I’m very much looking forward to attending the 2017 Ludomusicology (video game music studies) conference at Bath Spa University next week. I’ll be presenting a paper on my piece ‘Construction in Metal’, which I’ll then be performing with my colleague Máté Szigeti as part of a joint concert with OUT-TAKE Ensemble and composers from Bath Spa. In addition to ‘Construction’, we’ll be performing works by my OUT-TAKE colleague Harry Matthews, James Saunders, Louis D’Heudieres and Oogoo Maia, and Blake Troise (aka PROTODOME) will perform a compilation of chiptune compositions for the NES. I’m also looking forward to hearing a new piece by my PhD supervisor Benjamin Oliver and many stimulating papers over the course of the three days of the conference.
News
OUT-TAKE Ensemble
On 6 March, OUT-TAKE Ensemble, the new contemporary music ensemble I co-organise and play in made its debut in a concert at the Talking Heads in Southampton (we’re very grateful to them for hosting us). We performed music by Laurence Crane, Christian Wolff (whose piece OUT-TAKE inspired the name of our group) and Howard Skempton, and new pieces by Máté Szigeti, Camilla Aldridge and Christian Drew. We were absolutely delighted to have Laurence Crane come and coach us on his pieces ‘John White in Berlin’ and ‘Four Miniatures’ during the afternoon, and honoured to have such a distinguished guest at our inaugural concert.
The turnout on the night was absolutely fantastic-over 50 people-and it seemed like everyone had a good time. We’re excited to look ahead to future concerts. Our next performance will be a joint concert with composers from Bath Spa University at the 2017 Ludomusicology conference on 21 April, and we then hope to put on another concert in Southampton some time in the summer.
The Loop Project
I very much enjoyed taking part in the University of Southampton’s ‘Loop Project’ concert at the Turner Sims Concert Hall on 5 February. I played electric guitar in the ensemble for Benjamin Oliver’s new version of his ‘Loop Concerto’, with soloists Ivo Neame, Jasper Høiby and John Scott. The concert also included works by Andrew Fisher, Gavin Bryars and W.A. Mozart.
You can listen to a recording of Ben’s concerto here.
‘Power Trio’ Workshop
It was really great to hear my new piece ‘Power Trio’, for electric piano, electric guitar and drum kit, performed in a workshop on 6 July by musicians visiting the university from Brussels. The workshop was part of the annual composers’ ‘Get Together’, and the players were Primož Sukič, Carlo Prampolini and Rubén Orio. The piece I wrote explores the timbres of heavy metal guitar idioms and extreme juxtapositions of musical textures. I then continued my celebrations of all things loud and heavy by going to see stoner doom legends Sleep play in Kentish Town that evening, rounding off a great day!
Blog post about PhD dialogue
I wrote a blog post for the University of Southampton music department about my recent dialogue with Bath Spa PhD composer Louis D’Heudieres, and my performance at Weisslich. You can read about it here.
Upcoming performance at Weisslich
My next concert will be a performance of Construction in Metal with Mark Knoop at Hundred Years Gallery in Hoxton on 23 April. The concert is part of the Weisslich series, and I’m very much looking forward to bringing this piece to London.
See weisslich.com for more info.