“GG” Documentary

Dear Friends,

I am very happy to share a documentary from the performance of my piece “GG” last October in Brooklyn, NY. The film was put together by Gabriel Jace Long with assistance from Oscar de La Torre Suárez. Please enjoy!

To learn more about the piece — which was performed synchronously along each of the G train’s 21 platforms, twice (!) — please visit this page.

For now,

Jordan

GG

Dear Friends,

On Friday afternoon (October 15) I will be joining 20 other performers to premiere my new piece GG. The 45’ work is designed for one performer at each of the G train line’s 21 platforms to methodically improvise on a melodica through an interaction with playback from a small speaker. GG will be performed twice — first from 6 to 6:45pm and then again from 7 to 7:45pm — to reach peak ridership along the line but also to give additional listening time for riders who are commuting later during the evening.

I’ve made a webpage for the GG and event here — which includes the performer list, links to the score, form, and a press release — with more information, including this description: Inspired by the history and ridership of the G train (the only local train in the MTA system that doesn’t go through Manhattan), musical games, Charles Mingus’ sonic interactions with the GG train along with subway improvisation culture, and the subterranean culture of the online gaming world, GG explores the possibility of microtonal listening and macro-spatial relationships on a local and geographically complex level while “musicking” within the realm of normally unheard — and underground — sounds.

For now,

Jordan

“If you wanna get to Greenpoint at a medium pace” (take the G train)

In Better Shape Than You Found Me

Dear Friends,

I am honored to announce the fantastic label Elsewhere has released In Better Shape Than You Found Me — a one-hour piece jointly composed and realized by Koen Nutters and myself. It has been released on CD and high quality digital download via the Elsewhere website and Bandcamp page. Some text from the Elsewhere page about the release:

“Sparsely created minimal sounds from various instruments and electronics intersect and move organically in a geometric pattern, linearly or ascendingly, while retaining calmness and a sense of spatial expansion over the subtle presence of field recordings, occasionally hovering at the edge of harmonies or assimilating into silences.”

The work was premiered at KM28 in Berlin in August of this year but we hope to program the piece (at least) in Amsterdam and New York City during the next few months. Please reach out to me if you’d like to hear this piece near your home town. Finally, Koen and I did a Q&A with Yuko Zama — the label’s curator and fantastic album designer — about our collaboration process, approach to harmony and ensemble writing, and the album in general, which has been published here.

For now,

Jordan

*11/05 UPDATE: IBSTYFM was selected as one of Bandcamp’s best Contemporary Classical Albums of October 2021 and reviewed here!

Elsewhere018: cover photo by David Sylvain, design by Yuko Zama.

Sleepover with Ensemble Spectrum

Dear Friends,

I am so happy to be included in an amazing 9 hour sleepover concert which Ensemble Spectrum (artistically led by Matej Sloboda) is planning on September 14 at Nová Cvernovka in Bratislava, Slovakia. With the world premiere of my piece A Known Unknown last month in Ostrava, Czech Republic I am extremely grateful to share the piece again, this time with the Slovak people. For those interested, tickets are available here. The fantastic program is as follows:

Julius Eastman - Joy Boy
Morton Feldman - Why patterns?
Julius Eastman - Buddha
Alvin Lucier - Tribute a James Tenney
James Tenney - In a large open space
Alvin Lucier - Music for piano and two swelling oscillators
James Tenney - Having never written a piece for percussion
Morton Feldman - Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello
Alvin Lucier - Music for piano with magnetic
Phill Niblock - Disseminate
La Monte Young - Composition 1960 # 7
Ulrich Krieger - The Void
Julius Eastman - Femenine
Yves Klein - Symphonie “Monoton.Silence”

For now,

Jordan

Looks dreamy…

A Known Unknown (world premiere)

UPDATE: This performance has been moved to Friday August 27, 2021 at 16:00 at the Jiří Myron Theatre

Dear Friends,

A quick note to mention the world premiere of my piece A Known Unknown (2015/16) which is happening this coming Friday at the Jiří Myron Theatre as part of the 2021 Ostrava Days in the Czech Republic. The work will be performed by Kateřina Blažková (piano), Miklos Holló (percussion), and Mikulas Mrva (electronics and programming). A huge thanks to Petr Kotík and the great number of people at the Ostrava Center for New Music (OCNM) who impressively undertook the challenge of making a(n urgently needed music) festival during this confusing time. Bravo!

