Elena Rykova

“X is where I am” is an intimate personal statement, derived from interwoven melodies, dirges, foggy recollections, dreams, warmth, fragility and words that have yet to be uttered. A female voice is central to the piece: special amplification illuminates its latent boundaries. The voice is connected by an invisible umbilical cord to the piano, which transforms and embellishes it with new timbral colours, thereby expanding the ensemble’s instrumental capabilities. In turn it is transformed into a single meta-instrument occupying the entire space of the concert hall. To a certain extent X is where I am is an inward-looking investigation into your own psychology through which you start perceiving what is happening all around and outside you in a different light. I think that such a choice was without a doubt influenced by my own interests in internal family system (IFS) therapy, which consists of understanding a human being as a multiple phenomenon, consisting of different sub-personalities, each of which has its own desires, causes, role and behaviour. The relations with each other differ, but are all communicated through the one key Self. I hear the sound and mutual relations of the sounds and instruments in a similar way. That is why I explain in detail in my notation how to derive a specific sound, in particular, if this concerns the preparation of the instruments or motion that I have invented. The performativity in “X is where I am” is subordinated primarily to the musical idea of the movement of sound in space.