DRIFT From Daniel Wohl Will Be Presented at iSing Silicon Valley

iSing Silicon Valley, the award-winning girlchoir based in California's San Francisco Bay Area, will present the world premiere of Drift, with music by Daniel Wohl, and video by Máni M. Sigfússon, known for his genre-bending work with Ólafur Arnalds, the Rolling Stones, and Sigur Rós.

Commissioned by iSing, Drift is a five-minute multimedia work for treble choir, electronics, acoustic instruments, and video. It is iSing's first multimedia, and entirely digital commission. Drift will debut on May 15th at 8am PT/11am ET on iSing's YouTube channel. The piece will also be a part of their concert, Choosing Harmony on Saturday, May 22, at 4:30 p.m. PT/7:30 p.m. ET on YouTube (free, and streaming afterward)

Drift is a multilayered exploration of breath and air: breath as primal, life-sustaining function and air as the element that unites all of us alive today. The events of the past year - a silent, breath-defying virus; toxic air quality as California skies turned orange due to record-breaking wildfires; relentless political turmoil that had us holding our breath; a choking police brutality crisis - have assaulted our understanding of what is normal, our humanness, our bodies, our loved ones, and the very life and breath we take for granted.

Composer Daniel Wohl described Drift as both ethereal and solemn in its response to the present moment.

"The focus could have become very dark, based on what we experienced this year, but I wrote Drift during a period of some hope, with the vaccine being rolled out, as society here in America is breathing a sigh of relief. Even so, I did want to recognize the sadness and the melancholy of this time, and the hardships we went through collectively."

Máni Sigfússon's video for Drift explores breath and the absence of it, with a sequence of images of the natural, plant world that provides oxygen, as it distorts and begins to appear out of context. Like breath, his narrative comes full circle, the final image, "staring back at you like a mirror."

Curiosity is mounting among iSing followers about what to expect from the sounds, the images, and the meaning conveyed by Drift. iSing Co-Founder and Artistic Director Jennah Delp-Somers.

"There's this great quote from a children's book about artist Keith Haring that my daughter and I recently read together, that I love. 'People asked him, "What do your pictures mean?" Keith said, "What do you see? You decide what they mean."' (Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing). I've had this in mind ever since we began thinking about this piece. I'm excited to learn how Drift- both the audio and the visual components - will make people feel, what it will mean to them."

iSing's artistic team and singers recorded Drift from the safety of their homes, removed from the shared breath that normally enables their nuanced and finely tuned choral music. This loss, and the challenge to transcend it by making music remotely, have touched choirs worldwide. With Drift, a piece curated for digital recording and digital premiere, iSing meets this challenge by harnessing the endless sonic possibilities of the digital landscape. With a concert in shared physical space still impossible due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this digital premiere invites viewers from around the world to a shared digital space.

Drift is iSing's second collaboration with Mr. Wohl. In 2017, iSing commissioned his Sea of Tranquility, for choir and electronic instruments and gave the piece its world premiere