Beyond the Beyond (2025)

Instrumentation: Percussion Duo

Duration: 5’30”

Program Note: Beyond the Beyond for Percussion Duo (2025) was written for the VIRID duo as a part of the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) and FLYDLPHN Collaboration during the Winter 2025 semester at the University of Michigan. When looking for a concept to accompany the artwork I selected, by Derrick Dawson, I found a few bits and pieces of random content that felt like they perfectly encapsulated the idea of randomly recalling memories when attempting to find something completely different. 

Specifically, the 1945 horror/mystery film “The Unseen” and the PlayStation 1 JRPG game, whose title I ended up using for the piece. These two incredibly random pieces of entertainment both contribute to the vast amount of content that seems to have been introduced to niche audiences due to the internet in a very similar way, by happenstance. Beyond the Beyond for Percussion Duo follows getting sidetracked trying to find what you want (in my case a specific French film I still can’t find) and the rabbit holes you may end up in.

Premiered as a part of FLYDLPHN’s collaboration with the U-Michigan Prison Creative Arts Project (led by Ty Bloomfield and Mattie Levy)

Virid Duo

Olivia Cirisan and Ancel Fitzgerald Neeley, Percussion