electroacoustic works
Cheap Emotions
"...so, this is the inevitable withdrawal..."
Cheap Emotions is a text-spoken electroacoustic EP that reflects on an ending and the connection between two disconnected people.
Using the immediacy that words lend to music and sound, it fragments and toys with the concept of time as a narrative when you’re processing an ending--snapshots of a memory too faded to be concrete but always familiar with the vibrance in the feelings it greedily holds. As if it were something fragile; something cheap enough for it to break the minute it touches the ground.
This exploration of meaning through sound and text wouldn’t have happened without the collaboration I did with writer Phoebe McGowan on the lead track, “The Inevitable Withdrawal”. The collaborative process and the ideas that were exchanged became the common thread I laced in the rest of the EP. In fact, it still informs my process to this day.
Don't Fall (feat. Phoebe McGowan)
"...there's no use pretending..."
A collaboration with writer, Phoebe McGowan.
This is a piece about being unbearably honest with the parts of yourself you’re too uncomfortable to confront in the midst of it all.
multimedia works
The Typewriter Manifesto
"...the physical over the digital..."
The Typewriter Manifesto is a collaboration between composer, Darlene Zarabozo, and researcher, James David Inglis as part of the University of St. Andrew's Explorathon 2020 festival.
Based on an excerpt from Robert Polt's book, The Typewriter Revolution, The Typewriter Manifesto is a digital piece that defends the pulse of the physical world around us.
Video by: Zeo Fawcett
My Feet Are Numb From The Cold
"...can you see me?..."
A collaborative fixed media work between contemporary artist, Ryn Wheatley, and sound artist, Darlene Zarabozo. The piece is an autobiographical representation of the attempt to escape from the cycle of trauma and an apology to a past self.
The film was shot on the banks of Lone Star Lake in northeast Texas with assistance from Sydney Wheatley and showcases a desperate attempt to be seen.
The sound was designed keeping in mind the fragile state of time and its associations with certain spaces.
Behind Closed Doors
"...something like a plea..."
This collaborative project is the first culmination of my interests (text, visuals, and music).
Music: Darlene Zarabozo
Text: Phoebe McGowan
Visuals: Althea Young
STEEL SKIN SPACE
"...FEMALE ENDURANCE..."
A short-film documentary.
"AN ARTIST AND AERIALIST IN A DISUSED INDUSTRIAL SPACE, EXPLORE THE AESTHETICS OF STRENGTH"
Video and Direction: Althea Young
Music and Sound Design: Darlene Zarabozo
theater/stage works
The Bacchae
"...what does it mean to be divine?..."
A modern adaptation of Euripides' play by David Greig, and presented by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's drama department.
Director: Finn den Hertog
Movement Director: Vicki Anderson
Costume & Set Design: Mela Adela
Music by: Darlene Zarabozo
Photo Credit: Jess Hardwick
Hide/Bound
Fanciful old tales are not as pretty as they seem...
"Told through the eyes and ears of trans ex-swimmer, Hide/Bound is a reimagining of the selkie myth which combines immersive sound and imagery to tell three interconnected tales of commodification, corruption, and consciousness. In an era of unprecedented human assault on nature, we romanticize the world we live in and our place in it. From a starting point of myth, connection and personal discovery, Hide/Bound explores the tangled brutal tragedy of human relationships and the 'civilizing' stranglehold we seek to put on the wild."
Link to Video: Part 1
Link to Video: Part 2
Director: Jairus Obayomi
Writer: Emily Ross
Cast:
Emily Ross
Winter's Tale
"...when daffodils begin to peer..."
A modern adaptation of William Shakespeare's play, Winter's Tale, presented by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's MAACT department.
Directed and Adapted by: Marc Silberschatz
Transplanted
"...nowhere to scream..."
An original stage-work written and directed by Ryn Wheatley, presented by Green Bar Theatre at The Old Hairdressers in Glasgow. It's funds and profits were donated to Rape Crisis Scotland. It explores the process of untangling sexual abuse and the way it inevitably affects the mind as well as body of the survivor.
Director: Ryn Wheatley
Music and Sound Design: Darlene Zarabozo
Lighting Design: Ava Broughton-Stuart
LINK TO MUSIC
instrumentals
"are You there?"
This is the first movement of the current series of string pieces I'm writing which are inspired by my own text. It's written for solo violin, electronics, and tape.
This is the first body of work where I explore my own trauma and experience with sexual abuse. Its place in my life is still a gray area I struggle to understand and this series is the support I can give myself to help me accept it better.
"...This sonic world started off with me trying to create sounds I don’t typically make using my voice. After layering some of it together, I felt obliged to follow
where this idea would take me, and that’s how I ended up sitting on a chair making noise with my cello. I recorded that improvisation of me playing the cello
to a first draft of the tape part, and I used that first take (the most honest one) to write the material for the violin (keeping in mind their differences as
instruments)... To not interfere with the time that
recording lives in, I decided to not take another recording--it will simply not feel the same..."
--Darlene Zarabozo (notes on the composition process)
A huge thanks to the lovely violinist Emma Lloyd for realizing the potential pf this piece with the resilience and empathy required to play this piece. My thanks to Matthew Whiteside from The Night With... for believing in the merit of the piece and for providing a safe platform to share it in.
There's currently no recording of this piece available to the public yet. If you would like to hear a recording please don't hesitate to get in touch!
eventually, hopefully, but not really
This piece is written for violin, cello, and piano.
"Over the years, I have developed a strong habit of recording anything I do that can be regarded as musical on my phone, and my definition for the word ‘musical’ is vague and sound-inclusive. However, more often than not, a lot of the recordings that I do end up accumulating are sound files of me improvising on a piano even though the piano isn’t even my primary instrument. To me, this is a very telling sign of my emotional state because I tend to only ever really sit in front of a piano when I am feeling particularly emotional, and my definition for ‘emotional’ is feeling sad and distressed. Which is why, most of the melodic and harmonic material that was given to the piano line were just transcriptions of anything that spoke to me when listening back to my recordings...
...For so long, I kept fighting the instrument that provided my earliest understandings of music, and I truly cherish this piece now because it gave me the breakthrough I needed to begin rediscovering the cello as a compositional tool. So, as a step in a new direction, I picked up my cello and pressed the record button."
--Darlene Zarabozo (notes on composition process)
The recording is performed by the Hebrides Ensemble.