In a week’s time, a new CD of my electronic music will be released, titled Dither • Pother • Roil. It contains three distinct but related pieces, which began life in a series of improvisations made in early 2008. Somewhat inexplicably, i promptly lost the recordings and forgot all about them until the start of this year; between February and October i then extensively reworked and developed them into their final, very elaborate forms, which together last around 49 minutes. Here’s a smidgeon from the blurb-spiel:
There are ways in which this trio of works relates to and draws upon both the techniques and sentiments of my earlier electronic music. There are echoes of the shifting abstractions of the Simulated Music cycle, as well as the large-scale sculptural elementalism heard in the Ceiling stared at me but i beheld only the Stars and ‘Icon’, the central panel in Triptych, May/July 2009. But above all, Dither, Pother and Roil explore (for me) new methods and an expanded mode of expression.
Dither was finished first, and is concerned primarily with material that writhes and roars at its own prevarication. Here’s part II:
Pother continues the thread established in Dither, becoming increasingly fraught and portentous. This is part I:
Roil was the last to be completed, and is the longest and most complex of the three. A multi-layered noisescape, Roil is by far the most unrestrained piece i have ever composed, whipping up elements of Dither and Pother into a clamorous torrent of frenzied outrage. Here’s part IV:
The accompanying artwork explores details from a recent painting by the young American artist Claire Uhle. Titled ‘Well, everything’s moving so slow in this life time.’, the painting goes a long way to capturing everything that Dither, Pother and Roil are seeking to convey (click for high-res).
The CD comes out on 20 November in a numbered limited edition of 50 copies. For more information and to order a copy, click here. A digital download version will also be available.
In other news, my previous CD Night Liminal is now available as a digital download as well. There are also a few CDs left; details about both can be found here and here.
Anyone in the Birmingham area tomorrow night (Monday 13th) might be interested in the next concert my ensemble, Interrobang, is giving. The concert will feature a number of works by established composers, intermingled with four pieces by students and graduates of the Birmingham Conservatoire (where Interrobang is based). It includes a new work of my own, composed for BCMG at the end of the last year and explored in a workshop with them in the spring, but not yet performed in public. Here’s the programme: