AhojAhoj is the first of a set of pieces based on my family archive: letters, photographs, tapes and movies that go back several generations. I am grateful for and fascinated by the traces that these people left for me to discover, and what I learn about them and myself in the process. In AhojAhoj, I try to merge the sound of the piano with that of a cassette deck as well as voices taken from cassettes exchanged between my parents and their relatives in Czechoslovakia during the communist regime. In sending each other these audio letters, they wanted to come as close as they could to one another, and in so doing, are still alive in an incredible way for me today. AhojAhoj was written for Luciane Cardassi. Her playing and facility with playing with fixed media greatly influenced the score and its challenges. I am grateful to her for all her suggestions and improvements. The piece exists both in stereo and 8-channel versions.

Source: 2011