wip
objects and other things
music video by alex kaniewski: https://youtu.be/5kZio3vsHo8

too many drams not enough time

john

procrastinating
recorder, pitch pipe and a very cheap guitar

for the guy in the music shop i buy all my shit from

text instructions by rauri
performance by me ( viola, guitar, objects, melodicas, harmonicas, fruitbowl, clarinet, recorder)
enclosed are four shapes
what do these shapes sound like?
what are their contours? 
what do their colours tell you
do they make or inspire any sound at all?

thanks rauri for the shapes. they will stay at the bottom of a drawer to keep safe.

this piece is for james [by rauri paterson-achenbach]

yeah drowning

dumlaneing

thanks guitar battery for failing me constantly

sad bedroom music guitar boy etc

Its stan’s cafe not cafè
think of Franz Kafka not Kafka- 
Like they say in France 
Not Dudley 
Have a laugh not a sad day 
Stay round my gaff don’t go away 
Have a bath not a Cabaret 
Its not daft or a cliché      
Don’t be naff or be lead astray 
Its Stan’s cafe not café

stan's cafe not café

sang at some trains for awhile awhile back and stuff

leeds train station thing

what a horse says when it doesn't want to go into the stable

no not stable

i did it
i've been feeling real bad recently particularly with music making and things
really been feeling disenfranchised with music for a while
but had an urge today to make some music
an urge that i wanted to try not to procrastinate on so set myself out to make a track in a couple of hours and trying many things and not throwing any of it away
and here it is 
i hate some bits but am happy with some other bits
i've crawled out of the pond and am now on a stepping stone and just looking for a direction to hop to

a lack of instructions for flatpack furniture

hat collector

there was a leak in stan's cafe this week. 
we kept each other's company

consistent company

each member of stan's cafe was assigned a note on a en-sq synth (donated to me by a member of stan's cafe) 
every time a new subject is discussed in the meeting a changed to a new sustaining chord.

the meeting was 59 minutes long, so this recording has been condensed. every 9.8 seconds is about a minute in real time

weekly meeting 7.12.22

midi percussion assigned to whenever a member of stan's cafe starts to speak in the meeting.

weekly meeting 9.1.23

i don't know 
don't i know? 
no i know i don't know 
now that

we were certainly uncertain, least, i'm pretty sure i am

words are from a very wet page i found in the street and then dried out.

music is improvised

i'm quietly proud of this one. 

as the warm wind blew on the valley
the skirts of the willows were blown aside 
and sunlight fell 
all the way to the bed of pebbles
where all the sticklebacks gathered 
hundreds of them
spiny and staring

sticklebacks

two layers of improv (1.guitar, 2. voice and radio) 
diary of sorts from a day in the office

impingement

audio speaking words from composer in residence diary

vocals
radio 
pedals (glitch, loop, reverb) 
plate pedal prototype built by sam underwood (check here for more info https://www.instagram.com/p/CyGhIyuo19B/)
objects
live mic in the room capturing the analogue audio in creation of the electronic but also analogue.

i also finished recording this track at 1.15pm

they nicked his trousers [excerpt]

composer hugh davies spent 11 days in hospital  in 1975. 
he kept a record of the food he ate.
he was a vegetarian and wasn't catered for very well. 
he had a bad time eating eggs and cheese. 

i turned the items he chose into chords. 
each chord is a meal he had.

the chords were presented to many players.
they then chose one or two notes to play from each chord. 
they performed these in their own times in their own homes. 
i have then compiled them, making their own choices, based on my choices, which were based on the choices hugh made, which were based on the choices made by the catering staff. 

with thanks to all my lovely friends who contributed.

tanna chamberlain - flute 
rupert cole- tenor sax 
francesca fargion - piano
tom foskett-barnes - accordion 
luke harrison - electric guitar
zahrah hutton - guitar
lizzie knatt - recorder
jamie knowles - e-piano 
matthew lee knowles - piano
james lindsay - flute
ashley mcauley - flute
james mcilwrath - viola 
eilidh pollard - violin
hannah shilvock - bass recorder

"𝚊 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎 𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚎𝚐𝚐𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚎𝚜𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗"

goddam should that acquaintance be forgot? 

i got an accordion

*𝐚𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐞*

this piece is about being in the music for pairs ensemble and desiring to play and make music when sometimes its hard to play and make music by yourself or for purposes that you aren’t on board with and sometimes for purposes you are on board with but your body like holds you back from making and playing that music or it's about imagining all your possessions in a box. or a young 22 year old composer being told that making music involving cardboard boxes should be his marketable composer practice after making one piece involving two giant cardboard boxes, and thus making a callback to that advice wholly within the title of this one. 

performed by music for pairs ensemble
jamie knowles & vato klemera: keys
zahrah hutton & james mcilwrath: guitars
zinnia smart: violin
kinna whitehead: cello

recording from performance at coda 2024 11th june

i really love things in boxes

ImageAudio: A Post-Digital Event Score Anthology
Initiated by Zach Dawson.

ImageAudio is a project which uses a criteria derived from the production of GIFs in order to construct a series of event scores proposing instructional, action-based processes in which to compose music. The project attempts to construct a musical language using verbal notation, one in which a process is followed enabling the production of music with little or no formal training in music notation. 

https://jamesmcilwrath.bandcamp.com/track/expensive-music

reductionism

extract from stan's scrap 3 for two bass recorders 

performed by lizzie knatt and otto hashmi

as part of my residency with stan's cafe, (theatre company) i took data during their weekly meetings of who spoke and when. i compiled the data from seven meetings into a seven movement work for two bass recorders.

thanks to lizzie and otto for all their hard work on this.

Stan's Scrap 3 (vii)

•._.••´¯``•.¸¸.•` ⓑ `•.¸¸.•´´¯`••._.•

accordion
and small cameo from alex and iron board

waiting for my leaves to fall

yeah music

restarting

uke + live electronics improv

sandbox sand sand sand sand sand no bucket

Splice-d is a piece for Cello and live electronics. All sounds are originally produced by a live cello, which are then live sampled, distorted and pitch shifted using effect pedals. 
Performed by Gaia Blandina and James McIlwrath, 5th May 2017, York University.
Artwork by James McIlwrath

Splice-d

who do you think you are i am

james mcIlwrath is an experimental irish composer/performer based in birmingham.

posting bits and pieces, i do other things too

ʲᵃᵐᵉˢ ᵐᶜⁱˡʷʳᵃᵗʰ

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