bagpipe and electronics - 2019
Lament
A collaboration with Zeb Page, bagpiper and professor of Geology, this duet for bagpipes and live electronics was written for the Kaliedosonic festival. Using the ambisonics plugin for Max, high resonant frequencies of the bagpipe piece were projected in varying orbits around Finney Chapel’s 20-speaker array. When listening to bagpipes for an extended period of time, these frequencies start to ring in one’s ears of their own accord. This piece materializes and quickens that process, bolstering these frequencies and adding an element of immersive motion, a barely detectable sonic illusion.
permanent audio installation - 2019
For the Birds
Senior TIMARA Recital - can be found at this website
chamber quartet - 2019
Wind Over Water
A quartet written for and premiered during the International Music Festival of the Adriatic in Duino, Italy. This piece is based on excerpts from Arthur S. Eddington’s 1927 lectures on “The Nature of the Physical World”.
vocal chamber piece - 2019
Hilma af Klint Suite - for Sourgum
A suite of vocal movements for 6 singers inspired by Hilma af Klint’s Paintings for the Temple. Paintings are shown in a slideshow as the piece progresses, as each painting has a corresponding section in the piece. Singers: Maxwell Addae, Neal Baker, Helen Hé, Piper Hill, Will FK Tokunaga, Kari Watson.
VR Installation - 2019
Sonaforms - Beta
The early stages of a collaborative VR project between Jas Brooks and Piper Hill. Exhibition at "Synchresis, an Audio Visual Evening" for Aurie Hsu’s class “Sonic Images, Visual Sounds”.
stereo fixed media - 2019
Tiny Public Revelation
a musing on desire and vulnerability written down in a very small book during a brief moment of coherence in the sun (audio coming soon)
cello and interactive video - 2019
Avalanche
"One grain by itself is a solid, but many grains together can behave like a solid, a liquid or even a gas... You can control the disk's rotations, accelerating and decelerating to see how granular matter can defy expectations of how solid matter behaves." - Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
https://www.msichicago.org/
(video coming soon)
fixed media video - 2019
Getaway
Junior TIMARA Recital - 2019
One Big Water Song
A fantasia for voice and 8-channel live electronics, 19 February 2019 Fairchild Chapel - Oberlin, OH
Music, text, concept, performance, engineering - Piper Hill
"How Can I Keep from Singing" tune and textual inspiration Robert Wadsworth Lowry
Cameraman - Calder Laban, Live Recording Engineer - Lam Chi Minh, Lighting Operator - Ben Saltz, Board Operator - Claire O'Brocta, Photography and Poster Design - Noah Hellman, Setup Help - Cait Boblitt, Claire O'Brocta, Sebastian Sanchez-Piotrowski, Video Editing - Piper Hill
Singers: Max Addae, Oli Bently, Marly Gonzalez, Helen Hé, Claudia Hinsdale, Andrew MacPhail, Kat Mazur, Allie Murillo, Philip Swigon, Sam White, Barnaby Woods
collaborative multimedia event - 2018
Some Things Cosmic are These
Cast and Creators:
Eleda Fernald, Marly Gonzalez, Julian Guerrieri, Piper Hill, Claudia Hinsdale, Georgie Johnson, Julian Kaufman, Jules Crewe-Kluge, Analise LaRiviere, Katarina Mazur, Teddy Ment, Kieran Minor, Rosemary Shin
(media coming soon)
vocal chamber piece - 2018
Early Memories
Music - Piper Hill
Text: Maxwell Addae, Neal Baker, Helen Hé, Piper Hill, Will FK Tokunaga, Kari Watson
multichannel fixed media - 2018
Big House, Sad Song
Composed, performed, and recorded by Piper Hill
Stereo mix, original piece is for 8-channels
dance collaboration - 2018
Dear, Dear
Inspired by the correspondence between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West
Choreography and Text: Jules Crewe-Kluge, Eleda Fernald
Music: Piper Hill
short film collaboration - 2018
Pier 34
Co-Directed by Musa Matiwane, Calder Laban
Created by Jack Miller
Music by Piper Hill
Actor - Jack Miller
Director of Photography and Editor - Calder Laban
Boom Operator - Musa Matiwane
fixed media video - 2018
2 Dimensional Friends
These are some friends I've made, and will hopefully get to know better.
