Janus Guitar Duo - Issus (July, 2025)

Janus Guitar Duo's new single, composed by Tom Torrisi, performed by Tom Torrisi and Ken Luk,  recorded at Blue on Blue.
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Composition notes from Torrisi: Issus is an expression of two disparate musical traditions - the classical guitar and Balinese gamelan - with completely independent origins, histories, and trajectories into the modern day, combined into a single piece of music.  While I was studying classical guitar at the Eastman School of Music, I had the unexpected fortune to be introduced to the mesmerizing sounds of Balinese gamelan and it quickly became my second love in music. Since then I had a strong desire to combine the two and Issus is the result. The musical material is designed to reflect various characteristic aspects of gamelan music including the colotomic structure of gong cycles, and interlocking kotekan patterns while preserving the tonal and expressive qualities of the nylon string classical guitar. Throughout the entire piece the individual parts interlock to create continuous melodies, at times in multiple simultaneous layers. The performers then are tasked to articulate their parts in such a way that the combined result sounds as though it is being performed by one person, while each is only performing about half of the notes of any given line. The title is a reference to planthopper insects, Issus coleoptratus, which possess the only naturally occurring mechanical gears ever discovered. Just as the music locks together like a system of gears, the planthopper interlocks its own gears to coordinate the movements of its legs and leap forward.

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