Category Archives: Electronics

Standards

Excited about a couple of 2027 performances in Southampton and London of a new piece, Standards, I wrote earlier this year for Oskar McCarthy (baritone), Ben Smith (piano) and fixed media.

I’m pasting the programme note here:

‘This cycle of four songs contains creative arrangements of some of my favourite jazz standards, combined with recordings of (political) speeches or, in one case, sounds from NASA moon landing footage. The piece developed out of Oskar McCarthy’s invitation to write a piece for him and Ben Smith that engaged with jazz in some way. I was struck when looking through a bunch of standards in search for an idea or concept to respond to the commission, how idealistic the lyrics often are. For example, Moonlight in Vermont celebrates the romance of place, nature, weather and even artificial structures (telegraph poles!). Shining Hour revels in the anticipation around the next meetings of lovers. Even when love is lost, the memory is nearly always idealised such as in There Will Never Be Another You or Darn That Dream.

It might be difficult in 2026 to feel idealistic about politics or the current cultural climate. The combinations of these recordings with the specific songs are intended to provoke. I’m under no illusion that these songs will actually change anything about the bin fire that is our world, but it feels negligent, even impossible, to simply ignore where we are’.



Evening out at the Ivors

Had a nice time at the Ivors Classical Awards last week. Didn’t win with VENT, co-created with Rachel Warr for/with MUSARC, but had a good time and got some posh snaps. Great to catch up with various composer mates too.

And with Rachel Warr:

VENT with Musarc

Had a wonderful time on Saturday at the premiere of VENT, which is a new piece for choir, electronics and object puppetry. I made the piece with my friend Rachel Warr, who is a fantastic theatre maker and puppetry director in response to a commission from the excellent organisation MUSARC. Rachel wrote the libretto and work narrative and also directed the movement and puppetry. The piece explores themes including protest, anarchy and ventriloquism. Was a lot of fun making it, and I found it very moving on Saturday. I also enjoyed playing ‘harmonium’ in Gavin Bryars’ On Photography and some kind of synth bass thing in Julius Eastman’s Stay On It. The concert went really well and the following are some rehearsal pictures from the gig by Yiannis Katsaris. I’ll post some other pics in the New Year.

Look forward to seeing how the piece can evolve in the world.

Myanmar Jazz Club Photos

Had an amazing time playing with Declare Sextet at Turner Sims a few weeks. My Uncle, Markus Kinch, captured some brilliant pictures. Was awesome to work with these amazing musicians: Nick Willsher, Tamar Osborn, Francesca Ter-Berg, George Balmont and Jake Long, with a very special guest slot from Liz Gre. Looking forward to editing together the recordings to share with the world and to hearing how the Yangon crew play the same music at their gig in November! Thanks again to British Council for funding.

Declare Sextet!
Tamar Osborn
Nick Willsher
Jake Long
Gre

Myanmar Jazz Club Project

I’ve been working on an exciting project for a while, a collaboration with Yangon based musician Itö and the Myanmar Jazz Club which he runs. The UK culmination of this British Council funded project takes place at Turner Sims next Tuesday, where a new sextet of amazing musicians (with Liz Gre guesting on vocals) will perform new pieces by a number of the jazz club and a big new piece I’ve written in partnership with Itö. The Myanmar crew will play the music again at the British Embassy in Yangon in early November. Hope to see you there.

TOO MANY SWEETS

It’s out!! After 3 years of writing, exciting collaboration and production TOO MANY SWEETS is out there in the world! Thanks to everyone that has contributed to making it happen and to Birmingham Record Company for putting it out!

https://nmcrecs.lnk.to/BOtms