This summer has been wonderful so far - a road trip that traversed the open, beautiful and sometimes martian-like landscapes of the American West, lots of interesting music being produced by new friends and old, and weather here in Seattle that can really only be described as idyllic. But enough of this petty banter: it's time for The News.
    There are two reviews that showed up for The Box Is Empty show that happened in June - one in I Care If You Listen and another in The Glass. The Box Is Empty played a new piece that they commissioned from me called Hear No Noise. You can have a listen to Hear No Noise here. Last weekend I presented the newest of my time-specific music events, Blue Hour, at Green Lake here in Seattle - I'm presenting it again this coming weekend in Portland.
    In other news of the site-specific sort, I won a call for site-specific scores by the Color Field Ensemble. At their festival in Madison, they'll be doing an iteration of my new piece that will be performed in its entirety in September, Hungry Ghosts. Besides Hungry Ghosts, Nat and Roos will have a sound installation that will run inside a theater for a couple of house in between musical events at Color Field Fest. Also, we have posted a video of the dance performance for All of the Above on YouTube. We did the score for this piece by choreographer Catherine Cabeen. If you enjoy the music in the video, you can buy it on amazon, itunes, or emusic. That's all the news for August - be on the look out for three site-specific music events in September!

    After a couple weeks of settling back into normal life in Seattle, I've finally begun to unpack the myriad of experiences I had in New York in April doing all three of my time-specific pieces, including the sunrise event in Fort Greene, and my new piece, Blue Hour, which I also presented as guest composer on a concert in Hartford. The Blue Hour event's attendance was hampered by rain earlier in the day, but the event itself was still a success as evinced by the interactions exhibited and community that sprung up as a result. After the event people were sharing slices of pizza and chatting readily with total strangers, and some people talked and connected at a nearby bar for hours after that. One of the attendees, Kyle Lynch, wrote a review for The Glass, which you can read here.

    Towards the end of my trip I headed to Hartford to be the guest composer on Scott Comanzo's Private Works Music Festival. We did Blue Hour out on a large grassy mall in the center of the University of Hartford's campus, and it was interesting to observe people's inclinations in regards to how to particpate. With fair weather prevailing and an expansive and calm campus setting, after the cue to press play was issued participants drifted away to take things in on their own or in small groups - some laying down, others circumambulating the field, and still others twitching nervously and pulling out hunks of grass.
    The Blue Hour events were wonderful on the east coast, and I was able to connect with a lot of people whom I rarely see or have only ever interacted with on the internet, but  now it's time to get ready for a few Blue Hour events back home on the west coast. I'll be announcing the details about these events in the coming months.

As part of the Private Works festival, Seattle composer Nat Evans will be presenting an original, site and time-specific music event that fuses nature, music, community, and subjectivity of experience, which will take place just after sunset on April 28th at The Hartt School. Participants will download the music onto their iPods or other portable listening device ahead of time and arrive at the Sukman Foyer (at Millard Auditorium) by 7:30pm. Participants will then walk to the viewing locale, and just after sunset the cue will be given to press play and participants will sit back and observe while listening.

The music for Blue Hour is a mix of new and pre-existing compositions that have been arranged to best compliment the changing of light during the hour after sunset, and is available to download from the composer’s website (natevansmusic.com). This is the third in a series of time-specific pieces Evans has written – his Sunset + Music event was presented across the country in 2011, as well as at a number of festivals. Blue Hour was commissioned by Scott Comanzo for the Private Works festival.

To review...
1. Participants download the music onto their ipods. (Click here to download)
2. Show up Sukman Foyer (at Milard Auditorium) by 7:30pm on April 28th.
3. Press play when instructed to just after sunset!

About the composer
Seattle Composer Nat Evans writes concert music for various mixed chamber ensembles, distinctive electro-acoustic music, and site-specific music events that fuse nature, community and subjectivity of experience. His music is regularly presented across the United States and has also been performed in Europe, South America, Australia and China. Evans has received numerous commissions including the Seattle Percussion Collective, the Harrison Center for the Arts, ODEONQUARTET, Seattle Pacific University Men's Choir and Percussion Ensemble, Beta Test Ensemble, The Northwest School Chamber Orchestra, among others. His music has been featured on a number of radio stations in the United States, as well as BBC3, and in the 2011 Music Issue of The Believer. He studied music at Butler University with Michael Schelle and Frank Felice.

Seattle composer Nat Evans will be presenting an original, site-specific music event that fuses nature, music, community, and subjectivity of experience, which will take place just after sunset on April 26th in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Participants will download the music onto their iPods or other portable listening device ahead of time and arrive at the corner of Old Fulton and Water St (across the street from Pete’s downtown restaurant) by 7:40pm. Participants will then walk into the park together, and just after sunset the cue will be given to press play and participants will sit back and observe while listening.

The music for Blue Hour is a mix of new and pre-existing compositions that have been arranged to best compliment the changing of light during the hour after sunset. This is the third in a series of time-specific pieces Evans has written – his pieces for sunrise and sunset will be presented in Brooklyn in the days leading up the Blue Hour event - details for those events can be found at natevansmusic.com.

To review...
1. Participants download the music onto their ipods.
2. Show up at the corner of Old Fulton and Water St (across from Pete’s) by 7:40pm on April 26th.
3. Press play when instructed to just after sunset!

Last year I began presenting the second in a series of pieces based around sunrise and sunset that eventually evolved into the Sunset + Music tour, and opportunities to present the event at a few festivals arose as well. One of the places I presented it was in Los Angeles and sound artist Chris Kallmyer attended the event and wrote an amazing article for NewMusicBox that uses my Sunset + Music event as a jumping off point into the larger themes of space, place, and perception. Make sure to check out the article on the NewMusicBox website.

Composer Scott Comanzo attended the initial New York City event, and has since commissioned me to do another time and iPod based piece for his Private Works festival. This new work, which I've been working on for about 3 months, is entitled Blue Hour. Participants will download the music onto their personal listening device and show up to a predetermined and west-facing location. At sunset the cue will be given to press play, and participants will sit back and listen while observing. The music will continue on for around 45 minutes, deep into twilight. The music, which is similar to these other time-specific pieces sonically, is also composed in the same way in that it utilizes both new and preexisting works as well as field recordings to best complement the changing of light at the pivotal moment beginning at sunset until dark. Blue Hour will be presented in Hartford for the aforementioned festival on April 28th, and it will also be presented in New York, Seattle, Los Angeles and other cities on different days throughout 2012.