With custom-designed electronics, guitar pedals, bows, bolts, bells, corks, samples, sponges, and visuals, the beginnings of a new solo project has emerged: How She Works. The pioneering harpist, composer, and improviser continues to grapple with the sonic limits of the harp, which is impossible to bend by design. This dogged investigation releases Parkins further into unpredictable territory, working around displacement, resistance, haptic temporalities, and all that is unearthed by immersing oneself in the glorious ringing resonances of 47 strings.

New York-based electroacoustic composer/improviser Zeena Parkins is a pioneer of contemporary harp practices. Using expanded techniques, object preparations, and electronic processing, she has redefined the instrument’s capacities. Concurrently, Parkins self-designed a series of one-of-a-kind electric instruments. She leans into the harp’s physical limitations, pushing its boundaries and impossibilities. In her compositions, Parkins utilizes collections, recombination, historic proximities, geography, tactility, spatial configurations, and movement.

Sonic presence and personality are revealed in explorations of subtle frequency shifts, feedback, overtones and undertones, melodic fragments, timbral and gestural intervals, perception, and residues.

“Who would even think about a harp? It’s the most impractical thing you could ever imagine having any kind of relationship with.”

— Zeena Parkins

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