(Concept art for an upcoming VR project with Jas Brooks)
collaborative installation - 2018
Follow the String
In this creepy collaborative installation, participants were asked to follow a strand of white yarn that wound in a maze through the depths of Warner Gymnasium at Oberlin. Beginning with an overhead view of a haunting silks piece, they were then told by distorted voices to follow the string down 4 flights of winding stairs, where untold horrors awaited them. Upon resurfacing from the basement, the string led the group to a room, empty except for one person knitting - with the string they'd been following the whole time.
Opening Silks Audio
Basement Textural Audio
Visual Stills from the Performance
Concept and performance: Georgie Johnson, Gabrielle "Teddy" Ment, Piper Hill, and Julian Guerrieri. Choreography: Johnson and Ment. Sound: Hill. Text from “The White Album” by Joan Didion read aloud by Guerrieri
Scoring for Theater - large work - 2018
Romeo and Juliet
As the Composer/Sound Designer for the 2018 Oberlin Summer Theater Festival, Piper composed, performed, recorded, and produced an original score for the company's production of Romeo and Juliet. He also ran the sound cues live. This was originally mixed for 8-channel surround, but the stereo mix serves as a little memento.
Live Electronics - collaborative performance - 2018
Taiko, TIMARA, Tokyo
After receiving grants from XARTS, the Taymor Fund, and Shansi (grants available through Oberlin College and Conservatory), Piper and his collaborator Will FK Tokunaga traveled to Tokyo, where they studied with the Amanojaku taiko ensemble. They composed a piece for 1 real chu and 1 virtual chu with live effects that Piper created using Max and controlled using Wii-remotes.
Reach out if you'd like to see the patch!
(Note: audio in video did not pick up virtual drum sounds very loudly)
Score
short fixed media track - 2017
Plexus in B Flat
Dissection of various operations on a 5-note chord. Accompaniment. Intrigue. 4 types of microphones. MIDI instruments. Hardware synths. What could go wrong?
short fixed media track - 2017
This is How I Comb my Hair
Layers of prepared guitar, no processing.
short fixed media track - 2017
crck
crck is a walk through crcks of all kinds. Fast crcks, slow crcks, high crcks, low crcks, slidey crcks, tickly crcks, slippery crcks, and prickly crcks. Some of the crcks are made with electricity plugging in and twisting knobs like Star Wars. Some of the crcks are from the legs of little guys. Some are from this little guy waving those hands around. One biggest and very prickly but also smooth crck is a bathroom door all combed out. Please enjoy my favorite crcks on campus all making friends with each other.
Simulathon from Jas on Vimeo.
short film - co-composer/vocal director - 2016
Simulathon
A quirky little movie by Fire Escape Films at the University of Chicago. Piper wrote half of the music that you hear, and provided vocal coaching to the actors (he did not sound design).
His pieces can be found at: 0:08-2:37, 3:58-4:44, 5:21-6:25, 8:58-10:05, 10:05-11:30, 13:14-15:35 (Note that this last one is merely an a shortened a cappella arrangement of Gabriel Faure's Pavane, Op. 50, which Piper did not compose, but he did the arranging, vocal coaching, recording, editing, and mixing for this piece).
a cappella original - 2016
Waves
A Voices in Your Head original song. From LIGHTS (2016), their sixth studio album.
Music, Lyrics & Arrangement: Piper Hill
Solo: Piper Hill
Recording and editing: Bri Holland
Mixing: Bill Hare
Mastering: Dave Sperandio
4.7/5 from RARB