This gallery contains 4 photos.
The Revenge of Miguel Cotto, the work that Steve Fowler and I are working on for the London Sinfonietta Blue Touch Paper project, is going well. The work is moving at a fast pace now, and I’m having some mentoring … Continue reading
I’m looking for an exciting, provocative, anarchist or shocking film-maker who is interested in making short films to equally direct, bold and disturbing contemporary music.
There are two pieces that I’d really love a film-maker to make a short film to one of them or both.
The first is 3 minutes long and is called ‘Fuck Forever’ and you can see it here.
(NB: this is a poor audio recording. we will re-record the soundtrack for the video in a studio in London)
The words for the video performance will be changed from James Young to ‘George Miles’ – referencing the Dennis Cooper pentology of books about George Miles.
The second is ‘numbers 91-95′ based on poetry by Simon Howard, and performed in this video by Ensemble Adapter in Berlin. The poem is all about memory, nostalgia, dreaming and forgetting. The text is here and the music is on this video.
More information about my work and audio samples and press reviews are all on this site. I hope you are inspired!
This is an unpaid, voluntary, collaborative work, and the idea would be to make the film and music freely available as a promotional tool for both artists, ideally distributing round all of our networks. Ongoing collaborations may transpire too, and may lead to paid collaborations with various multimedia projects I’m working on relating to poetry, violence and sexuality.
The bolder, more edgy and more direct the work, the better!
Please send samples of work, ideas, CVs and any other relevant info to me by email above. I’d be hoping to have the films finished by the Summer.
We’ve just got together the new blog site for the UNLEASHED anti-opera project that I’m doing with director Jorge Balça and baritone Omar Ebrahim. Check it out here….
Posted in Uncategorized
I met Theatre Director Nick Blackburn over a coffee in a very cute little knitting shop / café in Nantwich on Christmas Eve. We had long conversations about music, text, violence and theatre, and he filmed a little bit of the conversation, a bit of which is shown here.
This video seems quite relevant to most of my projects this year, as so many of them are connected with violence:
Posted in blog, Projects, Videos
Tagged Blue Touch Paper, Interview, London Sinfonietta, Nick Blackburn, Omar Ebrahim, Steven Fowler, Tete a Tete, Unleashed
I’m delighted to have been selected with poet Steven J Fowler for the London Sinfonietta’s new Blue Touch Paper scheme.
We were selected in October for our project that is an immersive, 45-minute-long semi-staged piece for ensemble, electronics and vocalists, about Boxing. Steve is a really wonderful, critically-acclaimed and very prolific young British poet who also used to be a professional boxer. Steve’s work has so much in common with my own, with its predilection for violence, and its clear, no-nonsense communication with the reader/listener. We’re hoping to bring all these qualities into our work, and we’re both really excited about producing something that is really fresh, adrenalin-fuelled and original.
The Sinfonietta are backing the project with lots of resources, advice and support, under their Blue Touch Paper scheme for emerging composers and collaborators. We’re currently working on the project, having lots of workshop sessions with Sinfonietta players, poets, other composers and vocalists/performers.
We will preview 20 minutes of our project in May 2012 with the London Sinfonietta, and we are also on the look out for production partners who may be interested in taking the complete project, once finished. Watch this space!
Contrasts in Space was screened at the British Film Institute on 1st December, alongside the premiere of my new soundtrack for it, featuring tape and live viola. Ensemble Amorpha were performing.
Contrasts in Space is a black and white film by Sebastian Schmidt. Here’s a video of the synced live sound recording from the performance with the film.
Posted in Performances, Videos
Tagged ensemble amorpha, film, sebasitan schmidt, shorts amorpha, tape, Viola
I’ve just received a video from 2009 of a performance of K, a prelude to the Mozart Clarinet Quintet, given by Endymion at Kings Place in September 2009.
Wonderful playing, and I’m very grateful to Kings Place for making the video of the performance. The piece, as you can hear, knits neatly into Mozart’s own Clarinet Quintet, making it a thoughtful, contemplative concert opener for that work. Endymion are performing this again, with the Mozart and Brahms Clarinet Quintets, at Surrey University Concert Series on Sunday 29th January at 3pm. Click here for more info.
Posted in Performances, Videos
Tagged chamber music, Endymion, K, Kings Place, mozart clarinet quintet, surrey university
Ensemble Adapter gave the world premiere of Numbers 91-95 by me (text by Simon Howard) at the Wien Modern Festival on 10th November 2011, in the Casino Baumgarten in Vienna.
I’m really happy with the piece and the performance, and so were the Ensemble. They performed it again the following week at the wonderful Borusan Müsik Evi venue as part of the new music series.
Posted in Videos
Tagged Berlin, borusan, Ensemble Adapter, Flute, harp, istanbul, numbers 91-95, Simon Howard, speaker, tape recorder, vienna, Wien Modern
I’m delighted to say I’ve written a short piece for viola and tape (or optional speaking chorus), as a new soundtrack to Sebastian Schmidt’s short film Contrasts in Space.
This will be performed by Ensemble Amorpha at the British Film Institute on 1st December in London, at an event called Shorts Amorpha.
Here’s more info about it. Do go along if you can! There’s lots of new scores to silent short films, by some very good composers including Luke Styles, Chris Mayo and Naomi Pinnock.
Here’s the trailer, too….
Posted in Performances, Videos
Tagged BFI, ensemble amorpha, sebastian schmidt, short films, shorts amorpha, tape, Viola
