Steven Kemper, transducer-actuated floor toms, lighting, and live electronics
Spring Peepers is based on binaural field recordings of Spring Peeper frogs captured in Oberlin, Ohio. Emerging each spring, these frogs form a dense, shimmering chorus of piercing, rhythmic “peeps” that saturate the soundscape. Spring Peepers additionally includes sampled horn recorded by David Byrd-Marrow. The recorded sounds are transduced through floor toms, allowing the instruments’ resonant bodies to generate acoustic artifacts that blur the boundary between signal and percussion. Live electronic processing progressively distorts and obscures the source material, guiding the piece through moments of clarity into abrupt, percussive textures. LED lighting visualizes the amplitude of the sound, translating dynamic fluctuations into a responsive visual layer.
