Composed in 2004. Studio recording by members of Apartment House: 
Nancy Ruffer (bass flute), Andrew Sparling (clarinet), Gordon MacKay (violin), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello) and Philip Thomas (piano).
From 'Chamber Works 1992-2009' released on Another Timbre in 2014.
Recorded by Simon Reynell
http://www.anothertimbre.com



Seven Short Pieces

shitty late v-day cover I did in like 12 minutes

Head Over Heels

2022
for piano trio

recorded by the Fidelio Trio at the Royal College of Music, March 2023

Deep Field Residue (2022)

2022
for quintet (winds and brass)

recorded at the Royal College of Music, March 2023

Michal Oren - Conductor

Ed Pelham - Clarinet
Aidan Campbell - Bassoon
Tabitha Bolter - Horn
Stone Tung - Trumpet
Eddie Curtis - Bass Trombone

Fruits Of Their Labour (2022)

for trombone and fixed media

performed by the composer

That trombonists tend to have hundreds of bars rest in between notes is such a banal observation that it seems an uninteresting topic for a piece - but the demand to produce the perfect note out of the blue involves a unique kind of anxious anticipation and catastrophisation. This fixation on a single note is responsible for the deployment of all kinds of techniques to mitigate the risk of any potential mispitching: furiously honking silent bursts of air through the instrument in a desperate attempt to warm it up; making sure for the third/fourth/fifth/sixth time that the water key has done its job; drenching the slide in far too much oil; etc. This short piece, shifting the focus away from central/‘idiomatic’ modes of trombone sound production, captures many of these neuroses, from the act of assembling the instrument all the way up to the fudged note in question.

on the anxieties of being an orchestral trombone player (2023)

for solo bass clarinet

performed by Thomas Knollys in Manchester, May 2023

Viscous Impulse (2023)

for bassoon, trumpet & celeste

recorded by Britten Sinfonia in Cambridge, September 2023

Strands of Black Magic opens with formal interplay, where sharp, active objects are embedded within a viscid musical agar. The celeste stands in the centre as a miniature belfry while the bassoon and trumpet dance around it, electrifying one another; one flatlines, the other is resuscitated. The music gains elasticity, traversing various fluidities, and the ensemble breathes as a single organism. Dense counterpoint bubbles away in the final section, with particles and molecules ricocheting, colliding, bursting, dividing. Activity grinds to a halt, the music becomes a chemical suspension, and the piece ends.

Strands of Black Magic (2023)

Sultan of sentiment for contrabass recorder

for eight tubas

conducted by Michal Oren

Josh Allen
Sunny Anderson
Connor Gingell
Gavin Johnson
Nathan Mansell
Joseph McLennan-Parish
Tom Stone
Adam Zadi

'Heronhenge' is a piece that plays with space. Eight great monoliths encircle the audience, enveloping listeners in the immense sound that they pass between one another. The groupings of instruments are in a continuous process of rearrangement, pushing and pulling the sonic gravity around. The spatial layout is more than just a gimmick: it gives the sound the space it needs. With such a plenitude of lower frequencies, this format permits each instrument to speak without too much interference (although it has to be said that part of the joy of writing for this ensemble lies in relishing that same interference). The imagery of the piece is drawn both from a Stonehenge-type formation and from the experience of seeing an abundance of herons, stood perfectly still, in a park at dusk.

recorded in the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall at the Royal College of Music, February 2024

Heronhenge (2024)

'Honey, are you coming?' is composed exclusively of women sounds from advertisement made between the 1950's and present day. It aims at putting forward the sexualisation of women in popular media.

Advertisement offers a small window into the period it was created. While the role and rights of women have drastically changed over the last 70 years, codes are still present and drawn on in television ads. Women are often shamed for being sexually liberated while continuously objectified by the male gaze in popular culture. The piece attempts to point out the continuous sexualisation of women in advertisement, so present that people might not notice it anymore.

Thank you to Rebecca Morée Galian (@rebeccamoregalian)for her amazing artwork. 

Hope you enjoy!

Honey, are you coming?

Originally written for brass quintet, this revised version for chamber orchestra was commissioned by Trinity Laban for their first Covid-friendly Shapeshifter project.

Landscape Series was inspired by 'Serie Paisajes', a work by Spanish artist Carmen Calvo (b. 1950) that was featured in the 'In the Eye of Bambi' exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery. It features hundreds of tiny ceramic trees spread out over a large canvas.

This piece for small orchestra is the composer's own landscape series, depicting a visit to Hampton Court on a 
bleak, but still, midwinter day. The composer's Landscape Series is a sarabande framed with atmospheric, enigmatic sections of music. The choice of the sarabande, a stately Spanish dance in three, reflects both the nationality of Carmen Calbo and the history of Hampton Court.

Conducted by Jonathan Tilbrook, and recorded by Kit Venables.

Piccolo: Hambel Goodchild
Flute: Alicia Steanson
Oboe: Yu Hao
Cor Anglais: Rachel Messiter
1st Clarinet: Catherine Smith
2nd Clarinet: Anna Wilkins
1st Bassoon: Gabriela Messyasz
2nd Bassoon: Louise Hayden
---
1st Horn: Chris Collins
2nd Horn: Simon Jelley
1st Trumpet: Dylan Kirk
---
Harp: Iona Duncan
---
Violin 1: Adrian Morena Tierraseca, Colli Chan, Christina Minton, Shixiang Woo, James Moore, Katherine Georghiou
Violin 2: Columba Dromgoole-Cavazzi, Katarzyna Franczak, Greg Scotland, Stella Mandeva, Joseph Bailey
Viola: Jessica Kindlinger, Lancelot Beja-Battais, 	
Jessica Thorpe
Cello: Amelia Callard, Miranda Stinton, 	
Andrew Walters, Georgina Viu Bayes
Bass: Sam Pugh

Recorded on the 28th of October at Blackheath Halls

Landscape Series (for chamber orchestra)

French composer & performer specialising in contemporary classical, punk-influenced experimental & noise music. 
MMus at the Royal College of Music, LDN.

Sultan of sentiment for contrabass recorder

Rebecca Galian Castello

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