Recordings — can be heard on…

Sic Itur Ad Astra ("Thus, One Journeys to the Stars") by Justin Murphy-Mancini for harpsichord & percussion

recorded December 2018 at UC San Diego | Justin Murphy-Mancini, harpsichord; Sean Dowgray, percussion

Program Note: This piece represents my personal attempt to make the harpsichord coexist with the family of percussion instruments. I have posed the first in dialogue to explore themes of resonance, sustain, and decay before settling on certain possibilities of their simultaneous sounding. To bring a certain level of coherence to my thinking, I have imagined each stage in the conversation as successive movements of an extremely abstracted "baroque suite:" in turn, the percussionist and harpsichordist play an arpeggiated prelude, followed by the traditional allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue, They arrive together at the chaconne and subsequently a postludium arpeggiando, attempting to push the harpsichord to employ the technique that maximizes continuous sound before it dissipates into emptiness. The percussion then takes up the possibility of continuity through endless impulse, moving gradually from instrument to instrument in a distorted mirror of the opening dialogue. -Justin Murphy-Mancini

When.jpg

When (TBD ongoing)

to listen is to move
through
sound is time
travel

When is
our vessel
whether there
or somewhere

time is
weather

Moving Through the Boreal Forest (2023)

field recordings, percussion, & poetry | Sean Dowgray, Dary Farmer, Maïté Agopian, artists | Listen & Support Here

Moving Through the Boreal Forest presents a sonic ecosystem of field recordings throughout Alaska, found sounds from my explorations throughout In A Time of Change: Boreal Forest Stories (ITOC), and performed sounds of my own creation. The timbral diversity of various percussion instruments combined with the many sounds of the boreal forest presents a sonic dialogue that has been of primary interest to me throughout ITOC as a music performer, a listener, and learner of this particular biome. The field recordings reorient the percussion instruments back to their original material state: wood, metal, stone, earth, and skin. In turn, the performed sounds open up the expressive aspects of the forest itself. At times the field recordings are most prominent, other times the performed sounds are heard alone, and occasionally the two are indistinguishable.

Anniversary Leaves (2023)

field recordings and percussion | Sean Dowgray, artist | Listen & Support Here | Listen on Spotify

Anniversary Leaves is a compilation of field recordings consisting primarily of thunderstorms, wind moving through trees, and vehicles passing over a bridge. The primary underlying recording - which comes in and out of focus throughout "Anniversary Leaves" - was recorded in the late night of my 6th anniversary with my partner, Ida in the anticipation of an oncoming storm (which ultimately never arrived). We were surrounded by trees which were shaken continuously by the heavy winds. Layered onto this recording are many other recordings of leaves put in motion by wind, as well as a small number of other captured sounds and a handful of performed sounds.

Auscultation (2022)

works for percussion instruments and feedback | Andres Gutierrez Martinez, composer | Listen Here

Lasting Shadows (Winter 2020)

xavier betata, composer; aleck karis & matthew kline, conductors |sideband records | Listen Here | I Care if You Listen Album Review

Cloud Polyphonies (summer 2020)

james wood, composer; michael rosen, conductor | oberlin percussion group | Listen on Spotify | Read More

Inheritance (summer 2020)

lei liang, composer; matt donovan, libretto; steven schick, conductor | Albany Records | Excerpt Here

The Grand Tour (winter 2019)

works by josh levine, christopher adler, lewis nielson, daniel tacke; sean dowgray, percussion

Time Bound & Timeless - Antinomes (fall 2019)

sean dowgray, piano | Featured on BTR Today


Frey & Babbitt Orchestral Works (summer 2019)

the windansea symphony orchestra - erik carlson, music director

Mass for the Oppressed (2017)

emerson eads, composer; tess altiveros, toby newman, barry banks, david miller, vocal soloists; concordia choir & ritornello orchestra of the university of notre dame | Info Here | Excerpts Here