PRSF New Music Incubator – Initial response

Last week I attended the UK leg of the PRSF New Music Incubator, for which I was selected earlier this year. This was held at Brunel University, the Swedish leg takes place in some remote northern Swedish town in April 2012.

Here is a list of the current participants.

I decided to write an initial response to my time there before memories fade. I have not reflected on stuff in great detail, in fact I just wanted to blurt some stuff out there. I find this a valid part of how I document stuff and also quite cathartic. More measured thoughts to follow…maybe.

The schedule and process was pretty intensive. Each day we’d make our way to the food hall at 8am for breakfast, then to the main hall for 9am to be divided into groups and to be given our theme for the day. Each evening at 8pm we would “perform” whatever we had managed to achieve that day. Days were pretty long, creatively charged and were followed by long sessions to evaluate what had been presented. These were sometimes quite impassioned affairs.

On the first night it became apparent that the people chosen were all really pleasant, as were the people leading the programme. That was a great start and put me immediately at ease.

For me personally it was an emotional time. I had to travel back on the first day to attend a meeting to see whether the studio I had spent all my life savings on having built could be rescued from possible demolition, as it was too tall. I find planning a pretty dull subject area but the potential consequences were substantial for me and had been causing me stress and bouts of depression for months. I was really nervous but I am so pleased to say that it was passed and can now be finished. This is GREAT news but the whole episode left me even more emotionally drained than just the intensity of the programme itself. My instinct was that I wanted to be around people I was already close to that night and the next day but it was actually really nice just getting on with stuff and seeing how happy those who I told were for me. Again, it showed how damn pleasant the people on the programme are.

At times I felt out of my depth. I am clearly at a different stage in my musical development to pretty much everyone else there, which included accomplished composers, players, or experts in their fields. By the last day this feeling got to me a little but overall it was really good to be given an indication of what level I should be looking to achieve. It also meant that I learnt shedloads from everyone else. I hope I was able to give something back but some of the time I just felt I was leaching expertise.

I was reminded how much I want to excel on an instrument or in a given area, rather than as is currently the case, where I am fairly proficient in a number of areas. People demonstrated some amazing work throughout as part of how we got to know each other. On the last day I had demos from Robert Ek, a hugely accomplished clarinet player, and from Mark Fell. I consider both of them to be at the top of their games. This just made me want to concentrate my efforts more than ever.

As ever I didn’t document stuff as well as I’d have liked. We were busy! The best I did was take a few photographs of my group on the last day (below). More material will no doubt surface in due course.

Lina Lapelyte

Robert Ek

Mark Fell

My kit

We all provided feedback about the programme on the last evening. There’s no need to go over that here, other than to stress one thing, I think it could be even more successful given a broader range of people and influences. I don’t really know what sort of music PRS hope the programme will result in but for me the participants were drawn from too narrow a selection of musicians and backgrounds.

I have not stopped thinking about the week we had together. In the shower, on my morning bike ride etc. It has really challenged me and I believe it will focus my efforts greatly. In particular the single-mindedness and expertise demonstrated was just a big kick up the arse for me. I admire so many of the people on the course, it was great to spend time I their company. It was all I could’ve hoped for.

I am really looking forward to Sweden and am confident interesting collaborations and future works will arise.
I’d like to thank everyone involved in the programme and a special thank you to Capsule for nominating me. Your support is hugely appreciated!

Organ Of Corti

As part of the Worcester Music Festival I was lucky enough to visit Organ of Corti last weekend, a project by Liminal. I also attended the “Meet The Artists” event on the previous day.

I became aware of this project some time ago and was chuffed, to say the least, when I realised it would be visiting Worcester. It transpires that Diglis weir was actually the place initially chosen to sight it. A real bonus for me as it gets a little tedious when so much intriguing stuff of this nature requires an all-day round trip (at best) to witness it. The weir is only a bike ride away.

The presentation on the Friday night gave a really fascinating insight into the project. Rather than me trying to go into much detail about what was covered, check out the Organ of Corti page for an overview. Based on what we heard and saw, in terms of the science, images of the piece and the enthusiasm of the artists, I was keen to experience the piece myself.

Before I come back to that though, David Prior of Liminal mentioned a project by one of his former students, which I had to mention, as it’s a real gem. He took four drummers, each playing snare drums, and spaced them along a path into the distance. He then conducted them with a semaphore flag from next to where the audience stood. Each player hit their drum simultaneously but given the (carefully measured) space between them and the time it took for the sound of each drum to reach the audience, a recognisable rhythm was created. The players then walked to the next designated spot. As they did so, the rhythm got jumbled. On reaching the next spot another recognisable rhythm was formed. The players ultimately ended up by the crowd, still playing in unison. Great idea that! Anyway, I digress…

On the Saturday I visited the piece by the weir. It is a stunningly beautiful object. I read the description and instructions and tried my best to get myself into listening mode. If anything I generally listen to stuff too closely. For example, I’ll get distracted from a fascinating interview by a squeaky shoe. I gathered myself, listened deeply and entered. The first thing that struck me was a shift in where I perceived the sound to be coming from. All of a sudden it seemed to have shifted to emanate from the piece itself, directly in front of where I stood. This was something I hadn’t expected.

I passed from right to left listening to the distinction between different parts of the “sonic crystal”. I could definitely distinguish changes in the frequencies of sound I was hearing. The weir was chosen as the site due to the wide frequency range it produces, in an effort to highlight the effect.

I did some sound recordings to try to illustrate what it sounded like. The first is from outside the Organ of Corti, the second from just inside, and the third is a “fly-through”. They were all somewhat compromised by a mixture of me forgetting my wind sock, not having whatever the audio equivalent of a steady cam is and by people talking and making sounds…but I think it illustrates the effect to some degree.

[audio:https://www.mrunderwood.co.uk/audio/organofcorti/clean.mp3] [audio:https://www.mrunderwood.co.uk/audio/organofcorti/right_corner.mp3] [audio:https://www.mrunderwood.co.uk/audio/organofcorti/fly_through.mp3]

Note: these are quite noisy!

I must admit I was left wondering how different it would’ve been if I’d walked behind / into something else. The animation we saw on the Friday evening suggested that the specific form of the piece was vital to the effect. I can’t say that my ear is well trained enough to be confident of this. I understand this version of the piece is due to be used as a research tool for a period now. I’d be fascinated to hear what comes of this.

It’s great to see such projects in Worcester. I hope this piece and pieces like it are given a permanent home here. Only the other day, on seeing a photograph of the Worcester skyline including the new Worcester University Library & History Centre, I remarked that it’s stuff like this which makes for a truly international city. The same applies to the quality of the art that resides in the city. More please!