SpaceWarp (2020)

for 5- string electric cello and effects

Duration: 3’

Commissioned by the Canberra Symphony Orchestra for the Australian Miniseries and first performed by Alex Voorhoeve

Program Note

Written for 5-string electric cello and effects, SpaceWarp conjures up space-inspired and intergalactic imagery. The sound of the cello is quite literally ‘warped’ by effects, particularly delay, creating a kind of wrinkle in time and space.

The cello is rhythmically frenetic, yet is continuously interrupted by lyrical fragments that burst through, giving way to a more melodic middle section. These moments see the cello sounding more natural or familiar. It’s no accident that SpaceWarp sounds rather like spacewalk, with the delay effect in the slower section suggesting a sense of slow-motion or weightlessness experienced by astronauts in zero gravity.