Music
My solo music practice is focused on improvisation based on modal structures. I am interested in music as a response to the immediate moment. I currently perform live using four synthesizers, a sampler and a reed organ. In my playing I restrict myself to a limited number of scales and modes, aiming for a visceral tonality drawing on traditional folk music, early music and free jazz.
I am very influenced by wind instruments, particularly those which use reeds. The tonalities of the clarinet, saxophone, oboe, sorna, crumhorn and uileann pipes bear heavily on my music both in terms of melodic approach and timbre. I program a lot of the synthesizer voices I use to react to my touch and movements in ways which refer to the timbres of these instruments. I am not interested in the synthesiser as a tool to replicate real instruments but I do like to play with performance nuances which force me as a keyboard player to think in terms of wind and reed.
As well as standard solo improvisation, I am interested in layered improvisation as a means of composition whereby an improvisation is recorded and immediately played back with a further improvisation then performed in response, the layering process repeating indefinitely. No period of listening or consideration is allowed. Crucial here is the immediate response to what has previously been done, how past actions inform current responses.
I also coordinate Rainfear, a vehicle for both layered self-improvisation and collaborative work. Peter Maybury currently plays drums/ electronics in Rainfear. With Eamonn Doyle I am working on String Machine, a collaborative music project, seeking to open dialogue between acoustic and digital traditions and practices.
I have released music on 9pt, D1 Recordings, Fällt, Force-inc, Mille-Plateaux and Minimise.
I am very influenced by wind instruments, particularly those which use reeds. The tonalities of the clarinet, saxophone, oboe, sorna, crumhorn and uileann pipes bear heavily on my music both in terms of melodic approach and timbre. I program a lot of the synthesizer voices I use to react to my touch and movements in ways which refer to the timbres of these instruments. I am not interested in the synthesiser as a tool to replicate real instruments but I do like to play with performance nuances which force me as a keyboard player to think in terms of wind and reed.
As well as standard solo improvisation, I am interested in layered improvisation as a means of composition whereby an improvisation is recorded and immediately played back with a further improvisation then performed in response, the layering process repeating indefinitely. No period of listening or consideration is allowed. Crucial here is the immediate response to what has previously been done, how past actions inform current responses.
I also coordinate Rainfear, a vehicle for both layered self-improvisation and collaborative work. Peter Maybury currently plays drums/ electronics in Rainfear. With Eamonn Doyle I am working on String Machine, a collaborative music project, seeking to open dialogue between acoustic and digital traditions and practices.
I have released music on 9pt, D1 Recordings, Fällt, Force-inc, Mille-Plateaux and Minimise.
14.11.2010 |
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