Clara de Asís (analog synthesizer) and Rebecca Lane (quarter-tone flute, organ pipes, whistles) work as a duo, focusing on the interplay between sonic space and collaborative performance. Rather than following rigid arrangements, their compositions act as dynamic structures that adapt and transform throughout each encounter.

Here, they perform two works. The first is a new realization of Channa Horwitz’s Sonakinatography Composition #17 (1987-2004). Horwitz, born in 1932, was a Los Angeles artist who developed a rigorous visual language called Sonakinatography in the late 1960s. Using an 8-unit grid structure, she plotted colors, time units, and movements to create intricate compositions on graph paper with colored ink. These visual scores could be translated into sound, dance, or light installations.

“The theory behind my work is that through structure comes an apparent chance. If structure plays out long enough it will appear to be chance… The cycle of life as I see it is circular. The beginning and ending are only one step away from each other,” wrote Horwitz, whose practice did not receive significant recognition until the final years of her life. She died in 2013 at the age of 80.

Ahead of this performance, de Asís and Lane met with the artist’s daughter to discuss the conceptual underpinnings of Sonakinatography.

The program concludes with Distances Bending (future tones), which is the duo’s evolving project that explores harmonic and temporal proportions. Rooted in what they call “the geometry of the harmonic series,” the piece features a single, ascending chord that incorporates more intricate frequency relationships as it moves from low to high.

Clara de Asís (b.1988, Cádiz, Spain) is a composer and performer engaged with the correlations of acoustics, spatiality, and the praxis of attention. She uses electronics and synthesis along with found objects and traditional instrumentation. Her compositions juxtapose structural precision to areas of indeterminacy, drawing from an interest in experimental tuning and autogenetic systems. In addition to her solo practice, she creates a wide variety of works with other artists, including multidisciplinary collaborations in film and dance. She has performed throughout Europe, the United States, and South America. de Asís also runs the publishing platform Discreet Editions and is a co-artistic director for Göteborg Art Sounds, Sweden.

Rebecca Lane (b.1980, Melbourne, Australia) is a Berlin-based musician who studies intonation as a social and perceptual practice, centering on just/rational intonation and the relational aspects of activating this material with others. A member of the label Sacred Realism, her work is informed by ongoing collaborations with Catherine Lamb, Clara de Asís, and within various duos and ensembles, including the Harmonic Space Orchestra, Asterales, and The Long Form, using various flutes (in particular, Kingma System quarter-tone flutes). Recent releases include Horatiu Radulescu’s op. 42: Inner Time/Outer Time with Sam Dunscombe on Plasmatic Music, Vol. I (Mode Records) and Catherine Lamb’s Muto Infinitas with Jon Heilbron (Another Timbre). Rebecca Lane also performed for Lampo in December 2019 with Catherine Lamb and Olivia Block.

Special thanks to the Estate of Channa Horwitz and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, New York.

Presented in partnership with the Graham Foundation