Rippling Liquid Metal imagines a substance that is paradoxically both solid and flowing, with metallic and sometimes hard-edged sounds that are constantly in flux, changing shape, fluid, shifting, oozing. Yet this strange liquid metal seems to be cool rather than hot, with silvery, shimmering sounds and glinting flashes of light reflecting from its surface. Perhaps such a thing can exist only in music and art, not in the actual world…

The piece is based on materials from an earlier piece (for gayageum orchestra) called Liquid Metal. The title reflects not only the relation of the two pieces, but also the fact that the latter piece is a consequence of the original work rippling outward — it is, in essence, ripples of Liquid Metal. Considerably longer than its original counterpart, Rippling Liquid Metal explores the different instrumentation, in particular taking advantage of the addition of piri and its ability to play long sustained notes with expressive bending and vibrato, which add a completely new element to the character of the piece.

Rippling Liquid Metal was commissioned by and is dedicated to piri virtuoso Kyung-ah Kim.