In astronomy a Venus transit occurs when the planet can be observed passing directly in front of the Sun. The event is rare, a pair of transits occur eight years apart but only once every 243 years. Similarly, in this work the orbits of the three performers revolve around one another rarely aligning into a unison.
Transit of Venus utilises a nonlinear score, live sound processing and independent click tracks to control the quasi-improvised performance by the players. In addition to following the tempo of their individual click track, each player must also follow a mobile set of symbols that dictate the evolution of the dynamics, changes in the texture, the pitch class resources that they should use to realize the score, and finally the period of time over which these changes should occur. For example, the textures indicated are arranged in a continuum from silence through to free improvisation a chaotic state in which all note-forms and noises have escaped each others gravity. The three players have periods of relative independence from one another and others where they are brought together in a tempo/texture unison.