Life in the in between space
In late February, the new album Asymmetrical Dot was released, the most personal album to date by Dutch composer and producer Stephen Emmer. For years, his work has operated at the intersection of contemporary chamber music, global sound traditions, and atmospheric sound art.
The new album tells a poignant story about origins and the future, about loss and a new beginning, about identity, memory, and the unexpected beauty of asymmetry. Asymmetrical Dot emerged during a year of profound personal transitions.
Between farewell and arrival
Tension between farewell and arrival. The passing of his mother, the birth of his first grandson, the loss of a dear musical friend, and a personal health crisis led Stephen Emmer to an existential confrontation with finitude, passing on, and inner heritage. This tension between farewell and arrival forms the core of his new album. This is clearly audible in ‘Benja’s Birth’, where children’s voices and indigenous percussion give voice to the arrival of a new generation and make the idea of a lived and passed-on cultural memory tangible.
Asian sounds
Musically, Asymmetrical Dot opens up a space between contemporary chamber music, jazz-noir-like atmospheres, and Asian sounds. Emmer’s bicultural identity, as the son of a Dutch father and an Indonesian mother, underlies the core of this album. Sustained tones, inspired by the Indonesian musical tradition, intertwine with Western contrapuntal notation for vibraphone, celesta, marimba, and strings. Above this float wordless voices, treated as equal instruments, making emotions palpable without defining them linguistically. Emmer consciously chooses to omit text to give the listener the freedom to develop their own imagination.
International ensemble
The international ensemble supporting this album plays a special role. Musicians from Armenia, Peru, Venezuela, Indonesia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States provide a global depth of sound. Their diverse musical backgrounds do not merge into a single uniform style but retain their own distinct character, which together form a fascinating polyphony. It is precisely this artistic diversity that reflects Emmer's conviction that identity is not created through demarcation, but through dialogue.
Asymmetry
The ‘asymmetry’ in the album title describes life in the in-between space, the constant commuting between cultures, experiences, and inner landscapes. The ‘dot’ simultaneously refers to the musical sign that prolongs a tone and allows it to continue working beyond its actual duration, such as memory, emotional resonance, or a life that exists not from a fixed center but from movement. What could once be experienced as an imbalance becomes here a source of strength and new harmony.
For the production of his self-released album, Stephen Emmer collaborated with an outstanding international team, including vocalist Beth Hirsch, Grammy winner Fernando Aponte, concertmaster and violinist Everton Nelson, and Grammy-winning mastering engineer Patricia Sullivan.
[Classic NL - Editorial]
Listen to Asymmetrical Dot on your favourite music platform here
Buy the Asymmetrical Dot album on CD here