Category Archives: Electronics

‘The Virus Within: Hearing HIV’ Premiere

Loved working with my friends Workers Union Ensemble and Dr Chad Swanson (King’s College London) on my newest piece The Virus Within: Hearing HIV. We premiered the piece on Thursday to a great crowd at Guy’s Chapel, King’s College London. Unfortunately the Southampton performance on 10 March has had to be cancelled but we will play at the University of Southampton Science and Engineering Day 2019 instead!

We asked the audience in London for five word reviews. Here are some of my favourites (!):

  • “Novel, exciting and inventive, complex piece”
  • “Head on crash with virus”
  • “Interesting but slightly anxiety inducing!”
  • “Brilliant translation: science to music. Thank you! One of the best pieces of scientific performance art I’ve ever seen/heard. Incredibly intellectually rewarding. Wonderful!”
  • “Top science/music mash-up”
  • “A structurally chaotic masterpiece!”

Recordings and video to come soon and, hopefully, more performances!

‘B.m.B’ for New Music Players

I’ve just finished a new piece B.m.B for small ensemble and electronics, which will be performed by Ed Hughes’ New Music Players on 8 February 2018 at the Attenborough Centre as part of a their Tallis Festival.

The piece is my creative response to Brexit and the world of the great 16th century English composer Thomas Tallis!

It will be performed alongside works by Ed Hughes, Rowland Sutherland, and Sussex composers Lee Westwood, Eleanor Clapp, Jason Hazael and Hugh Chambers, and an AI generated composition based on machine readings of Tallis’s musical output.

‘Mr Turquoise Synth’ at the National Videogame Arcade

Yshani Perinpanayagam will play my Mr. Turquoise Synth (2017) in Nottingham on 19 January alongside pieces by Blake Troise and Cheryl Frances-Hoad at her performance and talk at a new festival, ALL YOUR BASS, set up by the National Videogame Arcade.

‘The Virus Within: Hearing HIV’ Premiere – 15 Feb 2018

I’m just putting the finishing touches on the first two movements (of three) of my 30-minute new piece for Workers Union Ensemble, The Virus Within: Hearing HIV. Workers (with two new lovely babies!) are coming for a November weekend in Southampton to rehearse the piece and do some recording for the electronics that will be involved in the piece. Then I have a few months to sort out the electronics stuff and write the short final movement for the premiere on 15 February at the Chapel of Thomas Guy, King’s College London (KCL).

I’m excited about this piece. It’s been great to collaborate closely with KCL virologist Chad Swanson in developing the music and I can’t wait to see it all come together.

Interactive Music Awareness Programme for CI users goes online

I am very pleased that the ‘Interactive Music Awareness Programme’ (IMAP) for cochlear implant users we have developed at the University of Southampton is now up online and ready to use @ http://morefrommusic.org/. This is one of the main outcomes of the AHRC funded ‘Compositions for Cochlear Implantees‘ project and producing the online version has been a real labour of love! The computer based resource is aimed at helping cochlear implant (and hearing aid) users improve their music perception skills, it is also supposed to be fun and engaging to use. Some fantastic artists have contributed materials to the resource including Cliff Richard, Philip Selway and 10CC. I’ve loved being involved with this project for the past two years; the highlights having been working with all the lovely CI users I have met and collaborating with my colleague Dr Rachel van Besouw from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research.

 

C4CI Grand Finale, 29th September 2012

I have written a whole concert of new music for cochlear implant users as part of the ‘Compositions for Cochlear Implantees’ project at the University of Southampton. I’ve formed an ensemble for the gig, which will take place on Saturday 29th September at the Turner Sims Concert Hall at 1pm and is free.

We have also just heard that we have received follow-on-funding from the AHRC so can continue our collaborative research!

Britten Pears ‘New Music New Media’ Course

I’ve just got back from the ‘New Music New Media’ course, part of the Britten Pears programme in Aldeburgh. The course was run by Rolf Wallin, Tansy Davies, Alexander Refsum Jensenius and Zoe Martlew. We were working with lots of electronic gadgets including Phidgets, WII controllers and Kinect Cameras. It was an interesting week, and although I often felt outside my comfort zone I ended up producing a decent new piece, Smashed and Grabbed for performer, WII controller and Motion-Capture.

New Interfaces for Music Expression Conference

I am off to Ann Arbour, Michigan USA, in May for the 12th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). I’ll be presenting a demo of the ‘Interactive Music Awareness Programme’ (IMAP) for Cochlear Implant Users I’ve developed with the ‘Compositions for Cochlear Implantees’ team at the University of Southampton. Should be some fantastic concerts and stuff to see while I’m there.

‘Ripped Up’ Workers Union Performance Video

Markus Kinch from Film41 has made an excellent video of the recent Workers Union performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

You can hear the other pieces by Matt Kaner, Adam Fergler and Oliver Sellwood at the Workers Union soundcloud.