An Arrangement of a old Hezekiah Walker tune " I'll Fly away". This Song was Produced and Arranged By Cory Henry. Jam Good Time. Hope you Enjoy

Fly Away 2013

To Hao Hao & Xing Hui...

The title Sacred Voices,  was suggested by the use of and manipulation of sound materials which are considered to symbolise religion, culture, or species. The piece was composed mainly from material that had been recorded during a research trip to China in May, 2013. Much of the material was derived from a rare opportunity to record Giant Pandas in their enclosures at the Dujangyan Panda Reintroduction Centre, alongside a recording made in Xi’an of monks singing in a Buddhist Temple and carts being driven up hutongs in Beijing. These sounds (voices) are explored in a manner straddling on the very edge of real and unreal sound worlds and act as expressions or traces of places or moments in time.  

Sacred voices attempts to convey the idea of a series of momentary structures and forms experienced in space and time.  Throughout the work, sounds are presented as ‘moments’ in time and, space- the source of which is left up to the listener to imagine.  These moments are then expanded and explored throughout the piece- with each idea being mined for potential developments. The idea for this derived from my fascination with the manipulation of  field recordings, but also with sound design and spatialisation, both within the concert hall, and in a piece itself.

Along with 我們的歌 (Our Song), this work forms a collection of acousmatic works exploring sounds recorded in China in May, 2013 as part of the SCEN Music Project(www.scenmusic.info). In contrast to 我們的歌 (Our Song), where the sounds presented clearly provided a sense of place and culture, I wanted to carry out a manipulation of some of the same sound material, but without forcing any expectation of a particular place or culture onto the listener. In this piece, the manipulation of source material through both space and time was central to my train of thought. 

Sacred Voices was composed from December, 2013 to January, 2014 in the studios of De Montfort University (Leicester, England, UK). The work was commissioned by Reinhard Fuchs and Forum Liverpool with support from Scotland China Education Network, University of Aberdeen Confucius Institute and De Montfort University Confucius Institute. It was a finalist in the Concours Destellos 2014 competition.  Special thanks to John Young.

Sacred Voices (2014)- Finalist Destellos 2014

march 6th 2014

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Mouth Silence

This piece was composed in response to the work "Walking in Air in Glasgow" by Emmanuelle Waeckerlé and Will Montgomery, part of the RMA Music and/as Process Conference: Environment, Space & Place (28th - 30th June 2024, University of Glasgow).

After being provided with provocations/guidelines on how to "walk in air", participants went for a stroll, and then were invited to "take some time to reflect upon our experience and gather our traces (words, images, recordings...)"

This composition is my trace. I respond not only to the prompt above but also to the conference as a whole. I recorded air sounds within and outside the Advanced Research Centre (ARC), both naturally occurring and artificially created (e.g. air conditioning units). Simon Hellewell's melodica harmonics feature prominently, as does the final note of his interpretation of my piece "Local Mosaics and Graffiti" (which I performed in the ARC atrium, alongside Emmanuelle, Simon, and many other conference participants). 

Other themes from the conference also work their way into the sound recording and composition; footsteps, birdsong, plantlife. 

On my "walk in air", I explored the city and found as many instances of the word "air" as possible, hidden within hairdressers, computer repair shops, menus featuring Thai red curry, and the Tennent Memorial (pictured) which contains the word in reverse. This mirror image is a reference, also, to the palindromic structure of the composition; arc-shaped, ARC-shaped.

Air Arc Air

My latest work, Polaris, written for Piano, Glockenspiel, Cello, and bowed Crotales.

From the program note: "Polaris is a sparse piece about a breakdown in communication between two opposing forces, represented by a cello and a glockenspiel, failing to find unity. These are two polar opposites sonically, being about as far from each other in timbre and range as can be. The piano is the mediator between the two. For the majority of the piece, the opposing forces take turns to speak, each stating variations of the same line but assuming enmity. Eventually the two opposites start working to understand one another, culminating in the opposing forces swapping tools to gain further understanding. At the end of the piece the instruments return to their own tools and come closer in pitch, eventually stretching to extremes of their respective ranges in a compromise to settle on the same note, finding their common ground."

Polaris was performed on the 1st of April 2015 by members of Spectrum, the University of Aberdeen Contemporary Music Ensemble, conducted by John F. Hudson.

Polaris

Feb2016-Matt-Timmy-Micheal-Oded

ELECTRICITY (otamatone recitative)

Purchase link: https://mollyjoycemusic.com/product/less-is-more/
Video link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS811XcKD8c

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Less is More was written in the spring of 2017 for the Passepartout Duo for the inaugural Eighth Blackbird Creative Laboratory, with commissioning support from Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting.

With this work, I wanted to engage in perhaps two artistic “guilty” pleasures of mine: pulse and light, and thus I also composed a lighting part for the piece which I aimed to have equal importance to that of the live performers. I wanted to observe what would happen musically, visually, and overall aesthetically if I lay my two “guilty” pleasures out in the open, with minimal tactile material yet perhaps maximal capacity for interaction and synergy. I therefore hope that through exploring such a minimal yet boundless interaction, I am able to truly uncover what is less and what is more.

Less Is More

original and rough sketch of minimalist composition. Now making it into a 30 minute minimalist piece for composition folio as part of my degree.

Hussle and bussle draft

Contemporary composer from Scotland, currently undertaking PhD research. Influences range from minimalism to modernism to acousmatic music to progressive rock with plenty in between.

Polaris

Simon Hellewell

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