I’m very pleased to share this new video of “Language” by young Irish composer Sam Perkin. The piece was commissioned by the West Cork Festival in Ireland, where I had a great experience in 2017. I premiered this piece on the opening concert, which was shared on an Irish radio broadcast a while after. We also recorded this video at Bantry House the next morning. Film and audio were done at the same time, in a few takes. I left all decisions on editing, mixing and reverb up to Sam. We also had video footage of me playing violin in the gardens and walking around in town, but Sam ultimately opted, after trying various approaches in making the film, to focus it on my embodiment of the alternating voices. To me, the music sounds kind of like minimalism-meets-Ysaÿe. The philosophical Chomsky ideas in the Youtube description are maybe a heavy context for the music, but I feel Sam took relatable inspiration and he was very sensitive to and imaginative with the details and nuances of the speech fragments he transcribed. The musical result, while lively and fun, is also touching in its drawing together of the similarities and differences in the ways people speak.