W O R K S A M P L E S
Here you will have access to full recordings for each of my work samples, including audio/video documentation, the full score (link to download via the PDF icon), a brief paragraph describing the work and my collaborators (when applicable) and timecode indications of recommended places to listen for each work.
Work Sample 1
The Memory of Water, Vol. 1
(2023)
for solo viola, voice, live electronics and custom instruments
29 minutes
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The Memory of Water is an ongoing collaborative project between myself and violist/poet Martine Thomas. Inspired by the original texts written by Martine, this multi-installment work explores the intersection between live composition, improvisation, and poetry. From a series of in-depth exploratory sessions during our time together at the Banff Center in 2018, Martine and I were able to discover a collection of sounds related to the narrative within her text which formed the basis of our sonic environment. In performance, through a combination of live composition and guided improvisation, we are able to deeply explore each sound and bring this environment off the page. The Memory of Water was partially premiered by Martine Thomas and I during the Ensemble Evolution ARCade at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity July 2019. This open workshop allowed us to begin creating this world, through a collection of sound artifacts from our initial exploratory sessions.
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Within Vol. I, we delve into questions of what is remembered and forgotten, and the impact of change when dealing with loss and grief. The work centers around my engagement with a collection of texts created by my collaborator Martine Thomas and the soundscapes we create through her poetry, our improvisation, live composition, and live electronic processing. It contains life cycles that start from the ocean and return to the ocean, including ecological concern and personal narratives. There is a collection of acoustic material sourced from Martine's viola and our respective voices, as well as recordings of my custom instruments. Added to this texture are field recordings of our explorations around Wannsee and Schlactensee in Berlin that are intermixed with spoken word and other written texts. Throughout the arc of the piece, we delve into relationships with memory and the impact of change when dealing with loss and grief in an extended live composition and improvisation format. Vol. 1 was premiered on October 31, 2023 at KIINDL - Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin, Germany.
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Future installments of The Memory of Water will vary in instrumentation, expanding beyond a solo format into small and large ensemble works. Within them, I continue to experiment with designs for performative sound sculpture pieces and wearable/interactive instruments. The Memory of Water, Vol. II is currently in development and will premiere in March 2024. In this installment, I am working alongside Martine Thomas (viola) and Thea Mesirow (cello) in a new environment surrounded by murmurs of souls, exploring the vulnerability in surrendering your memory and the distortion in passing time.
Full recording provided above. Suggested Timings:
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0:00 - 3:30
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5:16 - 8:19
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10:11 - 13:48
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18:11 - 23:11
Recording from World Premiere of The Memory of Water, Vol. 1 performed by Martine Thomas and Camila Agosto. Documentation, lighting and sound by Ragnar Prielipp. On October 31, 2023 at KINDL Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst.
**It’s important to note that this is a stereo reduction of a concert with spatialized sound - 8 speakers placed around the audience in a circle, each with specific mapping of live and electronic elements to create an immersive environment. The spatialization of the music was a key part of the experience.
Full Score
Link to view and download full score here
This score is a flexible map that Martine and I use to freely move within the sections of the piece. As you’ll see, there are clearly marked sections that correspond with soundscapes within the Ableton session we used to run the live electronics. Each layer within the scenes is performed live using MIDI controllers. Timing is flexible, this performance was approximately 30 minutes.
Work Sample 2
Paracusia IV. hypnagogia
(2023)
for solo baritone saxophone and live electronics
30 minutes
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Paracusia is an ongoing multi-piece collaboration for saxophone(s) and live electronics created by Camila Agosto in collaboration with Justin Massey. The performer represents a character that is trapped within a reverberation room. Over the course of the works, the performer navigates the audience through their experience as they slowly lose their ability to interact with their outside world. Each piece represents a different step along their journey, exposing the unique sonic landscape of the different instruments within the saxophone family and their connection with the integrated electronics.
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Paracusia is defined as auditory hallucinations involving the perception of sounds arising from outside the mind, most commonly of voices. Individuals who have experienced a traumatic event are often affected by triggers every day, and their interactions with people and reactions to various stimuli are dictated by these external pressures. The actions and reactions within the music, presented by the performer onstage and the responding electronic elements, represent this interaction between a person and the external triggers they experience. In this piece, the performer represents a character that is trapped inside a reverberant room for an undetermined length of time. Through use of spatialized speakers emitting pre-recorded and live-processed sounds, the performer reacts to the psychoacoustic processes of experiencing auditory illusions as the character they portray gradually begins to struggle against the multitude of voices spiraling around them.​
Paracusia IV explores the relationship between this character and their hallucinations, giving space for the electronic representation of the ‘other’ voices to emerge more distinctly as an independent identity from the saxophone. This piece starts with a fixed media work that plunges the audience into ’the in-between’; a space within the characters subconscious from where these voices emerge. Paracusia IV was premiered on October 31, 2023 at KINDL - Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin, Germany.
