for solo saxophonist and live electronics -- prepared alto & soprano saxophones

Premiere: Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2025  l​​​​​​​​ 29 July 2025

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Doyoon Yoon, composer / live electronics 

Jose Nisa, saxophone

Video & Audio recording: IMD

Photos: IMD / Kristof Lamp

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< Programm Note > 

Neither punished nor redeemed, these souls exist in a state of incompleteness and uncertainty,

which can be read as a metaphor for a life that belongs nowhere, including souls of infants who died

before baptism, preserving a subtle sense of innocence and faint hope.

This composition originates from that sense of precarious, liminal existence. The saxophone is deliberately disassembled: the mouthpiece and neck are separated, with the neck placed in front of the performer.

The dry airflow and slap-tongue sounds produced through the detached mouthpiece pierce the silence.

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The work is structured in three movements, which proceed attacca, flowing continuously without pause.

The soloist performs on both alto and soprano saxophones, with the alto saxophone prepared in the first and second movements. Inside the instrument’s body, a transparent tube connected to a talk box is inserted, while a condenser microphone is mounted inside the bell. These devices interact within the saxophone, creating feedback that varies according to fingerings, the depth of the tube, and the angle of the instrument. A piezo microphone attached to the performer’s throat is routed through the talk box and influences the feedback. The composer-designed frequency

combinations interact with the natural feedback, producing relatively stable values while yielding unique sonic outcomes. In the second movement, a tape part is introduced, and all sound is amplified solely through the feedback between the talk box and microphones, as well as the resonance of the instrument itself—without any additional PA system. The third movement begins before the second movement concludes, featuring the soprano saxophone performing a high C6 (piano pitch) for approximately thirty seconds using circular breathing.

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This unidirectional outburst is a roar against a wall—a fragile, precarious exhalation. On a micro level, it reflects the composer’s inner life; on a macro level, it mirrors societal and global unrest. They cannot be separated. They are connected. The sounds resonates like a struggle to survive within an imperfect world. Limbo sonically embodies this state of liminality, conveying the unstable reverberations of an existence that cannot fully settle anywhere.

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