procrastinating
recorder, pitch pipe and a very cheap guitar

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

For soprano, 2 clarinets, viola, cello and bass.
Composed for Mary Weigold's song book.  But performed here by Anna Myatt with the Black Hair Ensemble, May 1 1995, conducted by me.

Black Hair 1992

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

Song for rain, July 2024

Microludes For The Black Path

Demo created for The Singing Forest. I'm singing all parts myself.

The singing forest demo

stay

realisation of a score I wrote on the train from mainz to köln using transcriptions of sounds that could be heard on the train from darmstadt to mainz 

from darmstadt to mainz to köln

wherever you go there you are

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

posting bits and pieces, i do other things too

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

ʲᵃᵐᵉˢ ᵐᶜⁱˡʷʳᵃᵗʰ