Cognitive Dissonance by Sebastian Currier / loadbang

Work: Cognitive Dissonance
Composer: Sebastian Currier
Performed by loadbang
Trumpet: Andy Kozar
Trombone: William Lang
Bass Clarinet: Adrián Sandí
Baritone Voice: Tyler Bouque
Date: June 15, 2023
Venue: The Longy School of Music's Pickman Hall
Event: Longy's Divergent Studio

Sebastian Currier (1959) - Cognitive Dissonance (2023)

Mary Shelley, known best for her novel Frankenstein, wrote a second novel,The Last Man. Written in 1826, it is an apocalyptic, dystopian science fiction novel, set in the late 21st century. The novel is a first person account of the last surviving human on earth after the human race has been ravaged by a mysterious plague-like illness.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE combines fragments of Shelley’s timely text with a fragment of a poem by her husband, Percy Shelley, which depicts nature as a refuge from the corrupt world of humanity. The intertwining of the two texts points to the complex, precarious, and possibly incompatible relationship between human society and the natural world. (notes by Sebastian Currier)