"Please do not slam the door / Mancunian Snapshots" is a brisk collage of sound fragments captured in Manchester city centre during winter 2017. All kind of daily life’s details, funny moments, mini tragedies, street chats and noises are mashed up in quickly passing blocks of sound, constituting a fragmented personal portrait of the city. Sonic glimpses of private and public sphere - inside and outside the doors - are brought together as a spontaneous reaction to a separated and contrasting social life. Perception and time get blurred through the constant interplay between real and surreal and repetitions of same sonic material placed in different contexts.

Please do not slam the door / Mancunian Snapshots

On the morning of 17th August 2017, a ripple in space passed through our planet, detected by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors. This cosmic disturbance came from a pair of neutron stars colliding at one third the speed of light in the galaxy NGC4993, 130 million light years from Earth. The two neutron stars have been orbiting each other for most of the history of the universe, getting closer and closer until they merged into a doughnut-shaped unstable neutron star before finally collapsing as a black hole.

NGC4993

Hammer & Violets

Original composition, completed in the winter of 2016.

Spaceport

Original composition, completed in the summer of 2016.

The Shack

Original composition, completed and performed in summer 2018.

Original performance:

Soprano - Freya Parry
Composition and Live Electronics - Benoît André
Loudspeaker diffusion - Daichi Sugimura

Vimanica

Original composition, completed and performed in spring 2019.

Messing with time.

Skein#7

Tonk

Wanderers In The Skies is a piece in 3 movements, written for a full SSAATTBB choir and 8.1 Channel Tape (Electronics). This is a stereo reduction of a multi-channel live performance.

Movement 1: 00:00
Movement 2: 05:40
Movement 3: 13:08

The words used are taken from poems written by Manchester-bsaed poet Jamie Lee, written for use in this piece.

This piece explores the idea of belonging on a universal scale, specifically provoking emotions related to the question: 'Where do we as humans fit in the grand scheme of things?'. This piece has been created to tell a story and spark ideas, aimed at all audiences, but especially with a younger audience in mind.

Music composed for Chior and Tape by Benoît André, between 2019-2021

Words written by Jamie Lee in Autumn, 2019

Choral music workshopped with Somnium Chamber Choir, 2019-2020

First recording sung by Benoît André (T2, B1), Hugh Beckwith (T1, B2), Grace Gammell (S2, A2) and Sarah Keirle (S1, A1) in Autumn 2020

For use, or to see the score, please contact me!

Cosmic Signature

Wanderers In The Skies

'By Human Design' uses recordings almost explicitly from my two favourite inventions: the bicycle and the typewriter. Using the bell sound as a pivotal common sonic object between both the bicycle and the typewriter, this piece seeks to unravel these two feats of mechanical engineering by manipulating their respective sounds to the extreme. As the piece progresses, I begin to employ sounds from their respective successors - the motorcycle and the fax machine/basic computer. These sounds are subtly employed to add hints of rapid technological invention, and human advancement.

Composed in Spring 2021

By Human Design

Hello! I am an Electro-Acoustic Composer and Sound Designer based in Manchester, UK. Enjoy my things!

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfp4OZNs4SIgkco83kSGuIQ

Skein#7

Benoît André

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