Head Space by Kevin Timothy Austin

To Come To Know One's Self by Kevin Timothy Austin

There are some that would suggest that our relationship with music is a form of biophilia, since music behaves much like an entity in and of itself. I posit further that music has a mind of its own which dwells most readily in our collective subconscious. 13 Dreams of the Lotus aims to explore that dwelling place and bring into focus, through structured intuition, the mens musicae – the mind of music. This process is unfolded in 13 distinct dream sequences, to be played in any order at the performers discretion. As with all cognitive processes the piece is derived from a single nodal point of thought. Everything else in the piece bifurcates exponentially from this central axis in a manner that emulates a dream. It is in the whole-art then that we experience the mind of music – in its derivation, in its performance, in the affect it has on our own perception. The piece does not then dwell in the past or even dream of the future. It lets go of the present moment, and crosses over to the farther shore of existence. And just as suddenly as it found us yearning for its presence, the music leaves us to dream again of its return.

A Steady Stream of Consciousness is an attempt to synthesize perceived polarities of reality: happiness vs. anger, life vs. death, and the indeterminate nature of life in the microcosm vs. the relative stasis of phenomena in the macrocosm. These dualities are represented in the juxtaposition of the two saxophone quartets (staged in stereo), the indeterminate rhythms of the typewriter in combination with the steady metric repetition of the rest of the ensemble, and the contradictory and often disjunctive mental pathway of the typist governed by the various writing prompts throughout the piece. The synthesis of all these conflicting elements into a seamless aural experience cedes to the philosophical notion that all reality is interconnected and that the dichotomies observed therein are in fact non-existent.

Contemporary classical piece for bassoon duo. This piece was originally written for and premiered by the DT "Double Trouble" Duo on April 15th in the Cline Library Auditorium on the campus of Northern Arizona University. It was also performed at the 42nd annual IDRS Conference in Redlands, CA, June 25-29, 2013.

for Tenor Sax, Marimba, Drumset, and Piano

This piece aims to blend elements of jazz and minimalism (e.g. varied repetition and improvisation).

Dharmachakra was written in 2011 for Erasable Color and Dr. Chad Hamill, Hindustani Voice. It incorporates elements of spectral composition and indian classical music.

Post-minimalist piece for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and cello.