James
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Richard Pinnell on Parkinson Saunders at Audiograft
Tim and I had a great time rehearsing and performing his songs 2011 at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford onThursday. There seemed to be a of of people filming and taking photos, so I’ll upload some evidence if any materialises. In the meantime, here’s Richard Pinnell’s review of the performance at The Watchful Ear (see…
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Audiograft
Here’s a picture of [rout] rehearsing for a performance of my piece nothing reveals itself without at the same time concealing something else for Audiograft in Oxford on 1 March. They are also playing imperfections on the surface are occasionally apparent, and I’ll be performing with Parkinson Saunders, doing some new songs by Tim. There’s some information…
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review
There’s a review of the another timbre CD posted at the All About Jazz site. This is my first jazz review.
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Revue & Corrigee
Tim Parkinson has written an article about British-based composers Matteo Fargion, Laurence Crane, Bryn Harrison, John Lely, Markus Trunk and me for the French magazine Revue & Corrigee. Tim writes about the article: I’’m going to describe the work of six composers in Britain at the moment whose music I like. To me it’s just that:…
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from scratch
Jennie Gottschalk has posted an interesting review of the From Scratch project which I was involved in with Basel Sinfonietta at the Sound Expanse blog. She touches on the influence of the Scratch Orchestra on the pieces played in the concert, in light of various discussions in relation to the project. From my point of…
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things whole and not whole (again)
Here’s an extract from the rehearsal with Basel Sinfonietta in Martinskirche, Basel, the day before the first performance. You can see the way the players respond to each other’s cues, and the range of sound selections they made. They were absolutely wonderful to work with, and really explored the possibilities for making sound within the…
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things whole and not whole (on radio)
The Huddersfield performance can be heard on BBC iPlayer for the next couple of days (UK only I think). The programme also has the pieces by Jürg Frey, Christian Wolff and Michael Parsons, as well as some other bits from hcmf. I have a short chat with Robert Worby before the excerpt that they play,…
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things whole and not whole (on TV)
An excerpt from my piece for Basel Sinfonietta was broadcast on the Swiss TV programme Was Lauft on 9 November. They filmed bits of the second half of the concert, which included my piece and Christian Wolff’s Spring Two. The programme also had a feature on Mike and the Mechanics as part of an 80s…
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last distribution study
The final distribution study is being performed today at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Olaf Nicolai commissioned twelve composers to write pieces to be performed by the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart on the steps of the museum on twelve Sundays in 2011 through his project Escalier du Chant. I decided to make one piece for each…
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things whole and not whole
I’ve been working with Basel Sinfonietta and conductor Manuel Nawri over the past few weeks as they prepared for the first performances of the orchestra piece I made for them, things whole and not whole. The piece uses rules pertaining to bird flocking, building on research by Craig Reynolds in the 1980s. The players set…
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imperfections on the surface are occasionally apparent
Edges Ensemble gave a lovely performance of my piece imperfections on the surface are occasionally apparent on Monday at hcmf. It was a carefully choreographed event, with pieces by Tim Parkinson, Michael Parsons, Christian Wollf and Stefan Thut being played without a break. They are a great group, all students in Huddersfield, organised by Philip Thomas. I…
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morning surfaces
I’m back in the room with Simon now, having had a little sleep. I’ve been looking at the way some of the work he’s done has developed. There’s a sheet hanging at the back of the room with a load of squares drawn on it. When I left last night at about 2am, it only…
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surfaces underway
Simon Limbrick is currently performing his realisation of surfaces at hcmf. I’ve been popping in and out of the space today, and it’s been interesting to see what has changed on returning. There’s now quite a lot of mess on the table as the materials start to get broken down into debris of various proportions.…
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surfaces
The website for surfaces is now up and running, and there will be a live video stream of the performance on 19-20 November at hcmf. Before that, Simon is working on the piece as part of a residency at Aldbeurgh, during the TEDx conference. He’ll be doing a short presentation as part of that event,…
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cd reviews
There are a few reviews beginning to appear of my another timbre release, divisions that could be autonomous but that comprise the whole. I’ll post links to them here, good or bad… Richard Pinnell – The Watchful Ear Julien Héraud- Improv Sphere Brian Olewnick – Just Outside Dominic Lash – Force of Circumstance
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surfaces website