For now,

Jordan

Rehearsing at the Janáček Conservatory in Ostrava, CZ.

Two Performances in Berlin

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to share two performances — both world premieres — with an audience at KM28 (Karl-Marx-Str. 28, 12043 Berlin) this coming Friday and Saturday evenings. The first evening will present the piece, titled “Sunrunning in Reverse,” a lecture-performance about self confidence, the transformation from Villain to Hero (as well as the reverse), and the game of poker. It will be performed by the phenomenal Jessie Marino and myself with electronic playback and objects. The second evening will hold the premiere of a piece Koen Nutters and I co-composed called “In Better Shape Than You Found Me” (which is slated for a late-September CD release on Elsewhere Music) performed by a fantastic ensemble of Manuel Pessoa de Lima (piano), Lucy Railton (cello), Hannes Lingens (crotales, vibraphones), and myself (melodica), also with electronic playback.

It would be a pleasure to see you there!

For now,

Jordan

MPL/JD/KM

I am sitting in a room: Issue Project Room celebrates Alvin Lucier at 90

Dear Friends,

Beginning Thursday, May 13 at 20:00 Issue Project Room is celebrating Alvin Lucier’s 90th birthday (!) by streaming 90 artists’ iterations of his iconic work “I am sitting in a room.” I am extremely honored to be included in the event which has an exceptional line-up of performers; see below for full schedule. The text we read, which is recorded and then carefully filtered over time by playing the original recording back into the space it was first recorded in (and allowing the room to physically shape the resultant audio), is as follows:

"I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have."

Finally, today The New York Times published an article diving a bit deeper into the history of “I am sitting a room” and Alvin’s legacy — read it here.

For now,

Jordan

Line-up for the event:

May 13th
Alvin Lucier - 20:00
Amanda Lucier - 20:19
Abigail Levine - 20:39
Aki Takahashi - 20:48
Akiko Hatakeyama - 21:09
Alec McLane - 21:26
Andrea Miller-Keller - 21:45
Anna Pangalou - 21:56
Anthony Burr - 22:13
Barbara Bloom - 22:30
Bernhard Rietbrock - 22:42
Bob Bielecki - 22:59
Charles Curtis - 23:12
Christian Wolff - 23:35
Christina Kubisch - 23:56
May 14th
Claire Chase - 0:16
Cleek Schrey - 0:31
Conrad Harris - 0:52
Daniel Fishkin - 1:07
David Behrman - 1:26
Dave Scanlon - 1:40
David Toop - 1:46
Dina Maccabee - 2:02
Douglas Simon - 2:22
Ernest Braun - 2:42
Evan Ziporyn - 3:01
George Lewis - 3:22
Georgia Hubley - 3:38
Gordon Monahan - 3:57
Hauke Harder - 4:14
Heidi Senungetuk - 4:34
Ira Kaplan - 4:55
Irvine Arditti - 5:13
Isabelle Bozzini - 5:34
James Peter Falzone - 5:50
James Fei - 6:09
James McNew - 6:35
Jan Thoben - 6:53
Jane Alden - 7:10
Jennifer Hadley - 7:29
Intermission (15 minutes)
Jessie Marino - 8:00
Joan Jordi Oliver Arcos - 8:17
Joan La Barbara - 8:38
Joe Kubera - 8:58
Jordan Dykstra - 9:17
Jung Hee Choi - 9:36
Kata Kovács - 9:53
KCM Walker - 10:13
La Monte Young - 10:31
Laura Cetilia - 10:48
Lucy Railton - 11:03
Lynn Bechtold - 11:23
Marian Zazeela - 11:38
Intermission (15 minutes)
Mark Slobin - 11:54
Matt Sargent - 12:26
Matt Wellins - 12:40
Matthew Evan Taylor - 12:50
May Klug - 13:09
Meredith Monk - 13:29
Michael Steinborn - 13:49
Mimi Johnson - 14:02
Minoru Sato - 14:17
Nestor Prieto - 14:37
Nic Collins - 14:55
Nina Katchadourian - 15:09
Olga Bell - 15:26
Oren Ambarchi - 15:42
Paula Matthusen - 15:58
Pauline Kim Harris - 16:10
Peter Ablinger - 16:21
Petr Kotik - 16:38
Robert Wilson - 16:53
Ronald Kuivila - 17:14
Ron Shalom - 17:31
Seth Cluett - 17:52
Seth Kim-Cohen - 18:12
Steve Reich - 18:28
Steven Drury - 18:45
Sumarsam - 19:02
Susan Leigh Foster - 19:19
Terri Hanlon - 19:37
Thomas Buckner - 19:52
Thurston Moore - 20:11
Tom Hamilton - 20:32
Tom O'Doherty - 20:51
Trevor Saint - 21:11
Valentine Michaud - 21:28
Viola Rusche - 21:44
Warren Enström - 22:01
Wendy Stokes - 22:17

