ONE HEAR NOW

Last year (2018) I was commissioned to write a piece of music to accompany a set of murals by Brian O’Doherty at the Sirius Arts Centre. Upon seeing the paintings, and the geometric, systematic nature of them, I decided to turn the artwork into a visual score that could dictate the music. Different colours were assigned to different notes, certain elements of the paintings to certain instruments, etc.

Then I set about turning the visuals into music, with a set of instruments including violin, piano, synthesizer, voice, percussion and field recordings. I did a one-off performance of the piece in the actual gallery room toward the end of 2018, and then the next day I spend a marathon 16 hours alone in the gallery, making a recording of the work. The resulting composition is something that I’m very proud of, and to my mind it’s something that stands out significantly from the rest of my work. There is no artifcial reverb used in the finished recording . . . only the natural reverb of the gallery room, with a microphone placed in the middle, and the various instruments being recorded at varying distances around the room.

I decided against making a proper release out of this, as I’m currently planning a new solo album of sing-song material for 2020 (more on that in due time!), and resolved instead to press up 300 vinyls and 250 CD’s myself, and to do a small tour in the UK, performing the entire piece from start to finish, making the records available for sale at the shows. If you’re in the UK, I hope you can make it to one of the upcoming dates! Info to the left here.

UPDATE, 30/10/19: All four London shows at Servant Jazz Quarters are now sold out!