Recordings used: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jGkDiAP09Cba0h3R5uyDCDtxqHjs_YGa?usp=share_link

Work 1: Ubi Caritas

This work is an exploration of liveness and the voice within an electroacoustic setting, created entirely from my own semi-improvised vocal recordings. I wanted to explore how feelings of liveness and performance could be explored within an electroacoustic setting, as well as drawing on my practice of choral performance within an electronic context.

I recorded two styles of improvisation, one of which was more melodically focused, using the Ubi Caritas text, and the other was using sustained vowel sounds, which I used to create a layered, ensemble sound.

This work was inspired by a combination of contemporary electroacoustic influences, and the various choral settings of Ubi Caritas I’ve sung with choirs, notably that of Ola Gjeilo.

From the electroacoustic idiom, I’ve drawn on the work of Trevor Wishart (particularly Tongues of Fire). Ubi Caritas is a single source work (my voice), and is solely rooted in the original improvisation recordings. I recorded a very different style of source material to Wishart’s work, but employed similar techniques and treatment.

I find the way in which Monty Adkins’ work occupies the space between genres (“ambient”, electroacoustic, sound art, post-classical), and drew on this in my treatment of material, as well as in the structure. I wanted to have distinctive parts of the work that were more intricate and detailed, focusing on my sonic treatment, and others that focused on the interactions of parts and gestures. Monty’s treatment of registral space was also influential, with often only one line or gesture occupying each frequency range, creating distinctive, ensemble-like layers.

Particularly through my treatment of motific ideas (leading into/following on from each other, such as in the first and last sections of the work) this work draws on early collage and music concrete works, building on the idea of gesture.

The work begins with a vocal texture created with GRM Freeze. I then use the GRM Comb filter with automation to explore frequency and harmony. I then used a combination of GRM shuffling, with the delay parameter linked to a randomised LFO to create an ‘ensemble-like’ gesture, an exploration of the idea of ‘performance’ within an electronic setting. There are instances of pitch and time manipulation through Ableton’s warp features as well. I then used GRM Reson to add further interest to the sound.

The pitch shifted, solo lower voice that gradually enters towards the end of the work is drawing on the idea of pedal notes from organ/choral music idioms and acts as a tonal and registral contrast to the rest of the ‘parts’. Much of the other sonic material occupies a mid-high frequency space, with a focus on the upper harmonics and resonance within the sound. I also applied saturation and some EQ filtering to this sound to create a more contrasting tone, with more grit and low-end distortion. This sound enters unassumingly, and gradually becomes more intense as it takes over the sonic atmosphere.

Work 2: Merlin

This piece was composed using source material gathered from my own recordings within the app ‘Merlin’, a birdlife identifier and logbook. The app was developed by Cornell University and takes audio or visual recordings of birds and identifies it. After listening through the recordings, I decided that I wanted to explore a tactile, percussive sonic atmosphere, that also had more natural moments, creating contrasting atmospheres and environments. In total, I used 11 different landscape and bird recordings. This work draws on the output of composers such as Denis Smalley, Pete Stollery, and Alistair MacDonald, as well as the broadly idiomatic work of BEAST.

I recently had the opportunity to see Pete and Joe Stollery and Denis Smalley perform works within a loudspeaker theatre at Sound Junction Sheffield. This was a valuable experience, hearing electroacoustic works situated within a specific performance environment.I drew on the structure, sonic palette, and processing choices that these composers use in their works.

To create sonic contrast, I started and ended the work with unaffected birdsong recordings. In the middle section I contrasted the faster paced gestural progression with a slower, reverb-affacted gesture, which created a more relaxed sonic environment. This also meant that the surrounding, more percussive and texturally dense gestures would have more sonic impact.

I used GRM Delay, Shuffling, and Reson to create intricate sonic gestures. Most of these are from the bird recordings, but some are from speech, and peripheral environmental sounds, as well as sound of me as the recordist and the microphone being handled. While I would usually view these sounds as the marker of an ‘unsuccessful’ recording, I decided to embrace them and turned them into gestures and ideas, such as at 1:15, and the spoken motifs at 0:15 and 1:15. At 1:53 I incorporated automated panning to widen and distort the perceived stereo field.

I was interested in creating micro-level features in this work. However, there are two moments where I’ve created elongated ideas with GRM Freeze, which come in at 0:36 and 1:53 (layered under other gestural ideas to create tonal and textural contrast). I’ve combined this with delays and shuffling so that they contain levels of variation and repetition within the gesture.

I wanted to contrast the spoken gestures (where I used Reson and Shuffling) as a non-human element, distorting perceptions of reality, and layered unaffected field recordings underneath to create an ambiguous sonic environment. Aside from the opening/closing birdsong, this is the only time any of the recordings are not manipulated. I enjoy the self-aware element of this work, in that the recordist, as well as the people/things around me at the time, are present in the recordings. I chose to emphasise and integrate this perspective.

My use of silence within this work was very intentional. Unlike when listening to one’s surroundings, which is constant sonic information, I wanted this stream of sound to be interrupted. This contributes to the distorted, uncanny sonic environment that is created using familiar, common sounds, that are treated and processed in an unnatural way. Silence is used both to emphasise and add to this, as well as to create detail and interest within gestures and sonic motifs.