'How to be a forest' (2024) is for improviser (with tactile sound-boards), electronics, field recordings, and film. Part of a developing series of performances and audiovisual compositions called 'Ecollages', each of which which explores listening- and sounding-with the more-than-human world. 'How to be a forest' focuses on regenerative cycles of listening, playing, and looping alongside asynchronous collage of sound and visuals. 

Recently I've been thinking (and wondering) about how ecological listening/performance practices can sensitively hold human and more-than-human sounding in the same space, through strategies of gentle shifts in attention, without substantial manipulation and avoiding biodata-sonification. This score is an exploration in refracting forested landscapes. 

Short version premiered at Bonjour Claude's Scratch Night, Levenshulme Old Library, Manchester, September 2024.

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How To Be A Forest (2024; 22 Minute Version)

composer / improviser / piano /recorders
www.henrymcpherson.org.uk
🌿 environmental and exploratory music 🎶

How To Be A Forest (2024; 22 Minute Version)

Henry McPherson