A computer mockup of Stuart MacRae's 2009 piece Old Certainties. The piece was premiered by the Wolsey Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Weeden, on October 10th 2009, but the recording was lost.

Old Certainties - computer audio only

for voice and guitar

i. Sang I
ii. Played I
iii. Sang II
iv. Played II
v. Sang III

Voice - Rylan Gleave
Guitar - Finn Patrick McLean
text from Ulysses by James Joyce.

James Joyce Sang and Played Guitar (2022)

live recording from Gen X Festival April 24th 2022, Walt Disney Hall, LA
Voice: Catherine Brookman
Alarm Will Sound
Conductor: Alan Pierson

Recorded and mastered by Daniel Neumann

text: 
1. Art is Art. Everything else is everything else.
2. Art-as-Art. Art from Art. Art on Art. Art of Art. Art for Art. Art beyond Art. Artless artifice.
13. Forms into uniform and formlessness. Style as recurrence.
14. Light as reappearance,dullness. Color as black, empty.
16. Verticality and horizontality, rectilineartity, parallelsim, stasis.
17. Outlines, monotones, blankness, quiescence, premeditation.
19. Matter only to the mind.
20. The strictest formula for the freest artistic freedom.
21. The easiest routine to the difficulty.
22. The most common mean to the most common end.
23. The extremely impersonal way for the truly personal.
24. The completest control for the purest spontaneity.
25. The most universal path to the most unique. And vice-versa.

From “25 Lines of Words on Art Statement” by Ad Reinhardt (permission to use text kindly granted by the Reinhardt estate)

music for people who like art (filmed/recorded at Walt Disney Hall, courtesy of LA Phil)

memories of hardknott pass

improvised with a Casiotone MT-45

MEDIOBOGDUM, or the sound of someone you love who's lost in the middle of the bend

you sure do

Factitious Airs

Drawing the Nerves

Programme Note:

When poised with the idea of writing for oboe and clarinet I immediately began to think of them as one meta-instrument. The resonance of two entwined reed instruments, weaving in and out of a single similar timbre was very appealing to me. To add to the texture of this hybrid instrument I employ chordal multiphonic writing as well continuos hocketing. The orchestra inhabits a visceral sound world, which adds to the muscularity of the duo and further builds up the hybrid instrument idea. 

Conducted by Duncan Ward
Soloists: Clarinet - Rocío Bolaños and Oboe - David Curington
Orchestra: Royal Northern College of Music Brand New Orchestra
http://www.davidcurington.com 
http://www.facebook.com/rocio.bolanos.54 

Entwined

Ethereal Waters (2020) for solo bass clarinet.
Performed by Jo Nicholson of Red Note Ensemble, accompanied by natural sounds of Moray Firth.
Digital Noisy Nights, 5th June 2020.

Ethereal Waters (for solo bass clarinet)

Commissioned by Jenny Gillies and Nevis Ensemble, for Jenny
Akroyd, as part of the Lochan Sketches project, 2020.
Broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland, 16/08/2020 in Classics Unwrapped.

winding through seaweed

Misread - My Heart Swells (zzaakkiiaa Remix)

Performed by Sarah Shine (soprano) & Gemma Ni Bhriain (mezzo), string ensemble from the RTE Concert Orchestra, conducted by Elaine Kelly (20 Shots of Opera)

Glaoch

Isaac Chai Orson is a Glasgow-based composer and multi-media artist whose work spans contemporary and electro-acoustic composition as well as video art and performance art. They are interested in documenting emergent social and digital trends, and their DIY aesthetic is underpinned by a philosophy dubbed "Post-Cringe." With a keen focus on social realism, Isaac's work can be described as hauntological, exploring themes of loss, nostalgia and the uncanny. Isaac studied composition under David Fennessy at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating with a first-class degree. Their work has been performed by ensembles such as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Red Note Ensemble.

MEDIOBOGDUM, or the sound of someone you love who's lost in the middle of the bend

Isaac Orson

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