Author Archives: Ben

‘Capturing the Contemporary Conductor’

I’ve just finished a new piece called Captured: Three Mo-Cap Experiments for conductor and small ensemble as part of the BA/Leverhulme funded project, ‘Capturing the Contemporary Conductor’, which I’m working on with Richard Polfreman and other colleagues at the University of Southampton. The idea is to record the piece with seven musicians and three conductors (me, Geoffrey Paterson and Holly Mathieson) in 27th September in the motion-capture laboratory at the University. We will then put all the recordings and data up online for us and other researchers to explore. More to follow!!

‘Hearing HIV’ collaboration with Chad Swanson

I’m really delighted that the Medical Research Council have funded the development and London performance of ‘Hearing HIV’, which is a collaboration with King’s College London virologist Chad Swanson and Workers Union Ensemble. The idea of the project is to develop a new three-movement ensemble composition that musically depicts biological processes involved in HIV replication and how innovative ‘Shock and Kill’ treatments might provide a cure for HIV. Hearing HIV will enable audiences to develop an understanding of the HIV life cycle, cutting-edge therapies for HIV and innovative contemporary music structures. The premiere, in London, will be in February 2018 – watch this space for details!

‘HIV Translation’ illustration by David Goodsell, 2015 (click to go to original upload, reproduced under CC license)

‘Loop Concerto’ Video

In February the incredible Ivo Neame (piano), Jasper Høiby (bass) and Jon Scott (drums) came to play a new version of my ‘Loop Concerto’ with the HARTLEY Loop Orchestra at Turner Sims. It was brilliant to work with the trio and University of Southampton students putting the project together and big thanks must go to the Music Department at the University and Turner Sims for backing it. A video has been made and is now up on youtube. One issue is that there is very little footage of Ivo as the camera footage corrupted…

‘Mr. Turquoise Synth’ @ Turner Sims

On Monday 8 May at Turner Sims the fantastic Yshani Perinpanayagam will play my newest piece, Mr. Turquoise Synth, as part of her Piano Play: Power Up programme. The concert, which is part of the University of Southampton Music Department Professional lunchtime concert series, also features works by Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Southampton PhD composer Blake Troise (aka PROTODOME). Each of the pieces engages in some way with the sounds and tech of retro-gaming.

Full details here.

Here’s a short video of my piece from the rehearsal at Kammer Klang on Tuesday:

 

 

Ret Frem perform ‘Attention Deficit’ – 14 May 2017

I’m delighted that brand new group Ret Frem Ensemble, led by Will Handysides, will perform my 2014 work Attention Deficit, for clarinet, violin, ‘cello and piano on 14 May at Haunt in Stoke Newington. They’ve chosen this work from their recent call for scores. Music and brunch at the same time sounds like a good combination and the other repertoire (Berio, Nikiporenko, Matthew Hall & Perotin) looks great. More details here.

Ludo 2017 Roundtable and Performance

I’m pleased to be part of a roundtable/performance session at the upcoming Ludo Musicology conference, Ludo2017, at Bath Spa University. I will be part of a roundtable session (21st April) chaired by James Saunders featuring Blake Troise (aka Protodome) and pianist Yshani Perinpanayagam. We will be talking about the ‘Piano Play: Power Up’ project and Yshani will premiere new works by Blake and me. My piece, Mr Turquoise Synth, features Yshani performing alongside a little (turquoise) 1-bit synth built by Blake.