“When a Line Bends” is a vibraphone composition/improvisation performed by Adam Lion. This solo is an ever changing study of sound, material, performer, and space. As these subjects enmesh, relationships emerge dictating form and process, pushing the music with a sense of immediacy. Lion navigates these constraints through techniques developed during live performance, an approach which openly embraces contingency as a powerful compositional tool.

At the core of this approach is a full embrace of the objective properties of instruments, and sound itself. Of equal importance are the social, emotional, and metaphysical relationships that naturally arise during collaboration between performers, objects, and spaces. This solo navigates these dynamics, uncovering unique sonic environments grounded within the moment. “When a Line Bends” is constructed by ordering these concepts through sound, facilitated by an anarchic approach shaped by each unique performance situation.

This solo grapples with these ideas through composition and improvisation simultaneously. As the inevitability of recurring structure is embraced, performer autonomy as improvisational freedom is also encouraged. The music is grounded within modular sections (developed since 2018), and this predictability creates the building blocks for the performance. In between these compositional impulses, improvisation emerges and structures the music in an unpredictable manner. The vibraphone serves as a foundational tool for this exploration, an instrument with unique potential for experimentation.