A Falling Loop

The Twisted Spruce Music Foundation is thrilled to present
A Falling Loop
An electro-acoustic composition featuring guitar, and set to 3D animation.

The premiere of A Falling Loop will be held on YouTube.com/TwistedSpruce,
Wednesday, November 23, 2022 at 6 pm EST.
The audio will be released as a single on streaming platforms by Frameworks Records on November 16, 2022. 

A Falling Loop is a multimedia production created as a means to strengthen our global community, to engage Midwest rural communities, and to pair animation with new music to make new art more accessible to audiences. Engaging Midwest rural communities to participate in A Falling Loop included collecting drawings and audio from community members. The images collected were reimagined and brought to life by animator Ida Lasic. According to Ida, “in A Falling Loop, community drawings of the flora and fauna of home life were taken into the 3D plane, transforming them into the textures of wild nature from the dancing stickmen, to the corn, to the vast pale blue fields”. Audio was collected from more than 40 guitarists, and composer Miles Friday explained that in the process of electronic composition, “the guitar was sampled and synthesized into new digital landscapes and rhythmic eruptions” to accompany the acoustic guitars. Participants on the project join from Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, Serbia, the UK, and the United States–including guitar programs at the State University of New York in Fredonia and University of Louisville. The project was funded in-part by the Indiana Arts Commission, the Indiana University Center for Rural Engagement, and the Twisted Spruce Music Foundation. 

The Idea for an animation synchronized to music began in 2020 in response to the pandemic, offering the opportunity for musicians world-wide to perform in an ensemble when it was impossible to do so. The music was set to animation emphasizing a narrative that we are a global community, diversity, and #AloneTogether. The aim of the project was to further connect people and build cultural and community bridges through the combination of visual art, music performance, composition, and technology. Both 2021’s Parts, Together and A Falling Loop project missions started as a means to build community. Parts, Together was featured in the Waterford Film Festival (Ireland), the Bitesize Film Festival, and won Best Experimental Animation in the World Music and Independent Film Festival (Washington DC).   

The composer of A Falling Loop, Miles Jefferson Friday, is an emerging artist currently living in Ithaca, New York. His specialization is electro-acoustic music and abstract art installations. Miles won the 2020 Twisted Spruce summer symposium’s education and composition competition for Traced Forms, a work he wrote for solo classical guitar. The prize included the commission of A Falling Loop. Lead art director and experimental animator Ida Lasic is a recent graduate of the CalArts animation program; they are an emerging artist currently living outside of New York City. Lead Audio Engineer Jamie Tagg has recorded three GRAMMY nominated albums and is a Professor of Audio Engineering at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (IU JSoM). Nathan Fischer is the project Producer and award winning guitarist. Nathan is President of the Twisted Spruce Music Foundation and works for IU JSoM in Music Entrepreneurship and Career Development.

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The Twisted Spruce Music Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and we ask that you consider a donation toward our 2022 campaign to help move our arts education and accessibility forward. The published score of A Falling Loop the work will be available on Azahar Press, linked through the Twisted Spruce homepage.

The 2022 Twisted Spruce Guitar and Composition competition will air Saturday, October 29 at 6 pm on YouTube.com/TwistedSpruce.