David Lang and Bill Morrison have collaborated on numerous projects over the years, including live ensemble performances with film projections Carbon Copy Building (The Kitchen, 2000), The New Yorkers (BAM Next Wave, 2003), Shelter (BAM Next Wave, 2005), and Anatomy Theater (LA Opera, 2016), as well as standalone films how to pray (2006), Back to the Soil (2014), let me come in (2021), The Village Detective: a song cycle (2021). darker is their tenth collaboration, spanning 24 years.
// This program is generously supported by Rachel and Daniel Widawsky.
From David:
darker is in many ways more like an object than a piece of music. An extreme exploration of emotional restraint, it is a long, slow passing from something mostly even and pleasant to something a little less pleasant. My piece, like life, expends a lot of effort to go a very short distance, from beautiful to a little less beautiful, from a little light to something a little darker.
darker is both highly detailed and relentlessly restrained, and it requires an almost superhuman focus in order to keep it moving, inexorably, towards its end. I am especially grateful to Brad Lubman, Lauren Radnofsky, and everyone in Ensemble Signal. My piece couldn’t possibly work without their commitment, dedication and musicality.
From Bill:
With darker, I took inspiration from David’s minimal score to create a film that, like the music, can exist both before and under the viewer’s eyelids. A slowly, lilting depiction of the Sublime, where actors, dancers, and acrobats reappear and then disappear back into a bubbling morass of time.
darker
ensemble signal
david lang, music
bill morrison, film
brad lubman, conductor