Annapurna Pastoral – One Hundred Springs (2012)

Opening – Ascent – One Hundred Springs – Turning the Wheel of Dharma – Closing

Annapurna Pastoral – One Hundred Springs is a meditation on the Himalayan soundscapes of Annapurna. The work follows a loose narrative of a pilgrimage to the sacred Hindu temples at Muktinath a site also revered by Buddhists who call it Chumig Gyatsa or ‘One Hundred Springs’; named after the 108 streams of water that flow from the mountain side.  The work captures the peaceful, pastoral nature of these remote locations while referencing the deep-rooted spiritualism that the Himalaya inspire. Subverted references to the musical pastorale can be heard in the sound of the bansuri, sarangi and the use of drones.

The principal sound sources were recorded by the artist during a trek of the Annapurna circuit in Nepal, 2007. Since the recordings were made, the building of a road along the route of the trail has encroached further into the mountains, threatening to transform the region. With the completion of this project set to encircle the entire Annapurna massif by 2017 these recordings may serve as a document of soundscapes that have now been lost.

2016 ‘Listen, my heart, to the whispers of the world with which it makes love to you’ curated by ((audience)), Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, Ilinois, USA

2015 BEAST FEaST 2015, University of Birmingham, Birmingham.

2014 Norton Concert Series, inner sOUndscapes II, Pitman Recital Hall, University of Oklahoma.

2013 International Streaming Festival 8th Edition, The Hague. Streamingfestival.com

2013 New Adventures In Sound Art – Sound Travels 2013, Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium, and Deep Wireless 9 online streaming and Radio Art Salon installation. Toronto, Canada.

2013 Sonorities Festival – Beyond Soundscape, SARC Queens University, Belfast

2013 ‘Listen, my heart, to the whispers of the world with which it makes love to you’ curated by ((audience)), Khoj International Arts Festival, Delhi, India and Soho private loft, New York, USA

2013  SoundProof, The Forest, Edinburgh

Matchine (2006) was inspired by the matchstick, both for its sonic qualities as it is struck and burnt and as an image of an apparently inert object that, when subjected to the appropriate action and input of energy, can transform, switch state into something of fascination and beauty that is momentary, ephemeral. This image acts as a metaphor for the compositional processes employed in the work.

The match sounds serve as a starting point to which I added the sounds of small mechanical devices and other domestic objects which, due to their manipulation, demonstrate mechanistic qualities such as repetition and oscillation between different states. Further notions of ‘match’ are explored as I try to combine and unite suitable sounds from these differing sources, or indeed place contrasting sounds in conflict or competition with each other, all the while revealing a perceivable process that underlies the structure of the piece.

2011 Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow

2010 Inventionen 2010, Kirche St Elisabeth, Berlin

2009 Nuit Bleue, Saline Royale D’Arc et Sanans, Besançon France.

2008 with live accompaniment New York University New Music Ensemble, Frederick Lowe Theatre, New York.

2008 BEAST 25 Years, CBSO Centre, Birmingham

2007 MTRIC, De Montfort University, Leicester

2007 MANTIS: Novars, Manchester

2006 Espace du Son, Musiques et Recherches 13th International Acousmatic Festival, Brussels

2006 Voyages Sonores, BEAST series CBSO Centre, Birmingham.

2006 Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow. Premiere

tessera: (noun) a small block of stone, tile, glass or other material used in the construction of a mosaic.

dirty grooves (2003) is part of a series of works that employs short articulated blocks of sound material as a formal process. The composition of these blocks into longer structures reveals an impression of a specific place, subject or idea.

The starting point for this work is noise, specifically the extraneous or usually unwanted noise associated with the various media used for the playback of sound. The crackle of vinyl before a track begins or after it ends, electrical hum, tape hiss, radio interference, digital noise, static and clicks all bring into focus the mechanics of the medium and its potential to obstruct or interfere with the message. Here the message or ‘tune’ is derived from another mechanical music maker, the clockwork music box. Throughout the piece this primary material interacts with or introduces, through purely sonic associations, additional concrete material and so widening the scope of meaning contained in this message. While inherently noisy, harsh and some may say ugly my intention was always to present this kind of material with a sense of beauty and poise and perhaps a touch of nostalgia. The form is static, lingering, suspending time as if caught in a dirty groove.

2009 Pointe D’ecoute ‘Con Sordino’, Montreal, Canada

2008 BEAST 25 Years, CBSO Centre, Birmingham

2007 MANTIS: South-North, Manchester

2006 International Computer Music Conference, Tulane University, New Orleans.

2006 15th Annual Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival, Concert VIII, University of Florida, USA

2006 209 Radio RSL Sound Art Intervention, Cambridge

2005 Confluencias Festival – Art & technology at the edge of the millenium, Huelva, Andalucia

2005 University of Lancaster

2003 Finalist at Confluencias – Art & technology at the edge of the millenium, Huelva, Andalucia

2003 EuCue concert series XXII, Concordia University, Canada.

2003 20/20 re:vision BEAST series CBSO centre, Birmingham. Premiere

tessera: (noun) a small block of stone, tile, glass or other material used in the construction of a mosaic.

Residence (2011) is part of a series of works that employs short articulated blocks of sound material as a formal process. The composition of these blocks into longer structures reveals an impression of a specific place, subject or idea. The title Residence refers to Birmingham, UK; the place in which I have resided since 1998. Included in the work is a selection of sounds recorded in different parts of the city and houses where I have lived. I was interested in exploring the juxtaposition of domestic and public, internal and external spaces and differences of scale or perspective.

2013 International Streaming Festival 8th Edition, The Hague Streamingfestival.com

2013 Audiograft Festival online Audiograft Jukebox

2012  Urban Observatory Festival, Torun, Poland

2011 SOUNDkitchen’s STONEsoup mac birmingham

tessera: (noun) a small block of stone, tile, glass or other material used in the construction of a mosaic.

Suspension (2011) is part of a series of works that employs short articulated blocks of sound material as a formal process. The composition of these blocks into longer structures reveals an impression of a specific place, subject or idea.

In this particular work the adherence to short blocks of material has been suspended in the central section of the work. The suspension of the point of articulation results in longer blocks of material whose boundaries become less defined. The formal process has been magnified or stretched out in time.

The field recordings employed all originate in urban city environments. I was interested in trying to capture a sense of the individual traveler, moving alone through the cityscape and the manner in which people inhabit their own interior or very personal space often disconnected from the people around them and their immediate environment. They appear suspended, lost in thought, book, phone, sleep, only to reanimate at necessary points of transition from one situation to another, or to respond to an interruption or invasion of that space. Their perception of the surrounding environment therefore becomes peripheral and fragmented.

2014 MUSLAB 2014, Centro Cultural Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

2012 Curious Sounds in Curious Spaces, Symphony Hall, Birmingham

2011 SOUNDkitchen’s Cinema For The Ears at Supersonic Festival Birmingham

2011  SOUNDkitchen’s SONICpicnic at VIVID, birmingham