For our second Mixtape, experimental musician Zachary Paul has prepared a selection of novel approaches to string instruments. Zachary Paul is a violinist and composer interested in perception, the transportive nature of long durations, and trance states. His work explores the contrast between stasis and movement and questions the possibility of depicting both synchronously with a profound sensibility and emotion, drawing from a long lineage of artists exploring sustained tones within organic performance, including Tony Conrad, Pauline Oliveros, and La Monte Young. Zachary is currently a participant in Touch's curated mentorship program where he’s also released his first album A Meditation on Discord, last April 2019.

In this Mix he reflects about one of his main interests: Growing up as a classical musician, he was always attracted to composers who invited the performer to play their instrument in a unique way. The vocabulary of the violin is much larger than the twelve notes of the diatonic scale and there is something inherently rebellious about searching for the sounds one is instructed to avoid as a young musician.

Tracklist:

1. Charles de Beriot: Violin Concerto #7 in G - 2. Andante Tranquilo (performed by Maud Powell)

2. Béla Bartók: String Quartet #5, SZ 102 - 2. Adagio Molto (performed by Emerson Quartet)

3. György Ligeti: Ramifications, for 12 strings (performed by Schoenberg Ensemble)

4. Adrian Knight: The Ringing World (performed by Bearthoven)

5. Jóhann Jóhannsson with Hildur Guðnadóttir & Robert Aiki Audrey Lowe - Part 1

6. R Keenan Lawler - Bow Shock (excerpt)

7. John Luther Adams: Canticles of the Sky - 1. Sky with Four Suns

8. The Dream Syndicate (John Cale, Tony Conrad, Angus Maclise, La Monte Young, & Marian Zazeela) - Day of Niagra

10. Deep Listening Band & The Long String Instrument - Epigraphs in the Time of AIDS #3

11. Henry Flynt - You Are My Everlovin' (excerpt)

12. Leya - Swan Lake

13. Low & Dirty Three - I Hear...Goodnight