‘Stretches’ is specially composed in collaboration with Swansea Laptop Orchestra (Jenn Kirby and Simon Kilshaw) in Ty Cerdd’s CoDI ELECTRONIC as part of Bangor Music Festival 2019. The composition aims to explore a delicate soundworld of white noise with multiple band-pass filters controlled by Gametrak controllers and Max/MSP. Two performers gradually layer individual filtered noise on top of each other to form sounds with various spectral spaces which later evolve into more distinct timbres. Sound masses later travel all over the performance space via quadrophonic speakers and fully embrace the audience with rich electroacoustic sonorities that eventually fade into a single sustained band of white noise. 

The premiere was performed by Jenn Kirby and Simon Kilshaw (Swansea Laptop Orchestra) at Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre, Bangor University in Bangor, Wales on 8 February 2019 in Bangor Music Festival 2019.

This version was recorded by Jerry Yue Zhuo and Poumpak Charuprakorn in the Postgraduate Studio, Cardiff University. Although the composition is for quadrophonic speakers, this recording has been adapted for a standard stereo setup.

Stretches

Poumpak Charuprakorn, a Thai composer whose interests lie in both instrumental composition and electronics, obtained his first degree at Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand) under the guidance of Dr Narongrit Dhamabutra and Dr Weerachat Premananda. He later studied with Dr Harris Kittos and Dr Jonathan Cole and received his Master of Music in Composition from the Royal College of Music (London). He has also had lessons with Nicola Lefanu, Simone Movio, Nicolas Tzortzis, Jorge Grossman, Lei Liang, and Stefano Gervasoni. His compositions have been read and performed in Thailand, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, and the United Kingdom which also offered him the opportunities to work with many professional musicians and ensembles, for example Sara Minelli (flute), Mieko Kanno (violin), Aisha Orazbayeva (violin), Sarah Dacey (soprano), Gwenllian Llyre (harp), Ensemble Suono Giallo, Carducci Quartet, and the Riot Ensemble. He recently participated in ilSuono Academy of Young Composers 2017 (Citta di Castello, Italy), Valencia International Performance Academy and Festival 2018, Bangor Music Festival 2019, and Toronto Contemporary Music Lab 2019. Poumpak, supported by the Office of Higher Education Commission of Thailand, has recently obtained a PhD in Composition at Cardiff University under the supervision of Prof Arlene Sierra. Poumpak is currently a lecturer at Silpakorn University in Thailand.