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Tropendrift 
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Narrator: Douglas Cohen, Flute and Piccolo: Andrea La Rose, Saxophones and Flute: Christopher Bacas. Guitar: Alfredo Marin, Bass: Andrew Livingston, Computer: Dirk Johan Stromberg and Artificial Intelligence

Recorded and Engineered by Dirk Johan Stromberg, NYC 2005 (Nuhn Recording)

Mastered and Produced by Dirk Johan Stromberg, Philippines 2005

Music Composed Spring 2004-Spring 2005 in The Netherlands, United States, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia and Mexico



 

I first read Tropendrift / Tropical Drift in December 2004. I was immediately attracted to it because of its sexuality, longing and beauty. Inspired by Tropendrift, I dropped my plans to move to Europe and set off on a three-month trip to Asia to try and gain a better understanding of the aesthetics underlying the book.

My perception of the poetry changed greatly during this trip. The work began to assume the rhythms that friends sang to me, the time of the locations and the new world of sounds that had enveloped me – those of tuk-tuks, wet markets and a language that sang in a melodious monotone.
Financially exhausted by my trip, I headed off to play on a cruise ship in Mexico in order to finance my work on Tropendrift.
After a few months on the ship, I returned to NYC to finish translating the sketches into a composition and to record.
During the recording process, I was amazed at the depth of the book. So many layers of meaning and sub-currents surfaced that I had not seen or clearly realized before as I completed the sessions – over a year after first having delved deeply into the book. After a couple of months, the work was on hard disk and I took it with me to be mastered in the Philippines, the country of origin of my wife Sheryl.
When finishing the recording during monsoon rain at the Taal volcano, I realized the work had finally come home.
Tropendrift includes only 18 of the 48 spectacular poems of the book. The poems have been selected on the basis of my own personal experiences and the desire to retain the flow and form of the book.
The work consists of two parts, each with three movements, which in turn comprise three subsections. Any movement of the work can either stand independently or play its role in the larger context of the composition, as the listener desires.
The author of the poetry prefers to have the subsections of the movements that deal with the same theme segued together – such as the Goddess of Love and Dance of the Monkeys.
The work is meant for a performance with all parts performed life with the addition of some looping, automated diffusion and artificial intelligence.

Dirk Johan Stromberg, 2005