Diverging Cycles
TESSERA’s wooden bars hold the pulse while GRAIN’s metal tines answer between the strikes.
TESSERA plays two sparse cycles of different lengths. GRAIN answers with live plucks in the gaps. Its optical events open short REGOLITH clouds, allowing mechanical repetition to gather small deviations from the performer.
One GRAIN performer and a sound operator; TESSERA plays a prepared sequence.
Ivan Salamin — compositional assembly; Daria Salamin — mechanical part; Denicio Del Mosca — cycle rules.
How the ensemble connects.
ORBIT SCORE sends MIDI events to TESSERA’s local controller. The controller limits pulses and skips commands that arrive too frequently. GRAIN’s optical data passes through SOMATIC to control REGOLITH, preloaded with a recording of a wooden bar. Acoustic channels and the electronic layer are recorded separately.
TESSERA plays one sparse cycle, with a GRAIN response after each full rotation. The granular layer stays off so that wood, metal, and the mechanism can be heard clearly.
A second cycle of a different length begins. The GRAIN performer responds to audible meetings of the patterns, not every step. The granular layer appears in short windows and leaves the pauses open.
One cycle stops and the other makes a final turn. Once the mechanism has stopped, GRAIN plays one pluck. No new grains are triggered; those already active finish their envelopes.
What to listen for
Compare the repeatability of MIDI commands with small differences in physical strikes. Not every incoming command must produce a strike: the controller’s protective limits remain an audible part of the composition.
What we preserve after the session
Save ORBIT SCORE’s cycles, tempo, seed, TESSERA’s voice map and skipped-command log, the REGOLITH source file, and the GRAIN profile. Audio channels are saved separately from control data.