James Creed: guitar

From 'Six Studies', available through Sawyer Editions

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The pieces in this collection ['Six Studies'] are studies, of a sort, and all written in 2021 or 2022. Along with most other things I’ve produced in the same period, there’s an unintended, relentless sentimentality to them – inevitable, I suppose, if working with diatonic clusters. They’re all very simple, and, with the exception of Piano and Accompaniment, aren’t really “compositions” so much as demonstrations of what instruments are busy doing while we might be busy thinking about other things. That’s not to ignore a performer, and really it’s the opposite: these pieces are unconstructed, they are timbre, they begin as studies of (for instance) the piano and end as studies of particular fingers at a particular piano, which is much more interesting. Piano and Accompaniment seems an outlier, perhaps, as a piece with more moving parts, but it isn’t – it’s the same concerns for ensemble, with some very faint shaping from me.

Thanks to: Kory, Clare, Anne, Freda, Evie, Scott, Amber, Katie, Meghan, Mia, Fernando, Joy and Ben, and thanks for listening.

One Guitar (2022)

for two guitars.

performed by Omri Kochavi and Joanna Ward
recorded live at Cafe Oto, 3rd July 2023
mixed by Joanna Ward

nearness, distance

This piece mainly consists of field recordings I've captured spontaneously in moments and spaces. I find interacting with my sonic environment interesting mainly due to the vastness I experience within those moments and spaces. Here, I've revisited these spaces and made them into one.

Adjustments

two pianos
written for Yihan Chen and Maxime Trechsel
fp — Yihan Chen/Maxime Trechsel, Milton Court Concert Hall (UK), 29-09-2023

‘lee shore’ is a piece for two pianos created in collaboration with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Keyboard Department. I worked with the excellent pianists Yihan Chen and Maxime Trechsel.

It was premiered alongside a performance of Meredith Monk’s ‘Ellis Island’ for two pianos with accompanying film. I selected a few harmonies from ‘Ellis Island’ — freeze frames — and arranged them freely. Whispers of Antonello de Caserta's ‘Amour m'a le cuer mis en tel martire’ also made their way in.

I was thinking about small, gentle gestures, lines, and listening through permeable textures.

If you would like to see the full video of ‘Ellis Island’ with ‘lee shore’ played attacca, please get in touch.

lee shore (2023)

{roca 003} இ︎

𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘮𝘢𝘴

※ ·*Christmas compilation from angels and xmas digimons  ˖*°❆· ※ ˖°࿐

Mastering - Oats
Artwork - Skip 

Shlove to everyone! 
Grr <3

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

All proceeds made from the album sales will go towards the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. https://www.pcrf.net/

Pentu - I Ruined The Surprise (Christmas  95)

Another improvisation, this time experimenting with feedback from a  DPA clip on microphone and bass amp. Thanks to James Creed for the help (featured on here vocally)

Bass Amp Sketches

Laurence Crane - Raimondas Rumsas.wav

based on 3 multiphonics + their fragility + humanlike qualities

perfect music

Life on wide mode.

[Soundcloud](https://soundcloud.com/gribsss). 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/gribs/episodes/gribs-2nd-april-2024

Gribs 020424

Performed by: Katariin Raska, Mari Meentalo, Kaisa Kuslapuu, Kerli Kislõi, Kadi Maria Vooglaid, Helery Kõrvemaa
Recorded live performance at Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava, Tallinn 06.04.2024

The Estonian bagpipe, which differs in range and drones from its Scottish relative, has not yet had much contemporary music written for it. “Earth Veins" is one of the first attempts to place these instruments in the context of contemporary classical music. Fortunately, the younger generation includes innovative bagpipe players interested in using their delicate and sometimes temperamental instruments in improvisational and new music contexts.

I began writing the piece composing sound material that was architecturally simple but sonically rich and always slightly changing. The title came to me in the last stages of composition, providing a necessary context for my sketches. Therefore, I have used the motif of earth veins in a more abstract sense, whether as lines of strength or forgotten contact with the ground, this most crucial support point for the human body. The harmonies of the piece are hidden in the ascending glissandos and oscillations. In such a context, the melted timbres of the instrument sometimes acquire an electric, sometimes a human-like plaintive sound, and through such playing techniques, the overtones appear slightly different each time, giving musicians space to listen and respond to what they hear. During the writing of the piece in February 2023, earthquakes struck southern Turkey and Syria, revealing the most destructive power of the earth, the effects of which also influenced this work.

Earth Veins for 6 estonian bagpipes at Tallinn Music Week 06.04.24

Composed in 2020.
Commissioned by 840 Series, for their 5th anniversary concert, 
with funds provided by Arts Council England, Richard Thomas Foundation, Hinrichsen Foundation and RVW Trust.
Performed by Juliet Fraser (soprano), Colin Alexander (cello), Stephanie Tress (cello) and Peteris Sokolovskis (cello).
Live recording of 1st performance, at Cafe Oto, London on 
31 January 2020.

One Guitar (2022)

James M. Creed

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