to the sea sound (23:13), 2023

 to the sea is a piece commisioned by Fevered Sleep for the Sherrell House care home. Devised with artist Akshay Sharma, the composition’s dynamic structure follows the course of a river with its intention being to provide both an vivid journey and an aural space of respite in which its auditors ( the residents ) can immerse themselves.

One part soundscape composition, one part original music and one part DJ mix, the piece flows from the familiar to the new, never overtly challenging but hopefully giving something of the unfamiliar or difference for individuals whose day to days might look quite the same.

 

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water born again _ and this this time my shirt was even tucked in

short unreleased piece of music, 2021

 

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hang

field recording of church bells in berlin, 2020

 

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playing playing the daily scores (sample)

short excerpt of upcoming experimental film to be released along with free improvised record of myself and artist / composer Gabrielle Harnois Blouin, 2023

 

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husband material

free improvised record made with artist / instrument builder Chase Coley, 2020

 

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big deal _ at peace (sketch)

excerpt from material generated for Gabrielle Harnois Blouin’s score for dance piece “Geant”, 2020

 

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in the act of remembering ghosts (sketch)

experimental piece from the MA i was enroled on featuring 4 cutup texts, the voices of fellow students Mary Lemley Miller, Jing Ying Lee and synthesiser sounds from Yunwoo Kim, 2019

 

disruption immersion (sketch)

material generated for artist Jimena Alvarez Garcia Buylla’s piece “Disruption / Immersion”, 2019

 

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elly

field recording piece, 2019

 

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Proposition

 

 

In light of the precarious nature of ( just about all ) things over the past year ( the shaking up of structures, schedules, socials, routines and the idea of a stable future                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            falling from the shoulders of a collapsed present ) i felt i had to dream

 

up a piece whose nature would reflect

 

 

 

just that.

 

 

 

 

 

Rule of Thirds ( the ‘rule of thirds’ pertains to the construction of “a perfect image” ) is to be an audio collage; an impressionistic sound image of the experience had, by Stirchley of the pandemic.

The piece will invite those who have expressed an interest in participating to answer three questions, which are ( considering the past months when the world had stopped turning and everything that was certain was thrown into flux ): “what are three things that have been lost?”, “what are three things that have been gained?” and “what has changed?”. The questions are phrased as such and presented in this in order to garner maybe a more philosophical response. Any ( response ) however, is valid.

The gathered materials will then be subjected to a free improvisation where i, responding in realtime to the content play; collaging to create a soundworld whose nature is fluid and unfixed; the past and the future are, in the present moment unified into an object of process which is hopefully one ( although nothing can be certain with free improvisation ) whose nature ( despite being disruptive and chaotic ) will have something of beautiful in it.

 

 

Rule of Thirds (1/3) sound (14:00), 2020

 

Reflection

 

The chaos which RoT aimed to both embody and aestheticize dictated how the work panned out.

It became apparent a week or so before the first part ( the gathering stage ) was to conclude that my receiving a workable amount of audio from Stirchley was unlikely, so i changed tactic and sent a call out to my mailing list ( which is international so this definitely changed the intended fabric of the piece ). Many of the performances scheduled for the festival had been reconfigured as livestreams. This was offered to me which i decided against but did decide to use the platform to conduct the collaging process as a trio ( which featured the singer i was meant to be performing with initially, and the drummer with whom the singer and i used to play as the improvising ensemble Pinna ). The submissions i received were largely from outside the UK. The largest and most comprehensive of these ( comprised of singing, spoken word and field recordings ) came from a friend of mine ( of ours ) in Mexico who as it happened was the fourth member; the dancer of the improvising ensemble Pinna.

The piece, far from being what i’d intended ended up completely shaped by the chaos brought by the pandemic and became some sort of magical band reunion where the three of us improvised in space with a dancer without body.

 

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i figured i’d stick to the ( somewhat ) more experimental side of my practice. Happy to send examples of the more conventional music if wanted ( an ecelctic range of folk pop to math rock to drum n’ bass ).

Also i included a number of recordings that are unpolished ( sketches ) and also RoT which is essentially a live recording to try and give an impression of how my working with spoken word could work. The finished results i would present would ( unless of course a rough “live” feel is what’s wanted ) be a lot more polished than these.