"Lebab"

Live recording made at Great Court of the British Museum on 5th July 2013.
Performance by 121-piece orchestra, all RNCM Students and participating in the "Sound Histories", RNCM 40th Anniversary event.

All you need to know - I gave the flimsiest guidance and sketched out the overall architecture of the piece.
There were five hours of rehearsal/preparation in the days running up to the performance.
The performers gave generously from their hearts and every sound and idea you hear is individually chosen by them, in the moment.
There is no conductor.
Any cueing required is heard, not visual and governed by collective intuition.

Geeky stuff: The entrance lobby of the British Museum is adjacent to the Great Court and separated by simple archways. 
Sound from the Great Court doesn't travel well into the lobby, but unfortunately it travels too well in the reverse direction.
Accordingly I applied a very aggresive Izotope RXII filter at certain points to remove a lot of that unwanted 'hubbub'. 
Works very well for most of it, but in the Harps & Guitars section the filter adds an unintentionally extra-other-worldly quality to the music (you'll hear bits of the hubbub ghosting in behind some of the playing.)
Hope you enjoy it. I did, and more than I can adequately relay in mere words.
As I said to the orchestra prior to the performance itself - this was an opportunity of a lifetime. Thank you to you all.

Lebab

Music written by Tim Bailey. Violin and viola parts recorded by Tim Bailey (both on viola!); piano recorded by Jacek Serafin... all using portable Zoom microphones in three separate locations, and later overdubbed.

Uploaded as an example for an application at SSR Manchester.

LifeCycle

Tim Bailey 1

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