Bridge of the Dead is a piece inspired by The Dead from the short story collection “The Dubliners” by James Joyce, in particular the theme of nostalgia and the past versus the present within the context of the main character Gabriel Conroy and his marriage to Gretta. There are three movements within the composition: (i)The… Continue reading
Escape the Grind
Program Note:
An urban skatepark and it’s surroundings are the setting for a local skater as they embark on an escape from the day to day grind of city living for a brief period of time. They arrive to the sound of an adjacent building site, a busy road and children in the playground. After the first trick is executed the skater is transported away from their environment to a state of flow, performing one trick after another, building tension over the passage before the climax and they are then dropped back into reality to return to everyday life awaiting the next chance to escape. All sounds were recorded and processed in Dublin, Ireland in the autumn of 2022.
Welcome to the first blog post from my ever expanding collection of sonic experiments, where I combine field recordings, synths and effects recorded and mixed in Ableton. This example is an experiment using a midi effects chain to create a generative lead using the Arturia MicroFreak. The synth results are unedited to show the breath of what was generated with some interesting midi phrases created, lashings of reverb was added to create the dreamscape like effect and melt the lead into the background. There are two field recordings running above and below the synth. One is a field recording made while sitting in a coffee shop on George’s St, Dublin during spring. The second is a recording using the Lom Geofón on a ferry coming back to Ireland from France, it was connected with the magnet attachment to the metal deck, picking up the engine resonating through the ship.