WILLOWS | THRESHOLD

every issue, we select artists whose work stands out as extraordinary in their class of submissions—whether it be in technicality, background, or depth of feeling. works that speak to us, that weigh on us. that raise questions and curiosities. this season, it was zade dardari’s composition, “signale aus dem raum” that excited and intrigued us the most. so, we asked him a few questions about his musicianship, the piece he submitted, and what we have to look forward to from him.

listen to his composition, read his artist statement and interview, and take a look at the scores below!

listen to both versions here!

“Sie schafften es, das Nichts zu überklettern.

Nie warden wir erfahren, wer sie sind.

Wenn sie noch sind.”

- original poem by christa reinig

“They managed to climb up past Nothingness.

And never we shall discover who they are.

If they are, still.”

translation by michael hamburger

in 2020, i found this poem hiding in an anthology of german poetry. enduring the impossible task of "climbing past nothingness" felt suffocating to think about, just as lockdown felt in those days. i wrote this tone poem to accompany an unknown wonder that terrifies and excites me. who will i become after this pandemic? will i recognize myself? i originally wrote this piece using my old earbud headphones, one guitar, and my voice. i knew nothing of mixing and audio editing, but i felt that i captured that unknown spirit that accompanied me in my composing.

in 2025, this piece found me hiding in my car. i've come to a point where uncertainty in my identity is my identity. i am always trying to unveil a person that simultaneously exists and disappears as soon as you think of him. this theme of "threshold" cuts deep and really makes me think about what still remains once you peel back the layers of self restraint that refuse growth and push through the invisible wall that you beat your head senseless upon. i like to think that i'll find myself there.

@zade_d @corpus_sound @hemlocksound

[WILLOWS] tell us about you, and your relationship to making, creating, or finding your way through expression. in your current craft, how did you get started?

[ZADE] there has always been an undeniable pull towards self-expression that lives within me. i can't quite explain what it is. maybe it's genuine emotion, maybe it's ego, maybe it's both! however, it's always been music. 

as a kid, i used to play on the piano...badly. i didn't know what i was doing, but i just knew that i liked doing it. piano lessons were not for me though, so i gravitated towards guitar. my teacher gave me really good fundamentals, and once we stopped those lessons, i started coming back to the piano with a refined approach. i had no idea how to read music though, so i started notating songs and original compositions in my own way. this would remain for the next few years. 

in high school, i was influenced by musical theatre. stephen sondheim's sweeney todd and maury yetson's titanic: a new musical did numbers on me. i started to appreciate orchestral music more. once i was in college, classical music dominated my life. i finally learned to read music and started notating my compositions so that other people could play them as well. this was one of the most important bridges to build. 

post-school, i was stuck in a limbo of classical music and vaporwave. i started to teach myself some basic production so that i could record lofi and vapor tracks. it was definitely a learning experience and it took me out of my haze of classical music. i was finally listening and experiencing all types of music genres. i felt kind of sad for a while thinking that i wasted time not exploring and creating music that interests me today, but on the contrary, i'm very happy to have had all these intersections of art come to me when they did. though there is always more to learn about, i feel like more of a holistic musician because of my incessant curiosity.

[WILLOWS] what was your process in making this piece? what and who are your inspirations? how many iterations did you go through?

[ZADE] once i selected the poem, i had to come up with a way to achieve my sounds through limited means. as i mentioned in my statement, this was done during the period of lockdown, so i had very, very limited access to performers. i had to do all the music myself. in no way am i looking down on my abilities, but i certainly wasn't skilled enough to play a cello or something like that (nor did i have access to one). so, i had the limitation of my own ability, which i think fits the theme of the subject matter. 

i was very much inspired by the concept of "chance music" and aleatoric composition techniques. composers like gabriela lena frank, steve reich, and julius eastman come to mind. i wanted the piece to sound unique upon each playthrough. the only real constants were the solo guitar and the vocals. it is a through-composed piece that just continues to flow. there was only one iteration of my work until recently when i re-recorded it for willows.

[WILLOWS] how have you changed since the pandemic? do you recognize yourself? 

[ZADE] i feel as though my naivety has withered. there was once a hope for my aspirations that now feel less like a cloud that i hoped to reach, but more like a stone i lost the strength to carry. this isn't to say i am a hopeless wreck, i still have faith in myself to reach my goals, but it just isn't as dream-like anymore.

[WILLOWS] who is the person you are trying to unveil, that, to quote your artist statement, “simultaneously exists and disappears as soon as you think of him?" who would you like him to be?

[ZADE] the person i was supposed to be in my late 20's. the me that would have lived up to my artistic aspirations in my early 20's. 

[WILLOWS] what was it like to translate reinigs' "signale aus dem raum" into sound?

[ZADE] it was amazing. i felt like a composer again. even with the limited time i had to record this piece, it was a labor of love. there was a moment when i was referring to my old sheet music realizing that i was not particularly agreeing with what i wrote back in 2020. i was happy to recognize that my musical language has evolved beyond what it was; that i was not stagnant in my development as a musician, but that i have grown legs to climb on the shoulders of my foundations.

[WILLOWS] how has your audio setup changed since you first recorded this with one guitar, old earbud headphones, and your voice?  

[ZADE] oh man...fundamentally, the piece uses the same gear for the music: my voice, a guitar that is layered. however, back when i first recorded everything, i had no idea how to use my daw to mix and master. for the most part, everything was just a raw recording that i looped and formatted to make the piece in its original form. 

for this new recording, i used a basic, but effective, audio interface to capture everything (and properly gain-stage the sound) and was able to play it back on a borrowed set of monitors, which was a huge relief. another big upgrade 5 years later is the addition of my sp404. one of the most versatile and expressive pieces of gear i have ever used. this allowed me to sculpt and add textures that i wouldn't have thought of in 2020. i used to be so concerned with notating everything on paper, but another big shift for me is thinking beyond the page; allowing my intuitive musical impulses to take charge to fulfil my sonic goals.

[WILLOWS] what else are you working on? where would you like to go in the future of your craft(s)?

[ZADE] well, i have been developing an ep of ambient/experimental music under the name of corpus for a few months now. my hope is to have a release in early 2026. i am also in an noise/industrial/electronic duo called hemlock. it's a blend of a lot of sounds, but we're pretty excited about our work and are actively recording and writing (stay tuned). for a while, i have been playing bass with an alternative rock band called miss fortunate. we've been taking time due to our recent recording of an album, but hopefully we'll resume playing soon. recently, i have also been learning how to build synths and pedals! that's just for fun. apart from all that, i continue to compose, record, and write songs that don't have a place to go (yet). 

i am not immediately concerned with where i want my craft to go because if i spend all my time worrying about my final form, i'll never evolve. when i was in school, i was so concerned with being a contemporary classical composer. i concerned myself with only classical music for a few years, which wasn't awful, but it was severely limiting. now, i have the reverse problem. i listen to a lot of music and take in a lot of influences which make me want to do everything! it can be overwhelming. but, as i grow older, i'm realizing that it's okay not to be able to do everything. instead, i can just enjoy what i cannot do, and replicate it in my own way if i feel so inclined.

that’s all folks <3