Always inspired by listening to the incredible sounds of Bekah Simms

February 2025

Durango

Eigengrau

Guillaume Poncelet - Eigengrau

The Pigeon Tunnel (Soundtrack from the Apple Original Film)

Goodbye Ronnie

Monuments is the first single taken from the new album Skyline.  Released in Europe 15/08/2011

Monuments

✨ FACELESS (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Available on all streaming platforms :)
↳ https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/insiya/faceless-original-motion-picture-soundtrack

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This soundtrack includes three short tracks which served as the score for the upcoming film by the same name, 'Faceless' written & directed by the wonderful Assel Akhmetova. It will premiere at the Reel Asian Film Festival on November 16th, 2024.

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Comment, like, share, spread the art ♡

Faceless (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

I Am Not Them

Thoughts on a Still Night 靜夜思 is one of the most popular Chinese poems by the beloved Chinese poet 李白 (Li Bai, 701-762AD) of the Tang Dynasty. Like many others, I was taught to recite the poem at a very young age. Setting this beauty poetry to music naturally became my first goal when I started to compose many years ago. The piece itself is romantic and sentimental in style. The choral setting is lyrical and non melismatic. The vocal line stresses on the natural rhyme of the words such that it echos the simplicity and hyperbolic language of the poem. The piano accompaniment is impressionistic and at times elaborate. It serves as both the harmonic pillar and the backdrop that highlights the imaginative scenario of the poem. The theme depicts the wandering feeling of the poet at his time; in a contemporary sense, the music conveys certain nostalgia for those who travel and settle abroad.
A beautiful performance by the Exultate Chamber Singers "SONGS NEW AND OLD October 25th 2024.

Thoughts on a Still Night 靜夜思 (SATB choir) - Alice Ping Yee Ho


Kerata for Straton for 19-Division Trumpet by Coreen Morsink 
This live home studio recording predates a planned World Premiere and future professional studio recording. 

' 'Kerata for Straton' depicts a day in the life of Straton, a fictional salpinx (trumpet) player at the time of the Trojan War. Although Straton is a made up character, he is based on the fact that music was a part of life in ancient Greece and the trumpet,
or rather the salpinx at the time, was used as an instrument for armies during the Trojan War as written in Homer's Iliad. References to music making are not frequent in the Iliad but even Achilles, when not fighting, sits with his friend Patroclus and plays the phorminx. In this made up story, all Straton, wanted in life was to enjoy playing the trumpet and to play instruments like the phorminx, kitharis, lyra and other instruments at happy events but he was forced to play salpinx commands in the army. Generally of good humour, Straton carries on after witnessing the horrific carnage of war
as well hearing of the sorrow of Achilles upon receiving the news of Patroclus' death. From this experience, Straton decides to become a bard and relay the sadness of the war through song and the playing of the kitharis and lyra.
Note about the title: Kerata means 'horns' in Greek and animal horns were used in ancient Greece as musical instruments (and thus the word). Straton was a boy's name in ancient Greece and is related to the word 'stratos' στράτος which means army.' (C.M.)
Quotes
"...what satisfaction can I get from that, now that my closest friend is dead, Patroclus, who was more to me than any other of my men, whom I loved as much as my own life?" Iliad by Homer-XVIII.65
"Clear as the trumpet's voice when it soundeth aloud beneath the press of murderous foeman" Iliad by Homer- XVIII.219

https://coreenmorsink.wordpress.com/about/


Kerata for Straton for 19-Division Trumpet (2024) by Coreen Morsink

Performed live by Black Box Ensemble, November 23 2024 at Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew, NYC.
Tyler Neidermayer, Recording and mixing engineer

Leonard Bopp, conductor
Annie Nikunen, flute
Tyler Neidermayer, bass clarinet
Lauren Conroy, violin
Jordan Bartow, cello
Yifei Xu, keyboard
J Clancy, pecussion

Originally commissioned by Ensemble Paramirabo. 

