above; playing cello-input-laptop

right; playing brass birds.

Recent solos have used live sampling techniques - where sounds from the cello (or any other sound source) can be taken as they happen and transformed before your ears. The process is transparent and works well as a visual concert, unlike a lot of electronic music. The live element has always been important to me and I approach a concert very differently to a recording, inviting the audience in through what they see, to a greater enjoyment of what they hear.

I like to suggest that my music is characterised by its investigative nature.

I have always enjoyed playing solo and entertaining with unexpected music. I played for some years as a regular soloist and accompanying random films in noisy psychadelic CLUB DOG, a kind of outdoor festival, indoors (complete with competing multiple stages and dogs.) There I was required to play improvised film soundtracks or switch into cabaret as films changed or broke. The confused environment often requiring drastic behaviour to hold the attention of the bewildered revellers. Functional thinking had sometimes to switch to proactive. Requiring an impromptu song or grotesque clowning.

As a frequent accompanist/composer in the theatre as well as a sometime performer, I am comitted to the idea of functional music, where perhaps neither the musician nor the actor/dancer is the centre of attention. Where a performance is made of many elements and the audience may choose where to focus.

Similarly, I have recently played long solos at art openings requiring an inquisitive background sound that sustains the passive observer and rewards the listener. For these I sometimes use a simple quadraphonic system which constantly shifts sounds around the space and works well at a low volume. This music is abstract and discreet, because I am not the focus of attention . Yet it has integrity and bears the scrutiny of closer listening.

Contact alectroecoustic@ntlworld.com