The Tragedy of Hikikomori Loveless (2021, rev. 2022)
for midi keyboard
suggested listening: (0:50- 1:57), (3:30-6:00)
The Tragedy of Hikikomori Loveless is an electronic work that comes from my debut album FINAL SKIN, which was released in 2022 via Cantaloupe Music. This piece, as well as the entire album, won the Gaudeamus Prize for Music Composition in 2022.
The Tragedy of Hikikomori Loveless situates the keyboard player in the role of the Architect Prince, a character from the FINAL SKIN universe that suffers from a form of social and bodily dysmorphia. The character can only leave their home when they are successfully able to build the HIKIKOMORI LOVELESS, an exosuit made by assembling sonic fragments using the ancient relic– THE KEYBOARD. The piece follows the Prince as he makes this suit and seeks love, a process that gradually destroys his own id.
The Tragedy of Hikikomori Loveless situates the keyboard player as the Prince himself. This is done by configuring the keyboard as less and piano and more an interactive object. Assumptions of the keyboard’s technique are replaced by a collection of hieroglyphs – sequenced micro gestures that the performer plays throughout the piece. Akin to a video game combo, sound only triggers when a sequence of gestures is accurately played. Failure to play even one of the gestures within a combo results in a soundless performance.
FINAL SKIN is defines the body as a constellation of reference, signs and signifiers whose assembly is rendered possible through a digital vehicle. In the full work, the nature of these signifiers is commented on by a collection of text to speech voices, some Indian-accented and others not. These voices not only tell stories about the objects constellated, but about the Architect Prince – the nature of his motives, his past, and possible future. The full project can be listened to here: https://bakudi-scream.bandcamp.com/album/final-skin
The Tragedy of Hikikomori Loveless was commissioned by Bang on a Can with support from Maria & Robert A. Skirnick to be performed by Vicky Chow at the 2021 Bang on a Can Marathon February 2021.
BAKUDI SCREAM/ Rohan Chander 
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