Exozoologica
Pete Kellock

Acousmatic work for rainforest birds, cicadas, Chinese flutes, Ukrainian violin, Convolvotrix, and a tiny fragment of Stravinsky.

PLEASE LISTEN ON HEADPHONES, HI-FI OR OTHER DECENT SOUND SYSTEM. The piece has a wide dynamic and frequency range; on typical PC speakers you won't even hear half of it.

PROGRAM NOTE
Exozoologica [noun]: animal life of another planet.

I don’t usually experience music in terms of images and this isn't “program music”. But as I wrote the piece, parts of it carried me to a specific place: an eerie rainforest on some other planet, its soundworld a sort of Darwinian orchestra where survival and musical sonority are tightly intertwined... alien birdcalls, tritone howls, cicadas shimmering in E minor, mutant drums, the sudden metallic hiss of some nightmarish predator...

The work was motivated by a slightly deranged challenge that had bugged me for decades: try to create a piece with the expressiveness, subtlety, drama and structural integrity of a major symphonic work, but do it using a sonic language like nothing I’ve heard before.

Did I succeed? Let me know what you think: petekellock@gmail.com.

A central principle is that most of the sounds derive from two sources - a recording of jungle life plus a Chinese flute phrase say, or fragments of drum loops and a folk violin - crossbred using techniques such as convolution and vocoding. The convolution creates a highly reverberant ambience (akin to the acoustic of big-tree forests) which permeates the work.

Structurally the piece is held together by a process of continuous development: motifs appear, interlock, mutate, compete and perhaps eventually reach some kind of peace (or at least accommodation) with each other. In this work, these feel like survival strategies.

NOTE ON THIS MIX
Release Mix 12, created 2013-12-06
1.3 : 1 multipression, no bass boost
44.1 KHz / 24bit (at least the source file I uploaded is 44.1KHz / 24 bit).

(c) 2013 Pete Kellock 

Exozoologica (2013)

Intersections (2014)
pour flûte, clarinette, percussion, piano, violon, violoncelle

Commande du collectif Multilatérale avec le soutien de la SACEM – Partenariat entre le collectif Multilatérale, le CNSMDP, la Muse en Circuit – centre national de création musicale, et les éditions Jobert.

Ensemble Multilatérale, direction Kanako Abe.
Caen, festival « Aspects des Musiques d’Aujourd’hui » – Mars 2014.

Le titre de la pièce évoque une musique au croisement de plusieurs influences, qui cultive l’hétérogénéité des matériaux en tentant de les intégrer au sein d’une forme cohérente. L’influence indienne transparait à travers les évocations de formules rythmiques de Tala de l’Inde du nord qui, recomposées librement, donnent une énergie particulière à la musique. Cette exploration rythmique nouvelle dans mon travail se double d’une volonté de focaliser l’écoute sur quelques hauteurs qui reviennent tout au long de la pièce. A la fluidité énergique de ce matériau s’opposent des sections plus apaisées où se déploient des harmonies riches et amples à partir d’une note fondamentale. Les blocs d’accords plus dissonants créent une tension qui répond à la limpidité et à la résonance naturelle de l’octave.
Cette pièce renvoie à une expérience personnelle que je vis depuis maintenant quatre ans lorsque je me rends à Singapour. Dans cette ville-état asiatique où tout converge vers l’occident, où la tradition séculaire se réfugie dans les musées et se mêle à la modernité outrancière, je fais quotidiennement l’expérience du croisement. Mes nombreuses errances dans les rues animées de China Town, de Little India ou de Tiong Bahru m’ont permis d’intérioriser toutes ces énergies humaines, ce foisonnement permanent de bruits et autres sons de la vie urbaine, cette profusion de cultures et de langues. A Singapour, je me situe aux intersections de toutes ces perceptions…


Intersections (sample)

Diana Soh

Autour de moi 2 - extract 2. Written for Ensemble Multilatérale (dir Léo Warynski)

Autour de moi 1 - Extract2

"…ce dangereux supplément…" is a set of phonetic studies for voice, video, and electronics. A suite of three pieces [(tRas), (spɛktʁ), and (sɑ̃dʁ)] the work is based on a close examination of the sounds used in everyday linguistic activity, which are juxtaposed against more extreme vocal effects. The live performance is supplemented with electronic voices which stretch and transform this common vocality. The visuals range from rapid-fire successions of symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet, to more suspended meditations on elaborately arranged orthographic tapestries made from the same symbols.

"…ce dangereux supplément…" is a poetic rehearsal of the Derridean supplement, that unbelonging excess in a binary opposition which is (contradictorily) crucially indispensable. This takes place throughout the work via a dialectic between linguistic articulation (consonants) and voiced intonation (vowels). While moving between these two poles, the performer acts out a futile search for the primary referent (or "master signifier"), but eventually realizes all that is to be found is an infinite hauntology, a spectral chain of traces, specters, and cinders.

Recording with visuals:  https://vimeo.com/156198149

“…ce dangereux supplément…”

Multi Concerto music theatre work for the BBC Symphony Orchestra

Irresistible Demands of the Flesh- Full Recording

Aleksander Gabryś plays Michel Roth´s "Kavalkade"
double-bass & voice

Michel Roth - "Kavalkade"

For Soprano, 4 instruments, sensor devices and Electronics
Text by: James R. Currie
Performed by Ensemble Court-Circuit and Elise Chauvin (Soprano) le 19 juin 2013 Festival Manifeste IRCAM
Marion Ralincourt (Piccolo) Jérémie Fevre (Bass Flute) Jean-marie Cotte (Piano) Véronique Ghesquière (Harp)
Supporting professor for Electronics: Grégoire Lorieux


Arboretum: of myths and trees

Diana Soh

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