mais l’aider (2018) is a sound installation with live clarinet performance composed in collaboration with Egyptian artist Hoda Elsayed. She writes:
"It started with two recordings that we each made of languages that the other did not speak: Arabic and German. From these recordings, we each loosely transcribed phrases to try to capture the mannerisms of the respective languages. Finally, to tie the material together, we transcribed one English phrase together to be the principle idiom, recurring in unison each time, providing some lucidity to the otherwise multiplex structure.
The form is fluid, as the player may play the composed phrases in any order, varying the progression each time. With different iterations playing at once, little definite change is heard as the superstructure and the basic material remains the same. This said, we have made attempts to spatialise and pull things slightly out of sync to present multiple perspectives of our product simultaneously.
Despite working from sources which we did not understand, a dialectic third meaning emerges. Weaving in and out of contrapuntal textures may simulate people talking over each other, as we often do. But the rare moments of quiet monophony that peek through the overarching patchwork attempt to characterise the whole through these sonic microcosms. This thing is not one thing, but it is a whole."