Weight In Space

“Weight In Space” is a piece for electric guitar and loop pedal. The title references American sculptor Thaddeus Mosley (1926–2006), whose monumental works have inspired me greatly this past year. Reflecting on Mosley’s work, it struck me how different sculpting wood is from writing music; the former being mainly a process of subtracting material, and the latter being mainly a process of adding material. This piece is an attempt to approach composition from a more “sculptural” lens, emphasizing the subtraction of material as much as the addition of it.

Around the same time that I became enamored with Mosley’s work, I picked up a new tool—the Pigtronix Infinity 2 loop pedal, which I discovered through Jeff Parker, whose use and mastery of the pedal never ceases to amaze me. Like a wood chisel, the Infinity 2 enables me to “carve” material away from loops as I build them (a function I’ve always wanted in a loop pedal, but haven’t had until now). The end result is a piece that constantly evolves from one sonic landscape to another.

The cover art ties into the theme of sculpture as well. It is a photograph that I took peering up at the sky through a large reflective orb made by Japanese artist Bukichi Inoue. Entitled my sky hole 84, Inoue’s sculpture is installed at the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan, which I visited in July 2026.

– Philip Graulty