ABOUT
“Stygian pulse” (2023) refers to a chronic throbbing pain in my left shoulder and neck that I have been experiencing for over ten years. It is shapeshifting in its colour and intensity and even its sonic properties, but most days it is an inky, dark, and dull recurrence. The normal medical routes for pain relief have proven ineffective beyond a temporary period.

While the pain doesn’t majorly inhibit any of my daily activities, my inability to alleviate it has
created a sort of “settling:” the pain has become mundane, foreverhere – unpredictable in its exact rhythm or temperament, but with a certitude that it will return, beating darkly. As a feature of my body for over a third of my time on Earth, I’m quite sure it’s here until the end. My stygian pulse – tiny focused outbursts until I die.

Stygian Pulse (sextet + electronics)

Mecca Illuminations

Descent/Return Arc of the geilt state of irish warriors returning from battle in the tropical forrest.



1. the last moments of coherence

2. The warrior's mind begins to splinter.

3. Deep Geilt State dissociative

4. Deep Geilt State manic 

5. The return of morning light through forest canopy

2. Domingo do Improviso

End of the Republic uses the words of Abraham Lincoln to produce a dystopian view of the state of the republic.

The music was made using a Soma Enner, a granular synth and two tape decks running at different speeds. It was of course recorded live with the words dubbed afterwards.

Note that a cassette version is available with 2 bonus tracks (https://samanthajanesmith.bandcamp.com/track/end-of-the-republic) and the vinyl version is with 3 bonus tracks (vinyl is here: elasticstage.com/samanthajsmith)

End of the Republic

Music by Bowrain
Mixed by Jure Vlahovič
Mastered by Gregor Zemljič

Featured in "Piano Day 2016" playlist by Nils Frahm.


A New Beginning

Hearing Music

Aurora

Download

In The Mood For Love

Greg Haines - Two Rotations

Averti Accanto

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This page is predominantly live recordings - please check out studio recordings here:
https://bekahsimms.bandcamp.com/
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Composer Bekah Simms hails from St. John's, Newfoundland and is currently based in Glasgow after nine years living and working in Toronto. Her varied musical output has been heralded as “cacophonous, jarring, oppressive — and totally engrossing!” (CBC Music), “tough, even gutsy...with a sure sense of original and vibrant colours” (Vancouver Sun), and lauded for its "sheer range of ingenious material, expressive range and sonic complexity" (The Journal of Music.) Propelled equally by fascination and terror toward the universe, her work is often filtered through the personal lens of her anxiety, resulting in nervous, messy, and frequently heavy electroacoustic musical landscapes. Recent interests in just intonation and virtual instruments have resulted in increasingly lush and strange harmonic environments.

Bekah's music has been widely performed across North America and Europe. She has worked with some of the top interpreters of contemporary music internationally, including Crash Ensemble - with whom she is currently an artist-in-residence - Riot Ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, and l’Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal. Bekah has also been the recipient of over 35 awards, competitive selections, nominations, and prizes, including the 2019 Barlow Prize and the 2023 JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year. The resulting work from the Barlow Prize, "metamold," was nominated for the 2022 Gaudeamus Award. Works from her debut album “impurity chains” were nominated in both 2019 and 2020 for the JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year. Her music has thrice been included in the Canadian Section's official submission to World Music Days (2016, 2019, & 2021), and in 2016 the CBC included her among their annual 30 hot classical musicians under 30.

Bekah is a Lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, following previous academic positions at the University of Toronto and University of Western Ontario.  Her principal teachers during academic studies were Gary Kulesha and Andrew Staniland, alongside significant private study with Clara Iannotta and Martin Bédard.

Association of Canadian Women Composers

The ACWC is a professional organization for Canadian women composers, their supporters, and the performers of their music.

Stygian Pulse (sextet + electronics)

Bekah Simms

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Shawn Abedin

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