Constellations are stories in the night sky, the tales we tell to transform the abstract patterns of distant stars and planets into comprehensible shapes. Constellations explores our human desire to create narratives, and the ways in which abstract sonic and visual materials intersect with storytelling. The fifteen movements of the work are seeded with a multiplicity of relationships, inviting each listener to construct their own chronicle of the experience.

Constellations encompasses an enormous variety of sonic and musical approaches. The music franges from subtle studies in the variation of snare drum rolls, through meditative contemplations of hte resonance of gongs and almglocken, to driving, polyrhythmic grooves created with vibraphone and woodblocks. Thunderous drumming, delicate and ethereal keyboard textures, and investigations of nontraditional percussion instruments such as glass tiles and whiskey bottles are all integrated into the music.

Constellations also uses visual materials to construct narratives. The percussionist deploys triangles, gongs, and crotales as tools for shadow puppetry. Choreography features prominently in movements for rainsticks, and for multi-percussion. Projected digital animations grow increasingly elaborate over the courese of the composition, evolving from simple triangular forms to darting, organic figures and complex, patterned mosaics. And computer-controlled lighting makes color and shadow into integral elements of hte experience.

Constellations is presented without intermission and has a running time of approximately 75 minutes.

Bliss premiered Constellations at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN on March 24, 2017.