This record is a set of two pieces which I wrote in late 2023: and then at last, we shall rest, for violin, and el instante centellea, for piano.

The idea for, and then at last, we shall rest, came to me in a dream: of a drawn-out glissando between two violin strings, carried out by loosening the tuning pegs as slowly as possible until both strings were in unison. Eventually, this premonition shifted into a piece for my friend Simone Maura: a series of slow tuning peg glissandi traversing the infinite space between the pitches of a two-voice counterpoint in 5-limit just intonation, moving one pitch at a time using geared pegs. The physicality of turning a knob is close to home as an electronic musician, and translating that action onto the imperfect mechanisms of tuning pegs was especially exciting. Beyond the act of de-tuning using the pegs, a comma pump moves the harmony gradually downwards, ending on a unison resting point almost a semitone below the G where we started. The title for the piece comes from Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, although I was first introduced to the play via Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film, Drive My Car.

I wrote el instante centellea shortly afterwards while improvising on my keyboard late at night. I found comfort in its pedal F, undulating with a much higher cluster chord that changes exactly once per minute for 31 minutes. The work steadfastly commits to a straightforward and transparent process, the gradual downward motion of that cluster chord until it, too, rests on that pedal F. The resonances of the piano dictate the speed of my playing, which oscillates throughout the piece. Ultimately, I wanted to write a piano piece that I would enjoy playing, one that would bring me solace when I needed it. The title here comes from Octavio Paz’s poem Eralabán, and translates to: “the moment sparkles.”

The sense of an “eternal shimmering present” in both of these pieces called me to pair them together as well as title the record: el instante centellea. They both set into a motion a clear and unidirectional process towards a single resting point. Yet, despite their adherence to fixed formal and temporal structures, the experience of listening to and performing both pieces continues to surprise me: shifting unstable resonances, shimmering combination tones, attention moving in and out of focus, moments pulling you back in and pushing you elsewhere, time out of joint. Their duration is thus imbued with potential, as their material directness, oxymoronically, begets their depth; each piece transcends its formal process.

For a while, my faith in art-making as a harbinger of presence and an encounter with the real was dwindling. These pieces rekindled that faith in their request for engagement and dedication, from listener and performer alike. In music, that is all that I can ask for. (Jack Herscowitz; North Hollywood, CA; March 2025)

Jack Herscowitz: composition, mixing, piano (el instante centellea) Simone Maura: violin (and then at last, we shall rest) Brody Scott: engineering (and then at last, we shall rest) Daniel Newman-Lessler: engineering (el instante centellea) Zhu Wenbo: mastering Dahong Hongxuan Wang: drawing