The three Floating Underwater pieces were originally written for the birbynė, a Lithuanian reed pipe.The compositions, recorded in Vilnius, Lithuania, written for birbynė virtuoso Darius Klišys and recorded by him in Vilnius, Lithuania, correspond to abstract paintings by Cape Town-based artist Jill Trappler. The Floating Underwater pieces, then, seek to evoke the flow of water in Trappler’s paintings. Each piece is written to capture one or two aspects of a painting. The first, Floating Undewater in the Sun, plays with sunlight dancing on moving water. Floating Underwater in a Twisting River, written soon after my brother-in-law drowned in the Mooi River, explores potentially tragic undertows in a seemingly playful river. Floating Underwater in a Forested Rockpool is inspired by the calmness and gentle, unexpected twists of a shaded rockpool.
