Had an amazing few days putting together The Driver for the premiere featuring Luke Wright and the Hartley Loop Orchestra. We got some nice coverage from the University.
Big plans on way to record the piece at end of April to produce a vinyl!
I’ve been on research leave from University over the last few months. I’ve written a sax and percussion duo Shuffle (more on that soon I hope) and nearly finished the editing of a new 45-minute poetry-music piece with the wonderful poet Luke Wright called The Driver. We will premiere this piece in February with an orchestra of students at Turner Sims in Southampton. The gig is free (details in Events)!
The piece narrates the life of a driver from behind the wheel, taking in the ring roads, flyovers, service stations, leisure parks, motels and lay-bys of England. It’s both a travelogue of England’s least glamorous places and the story of a break-up, a love poem to being away and our ability to keep on going. It’s sad, celebratory and caustic with all the squalor and romance the road has to offer.
The music I’ve written sometimes underscores Luke’s poetry, and sometimes comes to the fore. It draws on a range of music from England including some medieval polyphony shared with me by my ace colleague Amy Williamson as well as music by Purcell (linked up to me by Andrew Pinnock) and Parry. There’s also recordings from inside a car, including recordings I took driving up to Fleet Services with a posh microphone in the passenger seat back in 2019!!
It’s been great working on this project with Luke and been a long time coming as we started it before the pandemic. I’m grateful to the Department of Music for helping make this happen and super excited to share The Driver with the world!
Montreal-based Ensemble Saxologie recently recorded my Avalanche (2022). It sounds wonderful. This is the final recording done for my album Too Many Sweets which is due out in April 2024! I’m grateful to the Vaughan Williams Foundation who supported this recording.
The album is sounding great and going off for mastering soon. My friend and colleague Drew Crawford is an amazing mix engineer!
Really excited to be going back to Montreal with the Pythagoras’ Toolkit crew Rachel Warr (director), Gilbert Taylor and Edie Edmundson (puppeteers) in February 2024. Playing the piece with the amazing Ensemble Paramirabo again. Five performances will be co-presented by Le Vivier, Bach Before Bedtime and Une école montréalaise pour tous.
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.
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…
Just got around to uploading a July interview I did with Sara Firth from London Live about the Love Letters [with AI] project…
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…
Difficult to know what to say.
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