“FM Life” is composed for three MIDI drum performers and electronics, and was written for line upon line in 2024. The work draws its primary inspiration from FM (frequency modulation) synthesis, a signal processing technique that generates complex tones from the interaction of two simple oscillators. Popularized in the 1970s and 80s, FM synthesis enabled sound designers to digitally create a wide spectrum of sounds, ranging from the familiar to the highly abstract.

In FM Life, performers both enact and deconstruct aspects of this process. Although they follow a notated score, the resulting sounds are heavily randomized within each section, producing a tension between intended action and audible outcome. Additionally, in several passages the performers’ parts are interdependent, with each player assuming a distinct role within the synthesis model: one controlling the carrier frequency, another the modulator, and the third the modulation index.

Sections like this ask performers to remove themselves from traditional modes of performative autonomy and exist within a unified and balanced system, depicted in the piece as both a utopian sanctuary and a bureaucratic nightmare—hence the slight pun of the title, “FM Life” (FML).

Performed by Beyond This Point (Adam Rosenblatt, John Corkill, and Rebecca McDaniel)