This is a short film of Memory Palace, Christopher Cerrone’s work for percussion and electronics that was conceived of and created by the amazing director Mark DeChiazza. The three of us have been working on this project since 2015, and I’m so happy that it’s finally out in the world.

Memory Palace is about the people and things in one’s history that come together to form who we are today. Chris writes, “…the sounds in the piece are signposts; they help me remember—and more important, understand, who I am.” Each movement in the work refers to a particular place or memory that was pivotal in Chris’ upbringing – Harriman State Park, his parents backyard, the Long Island Expressway. To help represent these memories, Mark decided that the film would have two components – a present-day reality (portrayed in an empty theater), and an imagined history (portrayed in Chris’ remembered locations).

The film started at a residency at EMPAC – Mark coordinated a team of camera operators and lighting technicians, Chris produced the audio recording, and we filmed the present-day reality component in the EMPAC Theater in front of a huge greenscreen. Over the next year, Chris & I edited and mixed the recording, while Mark & I traveled all around New York State finding locations for the imagined history.

Vic Firth released this film a couple of weeks ago, and Second Inversion was nice enough to write a short article about it. Click here to read about and watch Memory Palace!