Lost Time by Graham Reynolds

Lost Time (2025) is a five-movement work composed by Graham Reynolds for guitarist Thomas Echols, commissioned by Tetractys and Man, Woman, Friend, Computer. Drawing inspiration from Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, each movement evokes a moment of involuntary memory—like the madeleine scene—through titles such as Spires and On the Banks. Reynolds composed the music entirely from samples recorded by Echols on guitar, processing and transforming them into a rich fixed-media soundscape. All sonic material—including percussive and ambient elements—originates from the guitar. Echols performs a combination of scored passages and improvisation, using his GRADUS system and MaxMSP to process the guitar live. Some movements use a fixed media backing track; others involve Echols triggering individual stems via MIDI controller, creating an immersive, memory-infused interplay between instrument and electronics.

In 5 Movements —

1. . On the Banks

2. Spires

3. Accidental Memories

4. A Plane in the Sky

5. Tiles

Thomas Echols developed custom software with MaxMSP for integrating Lost Time into the GRADUS system