Commissioned for Icarus Ensemble as part of the European Composers' Professional Development Programme in partnership with the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, with support from the Musicians' Benevolent Fund. Published by the University of York Music Press.
The title I supikkjarìi means 'the abuses of power' in Sicilian, and is not so much referring to obvious and violent abuse as it is to a more subtle process of deterring potentially revolutionary instances by incorporating them into the ruling politico-economic system. More specifically, the piece is inspired by the contrasting concepts of pluralism of information versus indirect silencing by obstruction/saturation of the sources of information. The alternation between moments of construction and moments of destruction, facilitated by the simultaneous presence of electric and acoustic instruments, is meant to reproduce the process of transformation of instances created from below into corrupted simulacra of themselves, emptied of their revolutionary potential and ready to become commerciable social commodities. Such a process is particularly vivid in some Western democracies, where it represents a powerful and subtle instrument of control from above.
More information on I supikkjarìi can be found at http://www.hcmf.co.uk/blog/show/45.