My piece Drip Feeder for piano and 1-bit synth has been selected by the ISCM British Section Board to be submitted to the International Jury for the ISCM 2024 in the Faroe Islands. Super honoured to be put up for this amongst a group of super talented composers.
Author Archives: Ben
‘Phat Feet’ & The Triple Helix
In 2022 I was involved in a couple of cool projects with Music colleagues at Southampton. The first was ‘Exquisite Corpse of AI (Consequences)’ which features music by Drew Crawford, Bella Barlow, Brona Martin and me. This video is the whole piece, but kicks in from near the end of Brona’s part leading into my ensemble contribution Phat Feet.
The Triple Helix Music Project was a collaboration with students and staff from across the Department, led by my friend and amazing colleague Drew Crawford, which responded to the Triplex Helix of the University of Southampton strategy…
London Live Interview
Just got around to uploading a July interview I did with Sara Firth from London Live about the Love Letters [with AI] project…
Love Letters [with AI]
Was a total joy working with the amazing Hannah Williams, awesome musicians from Riot Ensemble and a brilliant research team from the University of Southampton on the ‘Love Letters [with AI]’ project. Ash Sealy (@whatabouttheash) captured the London gig fantastically. I’m really proud of this project and especially my new 7-song cycle Love Letters. We recorded it between the two performances too and the cycle will feature on my portrait album. Too Many Sweets, next year…
Sun calls me a boffin
Difficult to know what to say.
‘Love Letters’ Premiere
Super excited about the upcoming premiere performances of my new song cycle, Love Letters, for Hannah Williams and Riot Ensemble. The texts for the songs have been created by a new AI language model – LovelactGPT. You can hear it at Turner Sims (17 July) and Kings Place (19 July). Come!
Conducting Dvorak
Had a lovely time conducting Dvorak with SU Sinfonietta last week. Favourite snap from Charlotte Chappell below.
‘Enemy of the Stars’
I’ve created an electronic soundtrack to accompany Josh Ben-Tovim‘s choreography for ‘Enemy of the Stars’. The musical materials were created with Hollie Harding back in 2019 as part of the Cohan Collective Residency. The work will be performed by Impermanence as part of a quadruple bill in a tour taking in Huddersfield, Bristol and London in April and May. Details in gig listings.
Pythagoras’ Toolkit Premieres
Just back from a brilliant week or so in Montreal conducting the premiere of my collaborative puppetry-music work made with Rachel Warr (Dotted Line Theatre). It was fantastic working with Rachel, the amazing musicians of Ensemble Paramirabo, and ridiculously talented puppeteers Gilbert Taylor and Edie Edmundson. The reception from both kids and adults was fantastic, and it was really great to be part of the Festival de Casteliers. Great to see lots of weird and wonderful puppetry in other shows too! Fingers crossed this production leads to further opportunities to do the piece. I’m hugely proud of what Rachel and I have created together and grateful to Jeff Stonehouse and all at Ensemble Paramirabo for believing in it and supporting the project.
Keys on new Dan Mar-Molinero album
My mate and colleague Dan Mar-Molinero’s bigband album ‘Taproot’ has just been released. I played keys on all 5 tracks on the album, which was recorded remotely during the pandemic lockdowns. Dan is a super talented saxophonist and composer. It was great to learn and play his excellent tunes and particularly loved ‘Our Place’, probably as I feature as soloist in the second half!
Some mega musicians feature on the album. Give it a listen!
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