Present-Past-Future-Present was commissioned by Assi Karttunen for a theatre/music production that was concerned with ‘Meditations on Sound, Space, and Body’. The music explores the question of how we perceive the things around us, both as physical objects as well as the contents of our own minds. This can be immediately heard in the opening piece, Present (subtitled, ‘The Road’) in which a strictly paced ‘walking’ motif periodically appears and disappears, being intercut with episodic material that is freer in nature; the mind flickers between outside reality and inner reflection. Past and Future expand fragments of material that were heard in the opening piece, before returning to the walking motif at the end.
The first performance took place in the Helsinki Music Centre in 2013. and then toured around Finland. Assi Karttunen has also recorded the piece on the Divine Art label.
