Tropendrift by Dirk Johan Stromberg

Album Notes
I first read Tropendrift / Tropical Drift in December 2004. I was immediately attracted to it because of its sexuality, longing and beauty. Inspired by Tropendrift, I dropped my plans to move to Europe and set off on a three-month trip to Asia to try and gain a better understanding of the aesthetics underlying the book.

My perception of the poetry changed greatly during this trip. The work began to assume the rhythms that friends sang to me, the time of the locations and the new world of sounds that had enveloped me – those of tuk-tuks, wet markets and a language that sang in a melodious monotone.

Financially exhausted by my trip, I headed off to play on a cruise ship in Mexico in order to finance my work on Tropendrift.

After a few months on the ship, I returned to NYC to finish translating the sketches into a composition and to record.

During the recording process, I was amazed at the depth of the book. So many layers of meaning and sub-currents surfaced that I had not seen or clearly realized before as I completed the sessions – over a year after first having delved deeply into the book. After a couple of months, the work was on hard disk and I took it with me to be mastered in the Philippines, the country of origin of my wife Sheryl.

When finishing the recording during monsoon rain at the Taal volcano, I realized the work had finally come home.

Tropendrift includes only 18 of the 48 spectacular poems of the book. The poems have been selected on the basis of my own personal experiences and the desire to retain the flow and form of the book.

The work consists of two parts, each with three movements, which in turn comprise three subsections. Any movement of the work can either stand independently or play its role in the larger context of the composition, as the listener desires.

The author of the poetry prefers to have the subsections of the movements that deal with the same theme segued together – such as the Goddess of Love and Dance of the Monkeys.

The work is meant for a performance with all parts performed life with the addition of some looping, automated diffusion and artificial intelligence.

Dirk Stromberg builds sonic beasts, crafting instruments that defy convention. His improvisations ride the chaos, pulling jagged textures, guttural noise, and volatile frequencies into the light. One moment, a whisper; the next, a shriek. His music doesn’t ask permission—it kicks down doors and leaves the wreckage humming, relentless and untamed.

dirkstromberg.org