Trichromatic by Ori Barel

"Death of a Moon" - For 7 Contrabasses and Electronics

Eran Borovich, Contrabass

This piece layers seven overdubbed contrabasses and draws on the first ten overtones of each string. A subtle sound design background—children’s voices, passing cars, and faint sine waves—shapes the atmosphere and frames the bass texture.

I first created an electronic sketch using sine waves, each corresponding to the first ten overtones of every string, organized on a 10-by-10 grid. This visual approach was liberating from a compositional standpoint, as it allowed me to clearly see the numerical relationships within each overtone.

I asked Eran Borovich to record himself playing those same overtones on the contrabass, and I replaced the sine waves with his recordings. From there, I continued developing the piece using his samples. After finalizing the score, we recorded him performing the complete work. Later, I created a live version for one contrabass and pre-recorded tracks.




"Artificial Kitchen" - For 5 Recorders (Bass, Tenor, Alto, Soprano and Sopranino)

Lucia Mense, Recorders

"Artificial Kitchen" is part theater, part baroque fantasy. A family of recorders—bass, tenor, alto, soprano, and sopranino—are interwoven with everyday kitchen sounds: blenders, kettles, utensils. At times the sopranino seems to step out of the electronic backdrop like a character breaking the fourth wall, imitating and mocking the shrieks and whirs around it. The piece plays with humor and exaggeration, turning the domestic into something strange and performative.




"Trichromatic" - For Electric Guitar and Loop Pedal

Seth Josel, Electric Guitar

On "Trichromatic," I used the same compositional process as "Death of a Moon." The guitar uses harmonics 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 on every string, but the instrument uses an alternate tuning (E–G#–D–F#–B–E). Every string resonates against its neighbors and the overtones blur into shimmering patterns. The result is music that seems to balance on a tightrope: transparent, brittle, and filled with beating frequencies that overlap and dissolve. At its peak, loops swell into a dense, polyphonic mass, only to fall away in an instant, leaving the guitar bare and vulnerable once more. The piece was inspired by Clarence Barlow's "Until."




"Evacuation Blues" - For Electric Guitar and Electronics

Trevor Babb, Electric Guitar

"Evacuation Blues," written for guitarist Trevor Babb after the Thomas Fire, unfolds like a fractured soundtrack. Synthetic textures, voices looping rhythmically, sirens, cars, and other field recordings form the backdrop. Against this, the live guitar navigates a structure built from the Fibonacci sequence, with each section restarting whenever the count reaches one of the numbers in the sequence. The result is a tension between order and disruption: minimal patterns that keep breaking open into new discoveries. The two distinct techniques in this piece, the guitar's rigid process against the intuitiveness of the electronics, create a sharp contrast and an unsettling atmosphere.

Ori Barel’s music compositions explore electronic, electroacoustic and acoustic music. His creative work encompasses many sources of inspiration: algorithmic composition, improvisation, sound design, field recordings and various compositional procedures. His chamber music has been performed by various performers and venues worldwide and he has released albums with Centaur and Albany records.

oribarel.com