There’s now a website that will document the project I’m doing with Simon Limbrick for hcmf// this year. The piece is called surfaces and is part of an ongoing project, on the sonic properties of materials, which investigates the way in which sounds can be elicited from simple materials. There are some pictures of the…
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MusikTexte
I’m featured in the August edition of the German music magazine MusikTexte. There’s an article about my work by Max Nyfeller based on the programme he made for Bayerischer Rundfunk last year, and a translation into German of my article Modular Music, which appeared previously in Perspectives of New Music. This is supported by an…
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another realisation
Ard van der Horst has just sent me a great film of his realisation of various distinct spatial and temporal locations. He says ‘Coffee cup provided by Lungoccino (www.lungoccino.nl) – best coffee in Amsterdam, where I always buy my morning coffee before work. Realised on a colleague’s desk while the sun shone, 8:30 am local…
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PHONO:GRAPHIC at GALERIE8
The score for with paper will be distributed at PHONO:GRAPHIC at GALERIE8 on 14 August. It’s part of a series called Sunday Sound Waves, and admission is free. The event on the 14th is curated by SoundFjord,and will also include live performances by Formanex and Tim Yates, together with artworks and installations by David Chapman,…
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music we’d like to hear
Parkinson Saunders played in the final concert of this year’s music we’d like to hear on 15 July, alongside violin duos played by Angharad Davies and Sara Hubrich. There are some nice pictures from the rehearsal taken by Markus Trunk below. Tim and I had a lovely time playing Michael Parsons’ Pentechordal Melody in a…
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coffee cup surface
Richard Glover pointed me towards this item, which seems like a likely possibility for realising various distinct spatial and temporal locations. Çurface is an industrial surface made from compressed coffee and melted coffee cups, although you’d still need a coffee cup to realise the piece. In the meantime, have a look at Johnny Chang’s video…
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interview with Simon Reynell
I’ve been doing a short correspondence interview with Simon Reynell at another timbre in advance of the release of the CD of divisions that could be autonomous but that comprise the whole. You can read it at the another timbre website, where there’s also details of the CD itself.
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various distinct spatial or temporal locations
I’ve just finished a new piece which can be realised by anyone using a takeaway coffee cup and a surface. I’ve used this method of sound production in quite a few pieces, but here it is focused on a single action lasting between 40″ – 1’20”. All realisations of the piece constitute a single performance…
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surfaces
Simon Limbrick visited me in Bath last week to continue our work for the piece we’re making for hcmf this November. It uses surfaces as the sound sources, activated by other surfaces, objects, or manipulation. We’re experimenting with materials at the moment, having sourced a variety of papers. Simon will be performing the piece for…
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new CD released on 11 July
The recording of pieces from the series divisions that could be autonomous but that comprise the whole will be released on another timbre on 11 July. There are six pieces from the series on the disc, and there’s some more information available on the label website. I’ve also been working on a correspondence interview with…
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new website
I finally decided to change my website after three years with an iWeb template. This is the new one, and it’s just about up and running. Still lots to do though… Why not say hello? Leave a comment below…
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location composites
There have been six log entries for location composite #1: Portbury Wharf since hiding the cache on 5 May. The range of descriptions of the local soundscape shows quite a lot of variety. I needed to edit out some of the descriptions of source sounds, but they are otherwise reproduced as written by the geocachers.…
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dripping tap
We found this sound in the kitchen when we were tidying up. There’s a point where too much water comes through and forms a stream, at which point the sound disappears. Up to this point, the rhythmic drip gradually becomes more chaotic, and produces a lovely series of harmonics. [audio:http://178.18.116.10/~jamessau/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/drippingtap.mp3|titles=drippingtap]
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more divisions
Two new pieces in the series divisions that could be autonomous but that comprise the whole are being performed in May. The first of these, certain elements within that situation remained constant was written for Travis Just and will be performed at Incubator Arts in New York on Friday 27 May. The other piece, opposition…
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new circulated book pieces
I sent out two new circulated book pieces recently. In this project, a pocket notebook containing instructions for making the piece is sent to someone who agrees to participate. They follow the instructions, which involve a notation activity, and then pass the book to someone else, and so on. The scores gradually accumulate as they…