Alvin Lucier at the Brandeis Electronic Music Studio in Waltham, Massachusetts in the late 60s. Unnamed University Photographer.

Long Live Live Music, New Reel

Dear Friends,

I have great news: Live public music performances are beginning to return to the world, at least in my local Brooklyn community. At a rehearsal of my string quartet “Three Lines & Chevron (Another Algorithm for Unification)” yesterday with the S.E.M. Ensemble I was overwhelmed with the sounds of coming from these wooden boxes with horsehair being pulled across their strings — truly music to my ears. The piece will be debuted on Saturday, April 3 at 2:30pm in 25 Columbia Place in Brooklyn Heights; more information — including an RSVP form — can be found on the their website.

I am also pleased to finally share an updated film music reel (video version); the audio-only version can be found here.

For now,

Jordan

I’m a composer and I’m serious(ly enjoying the sunshine in this handball court in Fort Greene). Photo by Gabe Long.

BBC Radio3 Interview

Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you well.

I recently spoke about my piano piece “The Arrow of Time” with Tom Service at BBC Radio3 for the New Music Show. The episode was just broadcast and is streamable for the next 30 days at the BBC website. I have made an edit of the interview below as well, for ease sake. During the course of the interview we talk a bit about how the piece uses a hand-crank siren in addition to the grand piano, Walter Marchetti, Maurice Ravel’s “Piano Concerto for the Left Hand,” the cultural phenomena of sky quakes, and finally the origins of the title: the physics term “the arrow of time” which observes time to work in forward motion just as much as in reverse.

“Jordan Dykstra: making time slow and stop — and seem to run backwards as well as forwards.” (Tom Service, BBC Radio3)

For now,

Jordan

With an ease only he possesses, pianist Reinier van Houdt — seen here at Splendor in Amsterdam — effortlessly navigates the piano and hand-crank siren double-duty for “The Arrow of Time.”

Concertzender Feature

Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you well.

Screen grab from Concertzender.nl homepage. Click image to listen…

I wanted to let you know about a feature on Dutch radio station Concertzender — a broadcaster which happens to be one of my favorite outlets for music in all the world (wide web). I am very grateful to Mark van de Voort for his kind words, producing the show, and contextualizing the pieces from my recent album The Arrow of Time within the sonic worlds of three my mentors Alvin Lucier, Michael Pisaro, and Jürg Frey.

The program was broadcasted live tonight in the Netherlands and is archived (link on image to the right) for future streams.

For now,

Jordan

Blow the Man Down

Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you well.

After almost a year since Amazon began streaming the film, the soundtrack to Blow the Man Down — which I co-composed with Brian McOmber — has been released! The album is published by Editions Verde on CD/MP3 and is streaming on all major platforms worldwide. Here are some links: Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube.

