Daniel Corral to World Premiere Polytope at Automata

Daniel Corral ‘Polytope’ | Image: Daniel Corral

Composer, CalArts faculty and alumnus Daniel Corral (Music MFA 07) presents the live debut of his latest release Polytope to Automata in Los Angeles on Sunday (March 18). The concert is the featured performance of this year’s MicroFest 2018, which named its season after Corral’s work.

Polytope is a multimedia musical performance for microtonal MIDI quartet, fitting somewhere between a string quartet, Kraftwerk, James Turrell and an Indonesian dhalang (master shadow puppeteer). Performed entirely in darkness, it’s a mesmerizing dance of silhouettes of fingers over colorful glowing buttons, captured on live feed video and projected large and bright as an evolving visual score. “Polytope is rhythmically charged in the vein of musical minimalists such as Phillip Glass, Steve Reich or Arnold Dreyblatt, but harmonically inspired by the microtonal explorations of James Tenney, Erv Wilson or Harry Partch.”

Corral, Erin Barnes (Music BFA 97), Cory Beers and Andrew Lessman (Music BFA 09) bring the work to life for MicroFest, the annual celebration of the “notes-between-the-notes.”

This world premiere performance will be followed by a west coast tour with shows scheduled in Seattle at Good Shepherd Center Chapel on Friday, March 23, and at the Center for New Music in San Francisco on Sunday, March 25.

Born and raised in Eagle River, Alaska, Corral’s work defies classification at every turn. His unique voice finds an outlet in accordion orchestras, handmade music boxes, post-punk opera, electronic collages, puppetry, site-specific installations, chamber music, and interdisciplinary collaborations. He is the musical director for Timur and The Dime Museum and leads experimental accordion orchestra Free Reed Conspiracy.

Watch video excerpts of Polytope.

—Oscar Burrows-Rangel