Alex Wand is a musician and composer who studied music at University of Michigan and CalArts, and currently working on a doctorate in music composition at University of California, Santa Cruz. Among the dance artists that he has collaborated with are Los Angeles based Jay Carlon, Lindsey Lollie, Jessica Hemingway, and Joan Fricke. Wand has just produced a new album titled Music For Dance 2017-2020, mastered by Daniel Eaton at Little Castle Mastering. Among these, he has collaborated extensively with Jay Carlon on his site-specific dance theater productions and dance films, with residencies through the Annenberg Community Beach House, LA Dance Project, Los Angeles Performance Practice, REDCAT, and Metro Art LA. Wand’s new album, Music For Dance 2017-2020, will be available on Bandcamp and other streaming platforms on March 20, 2022.
Alex Wand – Photo courtesy of the artist
Wand often performed live with Carlon, and as someone who cut his performance teeth working with Merce Cunningham and John Cage during the late 1960s, I noticed how he used modular synths, contact microphones and wireless accelerometers to produce the live scores for Carlon’s choreography.
Album cover for Alex Wand’s “Music for Dance 2017-2020” – Cover art/layout: Stephanie Layton, Cover photo by Jonathan Potter
Wand sent me the link to samples of 8 different tracks on Music For Dance 2017-2020 and if I were still actively choreographing, I would definitely consider working with him. Flocking, Out of Bounds, and Crest for example, included a rhythmic structure which allows the choreographer to incorporate a host of tempos as well as providing space for the movement to stand on its own. Other pieces like Voyager, Trying to Fly, Four Triangles and Arrival allow the dance artist to create pure movement works such as that used by Cunningham or a work that reflects the atmosphere Wand’s music creates in the imagination of the listener.
(L-R) Finn Murphy, Lindsey Lollie and Jay Carlon in “Sometimes I Fall” – Photo by La Mujer Tranvia Photography
Wand states that he has been inspired by the composers such as Terry Riley for his modal keyboard pieces (i.e. A Rainbow in Curved Air, Shri Camel), Tim Hecker for his immersive soundscapes (Virgins, Haunt Me), Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith for her modular synthesizer music (EARS), and Steve Blum, also for his synthesizer music (Phases). Other composers that enjoyed over the years include: Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, Meredith Monk, Moondog, Brenda Hutchinson, Arthur Russell, Larry Polansky, and Laura Steenberge.
Alex Wand during the shooting of Jay Carlon’s film “Baggage” at LA’s Union Station – Photo by Fara Sosa
Lindsey Lollie and Wand met and became friends at CalArts. In 2016 she asked Wand to compose an original score for a new work she and Carlon were co-creating titled Sometimes I fall. The work, which included Wand performing live, was presented in the parking lot at the Electric Lodge in Venice, CA. as part of an evening featuring several choreographers. Since then he has worked with numerous other choreographers, including a new work with Carlon that he is creating in Dallas.
Raymond Ejiofor, Alyson Van and Alex Wand in Jay Carlon’s “fold, unfold, refold” – Photo by Vanessa Croccini
On his liner notes for Music For Dance 2017-2020 Wand writes: “The tracks feature fluctuating synth pulses, swirls of noise textures, and pitch-shifted recordings of planetary magnetospheres. A few of them also use alternate tunings: sine waves tuned to the resonant frequencies of the sheet metal (Four Triangles) and slow synth pads in Pythagorean tuning (Voyager). I composed these pieces with the intent to leave room for the dance to speak and hope that this sense of spaciousness is translated to the listener as well.”
Alex Wand at rehearsal for Jay Carlon’s “Flex” – Photo by Jonathan Potter
“For many of the pieces on the album, I wanted to create music that has a slow-moving flux in the way it ebbs in and out of a rhythmic grid,” Wand added. “The idea is to free up the dancers to overlay their own rhythms that complicate, adhere to, or work independently with the music.”
Music For Dance 2017-2020 will be available on Bandcamp and other streaming platforms on March 20, 2022.
More about Alex Wand, click HERE.
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: (LtoR) Samanth Mohr and Alex Wand at the performance of Jay Carlon’s Out of Bounds – Photo by Mara Zaslove
