recordings

From a distance — heaving, relentless — Distractfold Ensemble

This piece starts with a sound object that is reminiscent of my early years playing electric guitar alone in my room. I would stay up all night practicing without plugging in the instrument so as not to wake anyone. The sound of an unamplified electric guitar is fascinating to me—often one of the loudest and most brash instruments in existence, articulated here however with this thin, almost pathetic sound. The former aura of the guitar is, however, still encoded in this sound and this tension is frustrating and hopes to generate movement.

This piece was a starting point for me in my exploration of metaphors of light and energy. The constant natural harmonics in the piece are for me like a transparent layer hovering ‘over’ the strings. A speculative transcription/translation of the C Minor Sarabande by J.S. Bach, from his cello suite, BWV 1011. The proportions of that work are taken as a point of departure for the mapping of physical gestures onto a detuned instrument.

This piece was part of my ongoing fascination with the metaphors of light and energy in my compositions. The various musical textures are conceptually linked to my experiences of light. Words like glittering, shimmering, shining, luminous, radiant, dappled come to mind.