Submerged Disco

In Submerged Disco the brass quartet dives into an aquatic realm where the echoes of a bygone disco era reverberate through waterlogged ruins. The piece blends pulsating rhythms, warped melodic fragments and fluid textures to create an atmosphere that feels both nostalgic and surreal.

Drawing on the image of an underwater dance floor, the composition explores the contrast between buoyant, groove-like motifs and the slow, meditative qualities of submerged soundscapes. It opens with unpitched vocal fry blown into the mouthpieces of horn and trumpet, moves through mouthpiece-only playing, slaps and half-stopped tones, and only gradually lets a four-on-the-floor pulse surface through the murk — always slightly too slow, as though the water were dragging at it. The performers engage in dynamic interplay, layering harmonic progressions with moments of improvisatory freedom, evoking a space where memories of joy and melancholy coexist.

Through this piece I invite listeners to imagine a world where sound travels differently — a disco transformed by the weight and distortion of water, yet alive with echoes of movement and celebration. Written in January 2025 between Berkeley and Istanbul and dedicated to Ensemble Musikfabrik, it was premiered by them at the closing concert of their Brass Academy in Cologne on 13 January 2025.