I had a brilliant day yesterday working with the Musarc choir at St. Stephen Walbrook Church. The choir commissioned three composers, Neil Luck, Tom Chant and myself to work with the choir on new pieces. I wrote a new piece ‘Interplay II’ for choir, piano and live electronics. The choir were a joy to work with and their director Cathy Heller Jones did an amazing job conducting my piece. A recording is already available thanks to Joseph Kohlmaier and while I think the electronics could perhaps be louder and further developed I think the piece as a whole is rather effective!
Had a great week in Apeldoorn last week at the International Composers Meeting 2010 in The Netherlands. This is a recording of my piece, ‘Broken Society’, played by orkest de ereprijs.
Shannon K. McKenzie came up with a fantastic response to the piece. Many thanks to her for letting me post it here:
Only when you shed
Light on the dark
Can you see the darkness
We need to see the dark
To appreciate the light
Otherwise we remain blind
Blind to what’s broken
Unaware and unable
To mend what we can’t perceive
Some shine in the light
Others see it
Yet no one fixes it.
This is my ‘Suppressing Repression’ recording but now hosted from my bandcamp webpage!
Still the Ostrava Banda performing at the Ostrava Days Festival in August 2009…
My dear friend and co-swerverite Robin Grey has released his second album, ‘Strangers with Shoes‘, on which I appear on several tracks. Definitely worth downloading this one - for anyone interested I’m particularly pleased with my Rhodes playing on ‘Ninety Days’!!
Parental advisory on the lyrics to this one…
Congratulations to Robin for another great album release. This is my favourite track from the album (I’m not on it!), ‘Shakes and Shudders’…
Couple of recordings from gigs in April - many thanks to the wonderful EMFEB and conductor Ben Ellin.
Colonel Crampon Goes Off - recorded at the Poetry Cafe
Poem written and read by Luke Wright and my musical response played by EMFEB - thanks to Luke for working with me on this
Variations on a Theme by Handel - recorded at the Rosemary Branch Theatre in April
You can download for free Blue Swerver’s album from Jamendo - I played keys on most of the album which features the whispering tones and lyrical genius of Adam Green. Feel free to pass the word on if you like it…
