9 November - Creative Arts Building Huddersfield University
The theme of the installation is 'shadows', the challenge is to create pieces that happen below the surrounding ambient sound: music that must be sought out rather than music that imposes itself.
The recordings used in this installation are of an improvised performance that was part of WofS 2008 which was a Weekend of Speakers in St Paul's Hall. As part of Mini WofS 2009 these sounds are observed approximately 17 months and 120 meters removed from their source. Also, the nearly 42 minute stereo recording is being replayed across a six channel speaker array, so with overlap and relative time dilation the result is a circa 17 minute arrangement.
This installation owes a lot to the struture/process of the
Whitney Music Box, but instead of a single set of partials being arpeggiated I've superimposed three different sounds in the hope that coinciding partials will form new sounds as they slowly loop around.
This installation piece was created specifically for mini-WOFS in response to the brief of “Shadows”. The piece combines live audio with pre-recorded sound files taken from various closed-in spaces around the building. The live sounds of atrium space are selected and sequenced alongside the “hidden” audio, with the intention of bringing otherwise closed spaces out into the open. As people go about their everyday business, they may find themselves subconciously evesdropping on the building as a whole.
The ground floor of the atrium will be used as a performance space with audience invited to experience the audiovisual event from the second floor balcony.
FaceBook event
Composed in March 1996, this 8 minute piece uses 4 synthesizer presets from the Emu Proteus sound module as its sole source material. These take the form of long, sustained string / flute-like tones. It was composed using an early MIDI sequencer called C-LAB Notator (the great-grandfather of Logic) which had a unique function in that numerous sequences (containing a maximum of 16 tracks) could be juxtaposed or overlaid / overlapped, enabling, in this case, quite complex and smoothly developing harmonic fields to evolve over time. One failing of the software was that if a note reached its end point during one of these overlapping sections it would cut off with a sharp abruptness. Fortunately these occasional interjections created a satisfying contrast to the ersatz strings.
Whilst composing the then unnamed work, I heard on the radio the awful news of the Dunblane massacre which unfortunately became associated in my mind with the piece and perhaps began to influence it. Subsequently I never felt able to play it publicly. Enough time has now passed for me to feel comfortable for it to be heard and though by today’s standards it is rather primitive in its sonic world, it is, I hope, worth at least one hearing.
Mini Wofs Development here