Camila Agosto
Composer · Interdisciplinary Artist
Written for solo saxophone(s) and live electronics.
Paracusia is an ongoing multi-piece collaboration for saxophone(s) and live electronics created by Camila Agosto and Justin Massey. The performer represents a character that is trapped within a reverberation room. Over the course of the movements, the performer navigates the audience through their experience as they slowly lose their ability to interact with their outside world. Each movement 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.
Paracusia begins after the character has been inside the room for a brief period of time. They will begin to hear voices (imitating the actions of the performer) swarming around them, building into a climatic moment of tension which seems to dissipate briefly into the start of the second movement.
Paracusia was premiered by Justin Massey at West Virginia University (April 14, 2018).
Paracusia II. tethers begins immediately after the first movement, during which the character continues to hear violent echos, imitating their actions, emerge from all around them. Throughout this movement the character begins to struggle more intensely against the multitude of voices spiraling around them, as the tethers connecting them to reality begin to snap.
Paracusia II. tethers was premiered by Justin Massey at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (June 21, 2018).
Paracusia III. descry depicts the character's internal conflict between the emergent voices they hear swarming through their mind and their own voice and identity as an individual.
Paracusia III. descry was premiered by Justin Massey at the Lenfest Center for Arts and Creativity at Columbia University (February 1, 2020).