Update: Recording project and article recommendation
Update on my recording project and two new articles
Over the last fortnight, I recorded and mastered a composition for a project I described in The garden in the machine. I am now gathering all the documentation material and writing an accompanying article to publish shortly. It has been a fulfilling project and I hope you find it as enjoyable and interesting to listen to and read as I found making it.
Also, I would like to share with you some articles I have published recently for an organisation called Music Hackspace.
The first is a 2-part interview on the future of music with a fascinating thinker and composer, Robert Thomas.
Robert believes music is stuck in a technological rut where we still imagine it in terms of fixed recordings, in a manner that has not fundamentally changed since the wax cylinder.
He believes there will be a transition in our perception of music, and it will be thought of as being more like software, non-linear, interactive, and dynamic. It is revolutionary thinking and he does not merely talk about these things he builds them, having collaborated with the likes of Hans Zimmer, Massive Attack, and Brian Eno.
The second article is a remembrance of the recently deceased Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.
I regrettably only heard Kaija Saariaho’s music live for the first time two years prior to her death in between lockdowns in the latter stages of the pandemic. It was a beautiful concert but did not feel sufficient to get truly acquainted with her music — I felt it needed an entire festival!
In this article I reflect on three of her compositions from a formative time in her life in the 1980s, when she moved to Paris and was working at the renowned Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM). It was a fascinating period when she experimented in brave and exciting ways, developing her unique and masterful voice.
I hope you have a nice weekend and enjoy reading these pieces!
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