Sam Salem

Order by ·
Waves of crashing blackness (2024), 32′for solo piano, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Way Up & The Way Down (2023), 38′for solo percussion, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Bury Me Deep (2022), 30′for solo trombone, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
THIS IS FINE (2021), 7′for solo cello & fixed audiovisual media
The Raft Breaks (2019), 20′for solo violin, amplified objects, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Everyone No-one (2026), 60′for violin, cello, trombone, bass clarinet, ondes martenot, percussion, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Museum of the Lowest Place (2026), 30′for voice, electric guitar, violin, double bass, prepared piano, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Of Darkness 1 (2024), 9′for voice / flute, electric guitar, cello, percussion & fixed audiovisual media
Shadows pass the morning ‘gins to break, The Starry floor, the watry shore (2022), 28′for amplified quartet, 12 orchestral musicians & fixed visual media
Midlands (2019), 48′for voice, electric guitar, keyboards, string trio, bass clarinet, amplified objects, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Tower (2019), 15′for electric guitar, cello, percussion, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Lovers (2017), 9′for string quintet, 2 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Great Inundation (2017), 14′for 3 object operators, cello, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Untitled Valley of Fear (2016), 12′for 3 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Not one can pass away (2015), 11′for 2 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Himlen Var (2015), 11′12-channel acousmatic
Too late, too far (2014), 7′stereo acousmatic
The Fall (2014), 30′stereo acousmatic
Dérive (2013), 15′stereo acousmatic
The Sun Warms The Memory (2011), 12′stereo acousmatic
Everyone No-one (2026), 60′for violin, cello, trombone, bass clarinet, ondes martenot, percussion, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Museum of the Lowest Place (2026), 30′for voice, electric guitar, violin, double bass, prepared piano, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Waves of crashing blackness (2024), 32′for solo piano, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Of Darkness 1 (2024), 9′for voice / flute, electric guitar, cello, percussion & fixed audiovisual media
The Way Up & The Way Down (2023), 38′for solo percussion, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Bury Me Deep (2022), 30′for solo trombone, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Shadows pass the morning ‘gins to break, The Starry floor, the watry shore (2022), 28′for amplified quartet, 12 orchestral musicians & fixed visual media
THIS IS FINE (2021), 7′for solo cello & fixed audiovisual media
Midlands (2019), 48′for voice, electric guitar, keyboards, string trio, bass clarinet, amplified objects, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Raft Breaks (2019), 20′for solo violin, amplified objects, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Tower (2019), 15′for electric guitar, cello, percussion, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Lovers (2017), 9′for string quintet, 2 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Great Inundation (2017), 14′for 3 object operators, cello, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Untitled Valley of Fear (2016), 12′for 3 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Not one can pass away (2015), 11′for 2 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Himlen Var (2015), 11′12-channel acousmatic
Too late, too far (2014), 7′stereo acousmatic
The Fall (2014), 30′stereo acousmatic
Dérive (2013), 15′stereo acousmatic
The Sun Warms The Memory (2011), 12′stereo acousmatic
London Triptych (2021)dFolds · digital & cassette
The New Unusual (2021)dFolds · digital

Everyone No-one


2026 · c. 60′
for violin, cello, trombone, bass clarinet, ondes martenot, percussion, electronics & fixed audiovisual media


Full documentation available upon request

Programme note

Everyone No-one is performed by and written for:

Adrianne Muden-Dixon
Audréanne Filion
Lori Freedman
Kalun Leung
Daniel Añez
Noam Bierstone

━━━━━━━━━━ ♄

Everyone No-one is concerned with technological, cultural, personal nostalgia and obsolescence, taking place alongside the distant rumble of genocide. It is a ritual of knowing and unknowing, in many ways a meditation on death. Everyone No-one is dedicated to the memory of Mohammed Shaalan, a Palestinian basketball player who was murdered while trying to feed his family in Gaza in August 2025.

The harmonic relationships in this work are derived from disparate sources ranging from Kepler’s 17th century observations of Saturn to the “Mickey Mousing” techniques used by Carl Stalling in his “Silly Symphonies” of the 1930s. Saturn, with its melancholic, malefic and contemplative correspondences, sits over a journey exploring the historical remnants of the Crusades and later occupations in Jordan, the dissolving slop of late Western hegemony, and that unnameable gnawing - the dark unravelling, before and behind everything.

The title is taken from Weizenbaum’s code for Eliza, an early chatbot created in the 1960s. In Eliza’s model, “everyone” and “no-one” are interchangeable. Eliza was designed to function as a psychotherapist, mirroring the emotions and concerns of the user back to them. Eliza plays a simple and effective trick, optimising the user’s desire for connection and recognition. The user’s endless capacity for finding meaning in the meaningless does the heavy lifting.

Performances

NO HAY BANDA
7 September 2026, La Sala Rossa, Montreal
17 September 2026, Another Sky Presents NO HAY BANDA, Cafe OTO, London
21 September 2026, Warsaw Autumn Festival


Acknowledgements

Everyone No-one was commissioned by NO HAY BANDA and funded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute & NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center