The soundtrack — which was mixed by Ben Greenberg and mastered by Alan Jones — features instrumentalists Michael Pestel (flutes), Thollem McDonas (piano), and Malcom Parson (cello). And just in time for the internet’s insatiable craze over sea shanties, of the 26 tracks on the album four are traditional sea shanties sung by David Coffin and friends. We all worked super hard on the music to help make this film really come to life; I hope you enjoy it! Blow the Man Down was recently included on the list of best movies of 2020 from The Washington Post and Robert Abele at the Los Angeles Times wrote: “The story’s sharp turns are nicely echoed, too, in the jig-like, clattery score from Brian McOmber and Jordan Dykstra, with the atmosphere often punctuated by professional shanty singer David Coffin (seen on screen as one of those fishermen) occasionally warbling the ominous sea tune 'Blood Red Roses.'”

For now,

Jordan

Go on now: click above 👆to preview the Blow the Man Down soundtrack

Year End Best-Of Lists

Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you well.

I was recently elated to find my album The Arrow of Time (New World Records) on both Bandcamp’s Best Contemporary Classical Albums of 2020 and The Wire magazine’s Top 10 Modern Composition Albums of 2020 (see right). Both lists feature an esteemed group of composers and performers so, needless to say, I am extremely honored!

Preview and purchase the CD/digital through the New World Records website.

For now,

Jordan

Screenshot from Bandcamp’s Best Contemporary Classical Albums of 2020

Screenshot from The Wire (issue available January 2021)

“A Known Unknown” Broadcast via Radiophrenia

Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you well.

I’m excited to share that Radiophrenia — the amazing temporary 24/7 art radio station — is returning November 9-22 for it’s fifth edition. The program this year, which will be broadcast live from the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, includes my piece A Known Unknown (2016) which streams on November 11 from 11:00pm - 12:00am (GMT), or 6:00pm - 7:00pm (EST).

Anna McLauchlan writes: “Radiophrenia is an accumulation, rather than an overarching theme or idea, brought together through a common medium: live events, produced commissions, live studio performances, compilations of short works, long form works, documentaries, field recordings, experimental music, sound art, drama, poetry and (perhaps mostly) lots of material that lies in between or beyond. At times recordings blend together, at others they are punctuated by an announcer’s voice. Ongoing and literally refreshing, becoming anew with each work, each space of reception.” Unfortunately this year, due to Covid-19, the in-studio live broadcasts from the CCA Theater cannot happen but the curators have commissioned a number of additional projects which look exciting.

For now,
Jordan

Spotted at North St. at Argyle St. (image courtesy of Radiophrenia)

Sounding “An Unrhymed Chord”

Dear Friends,

This coming Sunday (October 11) at 3pm EST I will be joining performers from all around the world — in Berlin, Thessaloniki, New York City, Joshua Tree, LA, London, Budapest, to name a few — who will perform Michael Pisaro’s piece An Unrhymed Chord on Aejaa.com. Special thanks to Andreas Levisianos for curating this group of old friends and Christos Atzinas, the visual artist of the performance.

For now,

Jordan

Bill Gates’ “Welcome to Mosquito City!”

Dear friends,

I’m pleased to share a video, produced by Bill Gates for his GatesNotes blog, which features two licensed tracks I co-composed for the Magnolia Pictures film Hail Satan? (dir. Penny Lane, 2019). The video — which deals with fighting malaria in Tanzania — is called “Welcome to Mosquito City!” According to their reporting, Mosquito City is in “a region of Tanzania that’s hot, humid, and swampy. In other words—perfect conditions for its primary residents. Malaria has been so widespread in this part of the country—once infecting 80 percent of the population—that one meaning of the name of the local town, Ifakara, is, ‘the place people go to die.’”

Please enjoy,

Jordan

Reinier van Houdt performs “The Arrow of Time”

Dear friends,

In anticipation of the release of my new album The Arrow of Time through New World Records, I am again working with the fantastic Dutch pianist Reinier van Houdt who will be live-streaming the title track as part of the Chicago-based Experimental Sound Studio’s series The Quarantine Concerts. The event will stream from Amsterdam on the ESS Twitch page starting at 8pm (Amsterdam) or 1pm (CST) — or 2pm (EST) for people on the East Coast like me.