Full recording provided above. Suggested Timings:
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0:11 - 4:02
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10:28 - 15:24
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22:06 - 23:50
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25:45 - 30:23 (end)
Recording from World Premiere of Paracusia IV.hypnagogia performed by Justin Massey. Documentation, lighting and sound by Ragnar Prielipp. On October 31, 2023 at KINDL Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst.
**It’s important to note that this is a stereo reduction of a concert with spatialized sound - 8 speakers placed around the audience in a circle, each with specific mapping of live and electronic elements to create an immersive environment. The spatialization of the music was a key part of the experience.
Full Score
Link to view and download full score here
There are flexible aspects of this score that provide Justin with a looser framework to determine his pacing, cue specific events to occur within the MaxMSP patch, and transition from section to section. There are nuanced elements and carefully programmed sequences within the Max patch that determine how the texture develops and narrative unfolds for this installment.
Work Sample 3
imprint
(2017-2018)
for amplified flute, cello, projected media, and tactile art installation
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imprint is a reflection on human fragility, vulnerability, and raw emotional experiences. It focuses specifically on how we perceive those who do not fit the ideal image that our societal standards have created in this late capitalist environment. The two musicians represent two characters who shed their self-imposed, easy-to-digest packaging, in order to expose their true natures to one another, while exploring the idea that all of our experiences are in some way imprinted on our skin in the way we lead our lives, and in our interactions with others. Throughout the work, the two characters explore extremely fragile and unpredictable sounds that expose the intricate natures of their instruments, while revealing the negative impacts of their experiences on their emotional, psychological, and physical states. Within the work there are elements of subtle theatricality in both the recitation of text by the performers and their physical gestures throughout the piece.
The texts explore themes of the precarious and vulnerable nature of relationships that play into our everyday lives and how they impact our psychological welfare. This staging is intentionally designed as a commentary on the way in which people interact in society. Two people, looking at one another, interacting over a brief period of time, without truly seeing the other person.
This work was premiered by Berrow Duo on May 17, 2018 at EMP Collective in Baltimore, MD, alongside video projection designed by Bryan Funk and art installations created by Robin Marquis.
This is a five-minute excerpt of imprint from different sections across of the piece.
Recording from World Premiere of imprint performed by Berrow Duo (Leia Slosberg, flute and Thea Mesirow, cello) with projected media by video artist Bryan Funk and art installation by Robin Marquis. On May 17, 2018 at EMP Collective in Baltimore Maryland, as part of SENSE feature concert.
Full Score
Link to view and download full score here
Work Sample 4
Tybontoan
(2019)
for amplified large ensemble and conductor
10 minutes
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Tybontoan was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and Gustavo Dudamel, Music and Artistic Director as part of the National Composer Intensive program.
This work follows a character through their descent into a deep dream state. Unaware of how far they have fallen, they are pushed and pulled through a series of vivid scenes, unable to pull free. Tybontoan, a word that loosely translates to "dream" in the native Taíno language, is a work in an ongoing narrative reflecting on a character’s relationship with I’naru’ ("the spirit of women") and the resiliency of the female mind. In creating this piece I began to explore more of my own roots within Taíno culture, as a descendent from the indigenous peoples of Puerto Rico.
The solo vocalist represents the character’s experience, navigating through the narrative controlled by the conductor. The conductor acts as the force controlling the character’s progression through the dreamscape. The relationship between the vocalist’s character and the conductor propels the story forward. They share the recitation of a language, occasionally stripping this language away from one another. The text incorporated in this piece stems from the native Taíno language of the Caribbean islands and the International Phonetic Alphabet (occasional vowel shapes).
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Aspects of this score allow for flexibility and guided improvisation from the vocalist as well as many of the ensemble members. The conductor is using specific musical and sound cues from the amplified wine glasses, sand paper and stylus, and wooden surface of their setup to guide the ensemble. In addition, the percussionist is also interacting within the dialogue between the vocalist and conductor, through their unique percussion set up. I’ve experimented with creating various ’soft-boards’ instruments— amplified foam boards of varying thickness to which I have attached different materials to produce tiny drum-kits of sounds (a bowl of popping floam, bubble wrap strips, metallic wrappers, thick cellophane, steel wool, ornamental chimes with various beaded materials hanging down to create differences in resonance, etc.).
