Transition is the time and space between pre-lockdown and post lockdown.

Transitions

One of a series of tracks produced in response to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Aiming for a more laid back vibe.
Words in mind are: Sameness, distance, reflection, listening, in limbo, calm, disquiet, drifting, downbeat and upbeat.
Re-mixed and mastered 09/12/20

Transition 1

Transition 1 was the first track that I have produced and is one of a series of tracks produced in response to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Transition 1 Birdsong Edit is a slightly longer re-edit of the track Transition 1 with many of the themes remaining plus a few new ones.  Centrally to this is a mass of birdsong recorded from different parts of the day in May 2020. This track is hopefully lighter, more relaxed and with a more ambient feel to it.

Transition 1 - Birdsong Edit

COVID-19 and the subsequent societal lockdown has intensified our contact with our immediate surroundings and has heightened our appreciation of the local. This piece is a meditation on the passing of time here, and of our own overall lack of agency with change.
Using a map of the area near to Grasmere in the Lake District for reference, this experimental track creates an evolving ambient and multilayered soundscape experience.
Audio samples taken from the restricted daily walks around my home location are used alongside a musical composition informed by Frere Jaques, the traditional nursery rhyme, often sung as a round, plays with the futility of time and repetition.
Text to Audio software has been used to capture geographic related words that echo and repeat in different voices as all current contact with others is mediated through technology.
This experimental track may form the basis for a longer piece of work.
With acknowledgement to Emma Nuttall for word collaboration and shared ideas. @EmNuttall

Transition 2 - Frere Jaques

This track is a reworking of Transition 2 - Frere Jaques without the layered vocal elements as part of a plan for a much longer track. The melodic theme from Frere Jaques is modified and enhanced, alongside additional field recordings and a simple reference to Laurie Anderson’s ‘O Superman’

Transition 2 - Instrumental Mix

This Transition 3 track follows on from the previous tracks responding creatively during the COVID-19 lockdown. Field audio samples include various power tools  such as a sander and lawnmower. AI processing has been used  to model melody, some of this is with Max for Live, some with VCV Rack. The root melody is  based on the 5 note Close Encounters theme. Other found sampled noises have been derived from NASA 'Spooky Space Sounds'. One of the main observations during lockdown has been peoples preoccupations with homebuilding whilst  stuck at home. Contrasting with this has been an increased appetite for and  fascination with distant worlds and the opportunity of a new life in space.

Transition 3 - Parts 1 & 2

Since moving to Dumfries and Galloway Taylor has  been focussed on improvisation, software based modular and iPad performance tools. Typically resulting in ambient and generative sound design. He is part of Sonic Labs, an improvisation group based at The Stove, Dumfries.

Taylor Nuttall is a composer, artist and sound designer. Seeking to avoid specific genres, his work is often a hybrid of influences that  incorporates found sounds and seemingly disparate though often very personal content. The environment, sustainability and climate change are a constant underlying thematic.

‘Is This Just One Day’, a 30 minute evocative soundscape was produced after winning a commission for the Sounds of Silence program by Aerial Festival, launched in September 2020. Taylor has been involved in a number of collaborative projects most recently working with artist and curator Dominic Smith to produce ‘Triangulation’ an EP released by Etched Traumas in August 2021.

After working extensively in the arts for many years leading multimedia arts organisation Folly and as a founding director of Abandon Normal Devices Festival, Taylor is currently a board member for Full of Noises, a sound art and new music organisation based in a public park on Cumbria’s Furness Peninsula.

Having recently moved from the Lake District to Dumfries and Galloway Taylor Nuttall lives on a small holding near Castle Douglas with a small flock of sheep. 

Taylor Nuttall trained as a visual artist and has an early exhibition career with artworks featuring painting, print, sculpture, photography and installation. In the late 80’s and early 90’s he began to explore the potential of creativity using computer technologies. As well as exhibiting these works in traditional gallery spaces this led to a number of pieces being designed to be experienced online as virtual artworks. These virtual artworks also began to explore the use of sound. Taylor is now working with sound, drawing upon composition and musical skills he learned from playing piano and classical guitar as well as re-learning more robustly about sound design, composition and music theory.

'Is this just One Day?' released September 2020, a new commision for Aerial Festival. https://aerialfestival.com/

Without Visual - April 2021 - https://www.instagram.com/surmise_collective/

EP - ‘Triangulation’ released by Etched Traumas -August 2021 - https://archive.org/details/et132_tn_and_ds_triangulation

The Stove Inprovisation showcase, Market of Possibilities, Dumfries 2023

Hidden Gems Festival, Dumfries 2024

FON 15th Anniversary Concert, Piel House, Barrow in Furness 2024

Sound Lab Showcase, The Stove, Dumfries 2024

Dark Space Planetarium, Kirkudbright 2025

Cryptic Nights, CCA, Glasgow 2025

Tracks played on:
BBC Radio Introducing - BBC Radio Cumbria
Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Cumbria
Space is the Place Radio Show - Cando FM - @SpaceisthePlac9
The Magic Window - MadWaspRadio - https://madwaspradio.com/
Hello Goodbye Radio Show - Resonance FM - https://hellogoodbyeshow.com/
Star & Shadow Radio https://soundcloud.com/tynesidesounds
Eagle Nest Radio - @eaglesmusicnest

Profile image credit: Iona Wheeler


@digitaylor

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