‘Melt’ is a single long-form track of warm, overlapping tones created with a toy keyboard, a synthesizer, analogue delay and looper pedals, and some minimal laptop processing. Glitches and signal problems were welcomed into the process, shrouding the fragmented yet lyrical keyboard melodies in a gentle mist of fuzz, clicks and hiss. 

Released 15 May 2011 on Rural Colours and part of Subscription Pack 11.

Melt

Binary was originally created as a site-specific commission for the exhibition Fresh Interventions at Oxburgh Hall, a Tudor manor house in Norfolk, UK, 14 Apr - 28 Jun 2007.

The work is inspired by the venue’s Victorian wallpaper. Computer software was used to convert a photograph of the wallpaper into sound, which was digitally edited and processed to produce a haunting atmospheric soundscape. The sound was also transferred back into images printed onto canvas, ghostly echoes of their origins.

By converting a static visual image into the time-based medium of sound, this work plays with notions of stillness and movement. The immersive textural character of the sound is representative of the stillness of the image, yet its subtly shifting quality lends it a sense of motion. The faded condition of the vintage wallpaper, its signs of wear and decay, are reflected in the grainy, eroded nature of the audio. The work is at once an exploration of a frozen moment and of the relentless processes of time, loss and disappearance.

This work was also included in Sound:Space 2008 (South Hill Park, UK, 2008), Transfixed Motion / Transitory Still (Sheffield Institute of Art and Design Gallery, UK, 2009), and A Thing About Machines (The Herbert, UK, 2009).

Binary (clip)

'Chimes for a Wall Drawing' is a live recording of a performance at Tate Liverpool in August 2009, inspired by the gallery's display of Sol LeWitt's 'Wall Drawing #1136'. 
In the spirit of Sol LeWitt's use of seriality and arbitrary systems, this electro-acoustic composition used the artwork as an inspiration and graphic score, mapping its seven spectrum colours onto the corresponding notes on coloured chime bars. 
Chimes, handbell and electric guitar were processed live into elongated tones and drones, layered with electronics and field recordings made within the gallery and surrounding area. 
Released on limited edition digipak CD on Cathedral Transmissions. 

Written and produced by Wil Bolton 
Recorded live at Tate Liverpool, 15 August 2009 
Chime bars, handbell, electric guitar, field recordings, electronics 
Photography by Wil Bolton 
Art direction by Antonymes 
Thanks to Dave, Ian, Soo, Roger and Caitlin 
Cathedral Transmissions CT013 
www.cathedraltransmissions.com


Chimes for a Wall Drawing (clip)

Oxburgh Fragments was originally created as a site-specific commission for the exhibition Fresh Interventions at Oxburgh Hall, a Tudor manor house in Norfolk, UK, 14 Apr - 28 Jun 2007.

It is a series of ambient music compositions inspired by the Tudor history of the site. Field recordings of birdsong and flowing water made in the grounds of the Hall are combined with traditional classical instruments and synthesized electronic tones.

The use of conventional sounds alongside cutting-edge production techniques creates a fusion of history and technology, tradition and modernity, and forms a poignant exploration of notions of memory, nostalgia, loss and disappearance.

Oxburgh Fragments - Part III

Threnody was originally created for the exhibition Black Powder + White Party at Kyung Hee University Museum of Arts, Seoul, South Korea, 13 Sep - 19 Oct 2007.

It is a sound installation inspired by Korean Royal Ancestral Shrine Music. Elements from this traditional form of Korean music were used as source material in the creation of a 20 minute electroacoustic composition. The sounds of string and wind instruments, percussion, chimes and vocals were looped, pitch-shifted, time-stretched, layered and digitally processed to form immersive harmonic drones and shifting rhythmic textures.

Threnody (clip)

Static Loop layers recordings of analogue TV static and processed digital synthesizer loops.  It was created for the compilation Grey Is The Colour Of Hope.

Compiled by Alan Dunn, artist and Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Art at Leeds Metropolitan University, this CD takes its cue from the manners in which the colour grey has been used in literature, art and design from the Old Testament to the present day. It brings together new audio works from students and staff in the School of Contemporary Art and Graphic Design alongside artists' compositions and archival material, including works by Bill Drummond, Gerhard Richter, Leadbelly and Lydia Lunch.

Dunn's accompanying essay traces a personal interest in the colour, referencing Irina Ratushinskaya's prison journal grey is the colour of hope, John Major and late 1800's photographs of Glasgow. To order a free copy of the CD please email Alan Dunn at a.dunn@leedsmet.ac.uk.  For further details, please visit www.greyisthecolourofhope.com

Static Loop

Exclusive track for the Time Released Sound compilation TRUST.
http://timereleasedsound.com/releases/trust-2/

Persimmon

A sampler of tracks from 'Time Lapse' (Hibernate Recordings, HB22)

Now on Hibernate, Wil Bolton presents 'Time Lapse', which is the debut CD release under his own name. This combines the warm and emotive electronic melodies of his Cheju output with the more minimal drones and field recordings-based sensibility of his sound art work. Melodies are still integral to the music but are more subtle, fragmented, and submerged among beds of droning ambient textures and environmental sounds.

Sound sources include electric guitar, classical guitar, chime bars, vintage keyboards, 4 track tape recorder, loopers and pedals. These analogue and acoustic sounds are combined with laptop electronics and processing. Field recordings give each piece a strong sense of place and atmosphere, with environmental sounds recorded in sites including: a café in King's Lynn; a Berlin train station; a lake in Porthmadog, North Wales; Liverpool Cathedral; an electrical substation; Mureung Valley, South Korea.

For further information and to purchase, please visit www.hibernate-recs.co.uk

Time Lapse Sampler

Wil Bolton's work uses guitars, acoustic instruments, vintage keyboards and effects to create warm and emotive melodies, fragmented and submerged among beds of droning ambient textures and environmental sounds.

Wil Bolton

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