A live concert merged with recorded dance and film. Bubbled serves as an artistic record of young people’s experiences as they journey through the trials of 2020. The piece explores the uncertainty that spread across the world. The feelings of isolation. The hope that the vaccine brings.  
 
Bubbled was a reflection on the past year and a chance to connect with real people’s lived experiences. It asks us to confront what we have all been through together, and to listen to the stories of others.  
 
Written and produced by postgraduate music student, Charlotte Jenkins.
Performed in the Dora Stoutzker Hall at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on 10 February 2021

CACOPHONY

EUPHORIA

A live concert merged with recorded dance and film. Bubbled serves as an artistic record of young people’s experiences as they journey through the trials of 2020. The piece explores the uncertainty that spread across the world. The feelings of isolation. The hope that the vaccine brings.  
 
Bubbled was a reflection on the past year and a chance to connect with real people’s lived experiences. It asks us to confront what we have all been through together, and to listen to the stories of others.  
 
Written and produced by postgraduate music student, Charlotte Jenkins.
Performed in the Dora Stoutzker Hall at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on 10 February 2021

Soprano Saxophone - Charlotte Jenkins
Mezzo-soprano - Molly Beere
Cello - Patrícia Semedo
Drums - George Prentice-Povey
Live electronics - Ryan Elliot

UNCERTAINTY

Composition Date: March 2022
Composer: Charlie Gibson-Jenkins
Saxophone: Charlie Gibson-Jenkins
Thumbnail designed by Haplo Zeiger (he/him) and Rosanna Haigh (she/they)

I wrote Walk for ME in March 2022 for the multimedia immersive theatre show QUEEROS, which I was also producing and directing at the time. This track was composed for the second act of the show, which heavily featured The Welsh Ballroom Community. 

The ballroom scene was started in Harlem/New York in the 1960s by trans women, gay men and non-binary people of colour when they'd grown sick and tired of pageantry and the beauty standards imposed upon them by white society. These people created a beautiful, vibrant new community where they could be themselves without fear and celebrate their own culture and beauty. Some iconic houses which you see before you today include The Royal House of LaBeija founded by Crystal LaBeija, The House of Dupree founded by Paris Dupree, and The House of Ninja founded by Willi Ninja.

Still thriving today, the ballroom scene has flourished across many countries, and in the past couple of years The Welsh Ballroom Community (founded by Leighton Wall (he/him)) has been gagging the LGBTQ+ community of Wales with its fierceness. They have also participated in several balls abroad, with some members even grabbing trophies.

When creating the ballroom tracks Walk for ME, VOGUE BITCH and LGBT Paparazzi (the latter two to be released at a later date), I worked closely with the members of the Welsh Ballroom Community to ensure it worked for their performance and was respectful of ballroom tradition and culture.

More info about the history of ballroom can be found in the 1968 documentary The Queen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-k19RnpqZA

The Welsh Ballroom Community is on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/welshballroomcommunity/

and you can follow me there too:

https://www.instagram.com/charliegjmusic/

Stay tuned for more QUEEROS tracks - an EP will be on its way shortly!

QUEEROS - Walk For ME

'A+C Convo 12th Oct' was created for QUEEROS out of a recorded conversation between me and my (now) wife, Abigail Gibson-Jenkins. 

This conversation is one that could occur between any couple, but it makes me smile as I listen back to it because it immediately takes me back to that time and place with my partner in her tiny box room at her parents' house, watching films, joking around, and eating 'epic salads'.

To me it feels like people don't appreciate the everyday like they should, but little moments like these are so important - they're what make up life. In 'A+C Convo 12th Oct' one of these moments is put under a lense, as if an over-thinker (it's me, the over-thinker is me) is replaying the conversation in their head and analysing every aspect of it. It's stretched out, dissected, twisted and distorted until it becomes meaningless, dissolving completely into the surreal.

I actually composed this piece before fitting it into QUEEROS, so when it was time to do this I thought it would be the perfect fit for Eli's and Florence's monologues, as they delve into the complexities of their own every-days to unveil their stories.

QUEEROS - A+C Convo 12th Oct

Just a Phase.aiff

Electroacoustic composition I made in about an hour this evening. Just playing with sounds and trying to learn Logic Pro X.

#electroacousticmusic #loudspeakermusic #contemporarycomposition #logicprox #bedroommusic #acwietroom #experimentalmusic #showyourwork

A Cwiet Room

Welsh multidisciplinary artist, specialising in composition and saxophone. He/They. LGBTQ+ 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️#BlackLivesMatter #TransLivesMatter

charliegjmusic

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