo

Following performances in Baltimore, Washington D.C., Seattle, and Chicago, Beyond This Point (Chicago) and Arx Duo (Seattle) seek to present reimagined performances of Michael Gordon’s monumental percussion sextet Timber in Arizona in Feb/Mar 2024. The 60-minute work is performed entirely on six slats of amplified wood and is presented with a reactive lighting installation comprising more than 5000 LEDs and dozens of paper lantern “houses”. This installation responds in real-time to the sounds produced by the wood and visually reflects the musical structure while filling the performance space with dynamic lighting.

For each performance of Reclaimed Timber, the ensemble acquires the six wood “instruments” from meaningful sources in the city or area hosting the performance. Thus, each performance has a “sound” unique to the host city and reflective of the issues faced by that city. In Baltimore/DC, this meant using wood from abandoned and vacant homes. In Seattle, the wood used was scrap from the manufacturing process of modular homes made for those experiencing homelessness. In Chicago, the wood came entirely from one 130-year-old home that was demolished to make way for new development.