Improv kurd (g.b)

Interference was commissioned by House of Bedlam/Larry Goves for North West New Music festival 2016 and premiered by Carl Raven on 28th January at Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. It was a real pleasure to work with such an incredible player. His album is just out if you want to hear more - http://www.carlraven.com

Programme note:

Clara Smith’s (1894 - 1935) Deep Blue Sea struck me as a great starting point for exploring the interaction between musicians and technology given the scratchy recording quality paired with gutsy singing and saxophone solo. Noises that could interfere with music making in my day to day life become a positive force and accompany and drive the live saxophone solo as it takes over from the recording. The other samples are a gamelan. According to Javanese mythology, the god who ruled as king of all Java from a palace on the Maendra mountain (c.AD 230) invented the gong to communicate with the other gods. Two other gongs were invented for more complex messages, completing the original gamelan set and also happening to be very close to the sound of my email alert.

Eve Harrison, Jan ‘16

Interference

So Alive, So Clear (words and music by Steven Jackson) is one of the winning tracks from Abbey Road Studios' anthem competition.

Vocal and guitars - Steven Jackson
Percussion - Paul Clarvis

The Eric Whitacre Singers and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eric Whitacre.

Arrangement by Steven Jackson.

Recorded in Studio One and Studio Two, mixed and mastered at Abbey Road Studios.

http://www.abbeyroad.com

Steven Jackson - So Alive, So Clear

Original peace-lovin' aggro-jazz from the Riot Jazz Brass Band...

...MC Chunky and drummer boy Stevey P discuss the ins and outs of flared bells... and why the girls won't leav 'em alone... just coz they got a sousamaphone! Ft. Sparkz on the background guffaws!



Sousamaphone!

1st performance programme note:
Operatic composers such as Janáček and Britten often based their vocal lines on speech patterns whilst the American Steve Reich samples speech and loops it into his work. The recently formed Size Zero Opera tackles tough subjects often using unedited texts from national newspapers. The National Theatre has taken ‘verbatim theatre’ even further with ‘London Road’ where transcribed news footage and interviews are musicalized. ‘The Listening Project Symphony’ feels part of a Zeitgeist but differs in that the text is hyper-real – actual untreated voices, actual conversations. And this was both the challenge and the joy of the commission.
I have avoided Reich’s sampling technique but never the less the lilt of many of the voices has sometimes provided contour as well as context. I have tried to live up to the honesty, warmth and affection the conversations evince without over-emphasing or resorting to overtly cinematic devices. I have tried to travel in tandem with the words - perhaps more as a musical observer, commentator, sympathiser: highlighting a little here, spotlighting there. The conversations that the producer Cathy Fitzgerald has assembled are deeply rich and evocative. It is a privilege to have composed this piece. It is dedicated ‘to everyone within…’


Interference

Eve Harrison

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