The program (with one possible addition) is as follows:

Anne La Berge (US/NL): Just Before The Rain (for ensemble and electronics) 8 min

Jordan Dykstra (US): The Arrow of Time (for piano, siren and tape) 22 min

Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman (RW/BE): Organo (for voice and two bass clarinets)  30 min

Performers:

Anne La Berge (US/NL), flute & electronics

Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman (RW/BE), voice & electronics

Abel Fazekas (HU), bass clarinet

Riccardo Marogna (IT), bass clarinet

Reinier van Houdt (NL), piano & siren

For now,

Jordan

Click for link to the ESS webpage

ORTVI presents No Going Back Before Present

Dear friends,

I am pleased to announce that ORTVI is now streaming my 2016 film No Going Back Before Present free of cost for a limited time on their website (it will continue to be available afterward but for a small cost).

I created the film while living in Southern California and shot it using a 4K drone camera on location at Lake Piru in Castaic, the Del Valle Oil and Gas Field in Val Verde, and both the Petrochem Refinery and the Water Purification Plant in Ventura. Originally conceived as a full-album music video for my album Stressings (2016), the work explores the Anthropocene’s arrival into commonplace knowledge via an omniscient eye-in-the-sky looking down at humans’ effect on the earth (the Greek word for human “άνθρωπος” has a connotation with “looking up” [i.e. when man finally stood up on 2 legs and faced the sky]). It is also worth noting that I had help editing the film from the wonderful filmmaker James Benning, who reminded me that “we hear better in the dark and see more clearly in silence.” I am extremely pleased this film finally has a home and, in many ways, No Going Back Before Present is an ode to my 7 years in Los Angeles — a time of exponential growth which I am still unpacking today.

For now,

Jordan

The Arrow of Time

Good day,

I hope this finds you well.

I’m writing today to share the news that on September 11, 2020 New World Records will be releasing a composer portrait album of mine entitled The Arrow of Time on CD (via their website) and all streaming platforms on. I’ve uploaded some excerpts from the album to the Recordings page and recently made a short video for promotional purposes (see the video to the bottom right). The album — comprised of 5 pieces — was a long time in the coming with some compositions and recordings dating back five years. To put it simply, I am elated to share The Arrow of Time with the world in the coming weeks. The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Fathom Peaks Unseen (2015/16) — 11:10

   performed by Sara Cubarsi, violin; Jonathan Tang, violin; Joy Yi, viola; David Mason, cello; Miller Wren, double bass; Jordan Dykstra, crotales

2. Ghosting No. 3 (2017) — 7:22

   performed by Nadya Potemkina, viola; Jordan Dykstra, viola; J.P.A. Falzone, vibraphone and pedal synthesizer; Dave Scanlon, reed organ

3. Orbits (2016/17) — 15:32

   performed by Jordan Dykstra, viola, sine tones; Eugene Moon, sheng

4. In the Snow (2018) — 15:51

   performed by Morgan Evans-Weiler, violin, Jordan Dykstra, viola; Laura Cetilia, cello

5. The Arrow of Time (2019) — 22:46

   performed by Reinier van Houdt, piano, hand-crank siren; Jordan Dykstra, fixed media playback; Adam Forkner, additional drum programming

Finally, the album cover features a beautiful collage by my wonderful friend and excellent Brussels-based artist and filmmaker Nina de Vroome and the physical copy (and perhaps the digital as well?) also includes a generous essay — New Adventures on the Plane of Harmonic Consistency — from my dear mentor, the composer Michael Pisaro-Liu.

For now,

Jordan

Welcome

For years I worked to balance my three major online offerings: my personal “composerly” site (which lived for free for many years on Blogspot), my project-based site I called Business of Composing for Strings (recordings, performance and special events, film music, etc.), and my personal discography on Bandcamp (of which I have many). Oh, and the whole other overlapping mess of running my little label Editions Verde — recently redesigned as well — added to the confusing style of organization, not knowing where to find what you’re looking for, and saying to yourself, “Why do I have to keep scrolling and leaving the domain?”

(I will admit that I enjoyed part of the mystery of teasing the visitor a bit with the key to the map, placing easter eggs here and there, and tweaking the design from time-to-time.)

But now, with the complete redesign, these three sites have been consolidated into a comprehensive experience that I hope leaves you feeling satiated, or, at the very least, knowing you can always come back for more.

For now,

Jordan

At Musikfestival Bern in Bern, Switzerland (photo by Annette Boutellier)