MEMBRANE will be a piece specially composed by Nicolas Lewis for a quartet comprising of: prepared electric guitar, clarinet, cello, and an audience-influenced electronic 'dronescape'.

Video examples including Glasshouse interactive composition and sculpture (made in collaboration with Wayne Sables Project), two original guitar pieces for dampened strings, and a snippet of UNSPUN (a music / projection piece made as part of The Colour Foundry)

The piece aims to artistically examine the way in which humans interact with each other through digital / electronic media. Is this a deep interaction? Is it true? Are those we're interacting with even human? What effect does this 'silicone membrane' through which we interface have on our humanity? On our souls?

The piece will be performed by a trio of instruments including electric guitar with dampened strings to create the percussive/ rhythmic underpinning of the piece, lyrical cello, and textural clarinet. The transformative element of this work with come with the audience-influenced 'dronescape'. This will be a soundscape, including drone-like sequences that will be electronically realised alongside the acoustic performance. The audience will be able to interact with this soundscape by touching a series of metallic panels that will change the nature of the composition in varying degrees of subtlety. This electronic element will be powered by a micro-computer (think raspberry pi) and capacitive touch breakout boards. I will program these and prepare the hardware for use. Please check out my work on the Glasshouse project to see this kind of set-up in action.