Dan Langa - Digital Portfolio
PhD Program in Composition Application, 2025
Princeton University

reflections (2024) – from the forthcoming album After Nothing Comes, due out 2025

Program Note

'After Nothing Comes' is an album based on a book of zines of the same name by visual artist, Aidan Koch. The music captures the zine’s vivid depictions of pencil-washed and ink-soaked memories through a balance of reality and warped sound structures. The album unfolds in a non-linear series of tone poems akin to dreams, which are as disorienting as they are comforting. ‘After Nothing Comes’ draws a focus toward the spaces and particulate material that exist between written notes, emphasizing texture. ‘After Nothing Comes’ is the first album composed and produced under the collaborative creative moniker Fugue State.

‘reflections’ is the final track on the album and is meant to create an extremely unconvincing sense of comfort. We hear a woman’s voice throughout the track before it settles into an unstable airiness that takes on the character of euphoria or pain, and everything in between.

  • Music and lyrics based on the book by Aidan Koch
    Music composed by Dan Langa
    Produced by William Brittelle and Dan Langa
    Recorded at Figure 8 Studio (October 2023 – October 2024)
    Engineered and Mixed by Michael Hammond
    Additional Mixing Dan Langa
    Mastering TBD

    Morgan Guerin: Tenor, Soprano Saxophone
    Timo Vollbrecht: Tenor, Alto Saxophone
    Erika Dohi: Keyboards, Synths
    Elias Stemeseder Keyboards, Synths
    Dan Langa: Keyboards, Synths, Theremin
    William Brittelle: Synths
    Shahzad Ismaily: Bass, Synths
    Lauren Cauley: Violin
    Melissa Achten: Harp
    Andrea Scala: Drums
    Maia Friedman: Vocals
    Ethan Woods: Vocals, Guitar
    Peni Candra Rini: Vocals

A note about the score: the attached score does not represent the final piece note for note. For this project, scores were used as foundational recording resources to gather materials that were processed and rearranged. The score submitted is the initial starting point for the track which then grew through a process of layering and improvisation.

(representative section 3:20 – 6:51)

Duhkha (2021), for string quartet

Program Note

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism are the backbone of the Buddha's teachings. They are the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. The First Noble Truth, Duhkha, acknowledges the presence of suffering in the world.

Performed by the Scheherazade Quartet
Recorded at Persian Sound City in Tehran, Iran

floating (2024) – from the forthcoming album After Nothing Comes, due out 2025

Program Note

'After Nothing Comes' is an album based on a book of zines of the same name by visual artist, Aidan Koch. The music captures the zine’s vivid depictions of pencil-washed and ink-soaked memories through a balance of reality and warped sound structures. The album unfolds in a non-linear series of tone poems akin to dreams, which are as disorienting as they are comforting. ‘After Nothing Comes’ draws a focus toward the spaces and particulate material that exist between written notes, emphasizing texture. ‘After Nothing Comes’ is the first album composed and produced under the collaborative creative moniker Fugue State.

‘floating’ is the fourth track on the album is a dance between the piano and vocals. There is a delicate and hypnotic pulse built by the piano, which blooms into another character near the end of the track. This process highlights the focus in this project on creating sound worlds that straddle the line of acoustic and processed aesthetics.

  • Music and lyrics based on the book by Aidan Koch
    Music composed by Dan Langa
    Produced by William Brittelle and Dan Langa
    Recorded at Figure 8 Studio (October 2023 – October 2024)
    Engineered and Mixed by Michael Hammond
    Additional Mixing Dan Langa
    Mastering TBD

    Morgan Guerin: Tenor, Soprano Saxophone
    Timo Vollbrecht: Tenor, Alto Saxophone
    Erika Dohi: Keyboards, Synths
    Elias Stemeseder Keyboards, Synths
    Dan Langa: Keyboards, Synths, Theremin
    William Brittelle: Synths
    Shahzad Ismaily: Bass, Synths
    Lauren Cauley: Violin
    Melissa Achten: Harp
    Andrea Scala: Drums
    Maia Friedman: Vocals
    Ethan Woods: Vocals, Guitar
    Peni Candra Rini: Vocals

A note about the score: the attached score does not represent the final piece note for note. For this project, scores were used as foundational recording resources to gather materials that were processed and rearranged. The score submitted is the initial starting point for the track which then grew through a process of layering and improvisation.

Nascent (2022), for large ensemble

Program Note

nas·cent /ˈnāsənt,ˈnasənt/ (adjective)

  • (especially of a process or organization) just coming into existence and

    beginning to display signs of future potential.

  • In chemistry - (chiefly of hydrogen) freshly generated in a reactive form.

written for the 2022 Bang on a Can Summer Festival
commissioned with generous support from Justus and Elizabeth Schlichting