My second string quartet, titled "Paralysed City". This piece was written during the UK COVID-19 national lockdowns in the city centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, and reflects on the experience of the abandoned city streets, the absence of cars, and the desolation of the urban soundscape.

James Clay – String Quartet No. 2, 'Paralysed City'

"Into Convergences" is a work for a chamber ensemble of twelve soloists, inspired by the converging patterns of birds in flight.

James Clay – Into Convergences For Chamber Ensemble

The third track from my recent electroacoustic album, "A Beautiful Disintegration" (January 2023). The full album is available here: https://jamesclaycomposer.bandcamp.com/album/a-beautiful-disintegration

Commentary:
"all that is lost" is a dark ambient work which brings together instruments of different temperaments, creating an unstable soundworld. The processed, dislocated, and searching pipe organ melodies initiate an historic dialogue with the electronic ostinati – a search for meaning that distends and contracts, weeps and surges, and then disintegrates.

Bio:
I am a composer from Newcastle upon Tyne, researching for a PhD in contemporary composition at Newcastle University. My interest is in how philosophies and experiences of music and place inform creative practice. I work across different media, using combinatory approaches to bring together score-based, improvisational, and electroacoustic musics.

James Clay – all that is lost

jamesclay

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