{"id":2007118,"date":"2025-09-08T19:37:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T19:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2007118"},"modified":"2025-09-08T19:37:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T19:37:17","slug":"ecu-musicians-create-new-music-experience-with-electronics-percussion-news-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/ecu-musicians-create-new-music-experience-with-electronics-percussion-news-services\/","title":{"rendered":"ECU musicians create new music experience with electronics, percussion | News Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"main\">\n<div class=\"post-meta\">\n<div class=\"posted\">Published Sep 08, 2025 by <\/div><\/div>\n<p>When you click play on a digital song or drop the needle on a turntable, you expect to hear the same version of a song every time. East Carolina University percussionist Quintin Mallette was attracted to a new project happening in the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/music.ecu.edu\/\">School of Music<\/a> (SOM) this academic year thanks to the freedom of improvisation and the potential for new, contemporary music to inspire unique connections to an audience.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-6\">\n<p>SOM musicologist Navid Bargrizan and Mallette, with SOM coordinator of audio services Alex Davis, have received just under $10,000 to record, produce, and market an album called \u201cEchoes and Rhythms: Bridging Soundscapes.\u201d The funding is through the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/artscomm.ecu.edu\/\">College of Fine Arts and Communication<\/a> (CFAC) Research and Creative Activity Awards, which support innovative research and creative projects by college faculty members.<\/p>\n<p>The tracks start with six electronic, or electroacoustic, tracks Bargrizan composed and produced over the last decade. When Bargrizan joined ECU\u2019s faculty in 2023, he heard Mallette perform and the collaboration bug bit. What emerged were \u201cbig ideas\u201d for Mallette to improvise a percussion performance over those electronic tracks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI asked Quintin, \u2018How do you feel about a project like that?\u2019\u201d Bargrizan said. \u201cI have all these fixed-media performances, and then you conceptualize percussion improvisation, which brings another layer, another perspective, more possible depth, more situations for interpretation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-6\">\n<div class=\"ecu-video-wrap\">\n<div class=\"title-wrap ecu-purple top \">\n<p>ECU School of Music contemporary album project<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sound testing! ECU School of Music contemporary album project\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iYSiqk80leU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>This day on stage, the trio is recording two of the album\u2019s six tracks at A.J. Fletcher Recital Hall on campus. With the electronic music \u2014 and sometimes Davis \u2014 in his ear piece, Mallette pours water into a metal container and drags a string bow against varying lengths of metal rod sprouting from the top. He adjusts how the metal bowls sit on a table as Davis follows, adjusting the microphones that will record individual percussive sounds they will produce into the final album track.<\/p>\n<p>While the produced album also will sound the same with every listen, it will be created with improvisation, and any live performances will be a new experience, with the album serving as a souvenir of that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAudiences will see something that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,\u201d Mallette said. \u201cThe electronics aren\u2019t going to change, but the way I respond to it is going to change, and the room is going to change, and how (the audience) experiences the electronics will change based on the mood they\u2019re in or the room they\u2019re in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s all this kind of feedback for a very original experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Bargrizan\u2019s electronic pieces are already recorded, he said they are still based on improvisation, like bird sounds recorded from nature. One piece was composed with only 20 or so field recordings of the sounds around sand dunes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFunny enough, some of the best feedback I got was from that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe birds are improvising in nature and being recorded. Another piece is just people; I gave them a text and they are reciting, and make mistakes freely. They are improvising.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_160695\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-160695\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">School of Music coordinator of audio services Alex Davis sits at the school\u2019s studio production equipment, speaking to faculty members Navid Bargraizan and Quintin Mallette as they work on recording percussion improvisation over electronic music tracks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cAnd that\u2019s something that I as a composer really care about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mallette compared such a \u201cvery direct interaction\u201d to the music to a current world where people experience a rich social media culture. They interact, but through the wall of a computer or phone screen; you might think you know all about the friend of a friend, but then meet them in person and realize you have nothing to talk about.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo have something that breaks that wall and allows for classical music to be organic and this really rich experience, that\u2019s vulnerable and new, and kind of fun,\u201d Mallette said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I think is really compelling about this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bargrizan and Mallette <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/naQ7PpJzvU4?si=r19fIuydDzyOljZO\">performed a trial run of the album tracks<\/a> last fall, a great success based on feedback from their colleagues and students. Bargrizan said his students aren\u2019t always open to contemporary music, but a benefit to a creative sound project is the audience can explore why they like or dislike what they hear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomebody would reflect on themselves or the sound, or on the social aspect of the concert,\u201d he said. \u201cI literally heard that behind me (last fall); somebody behind me said, \u2018That\u2019s so cool.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt provokes reaction, it makes us think, whereas less so with the things that we know. It\u2019s going to make people react.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mallette gives an example of another reaction when he started playing contemporary music as a student. He said he didn\u2019t talk much about it, thinking his family wouldn\u2019t relate. Nonetheless, he invited his mother to a concert performed by himself and a friend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the pieces, we sat on stage and dismantled tree branches and leaves, and that was the entire piece,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter the concert, I was like, my mom is going to have hated this, and it was her favorite piece. It helped her think about nature differently, stepping on a leaf and hearing the sound.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mallette hopes audiences will make similar connections between their new music and other parts of life.<\/p>\n<p>And while artists often like to shine and take a lead role, Bargrizan said their tracks are a real conversation. The team listened to Bargrizan\u2019s tracks, discussed percussion ideas, and Mallette looks for his role in the existing sounds.<\/p>\n<p>Bargrizan said, \u201cThis concept of conversation, debate; it\u2019s much more subtle and much more interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<h2>More Stories<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source news.ecu.edu \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published Sep 08, 2025 by When you click play on a digital song or drop the needle on a turntable, you expect to hear the same version of a song every time. East Carolina University percussionist Quintin Mallette was attracted to a new project happening in the School of Music (SOM) this academic year thanks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2007119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2007118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ECU-musicians-create-new-music-experience-with-electronics-percussion.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2007118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2007119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2007118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2007118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2007118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}