I’ve created an electronic soundtrack to accompany Josh Ben-Tovim‘s choreography for ‘Enemy of the Stars’. The musical materials were created with Hollie Harding back in 2019 as part of the Cohan Collective Residency. The work will be performed by Impermanence as part of a quadruple bill in a tour taking in Huddersfield, Bristol and London in April and May. Details in gig listings.
I had a fantastic week last week taking part in the Development week of the Cohan Collective. I was collaborating with choreographer Josh Ben-Tovim and composer Hollie Harding, creating a new 15-minute piece ‘Enemy of the Stars’. Looking forward to seeing how the project develops…
I’m really delighted that Pythagoras’ Toolkit, led by Ensemble Paramirabo (Montreal) and involving me as co-creator, composer and conductor, has been awarded funding from the Canadian Council for the Arts.
In Pythagoras’ Toolkit Rachel Warr (co-creator/director, Dotted Line Theatre) and I will bring to life, through puppetry and live music, a modern-day Pythagoras who will explore sound, space (conceptual/sound/realworld), rhythm, harmony and dissonance (order and chaos), instrument making/design, dance, musical textures and ways of constructing music.
The production, currently planning for a tour in 2021, will feature musicians from Ensemble Paramirabo (Canada), Workers Union Ensemble (UK) and two musically literate puppeteers working with a specially created Pythagoras puppet.
Rachel and I are concocting ideas already… more soon!
I had a great time at the Cohan Collective Residency in Bournemouth last month. I was one of four composers and four choreographers on the course, which was directed by Robert Cohan and Eleanor Alberga with Kim Brandstrup and Ken Hesketh mentoring. It was super intense. I think we pretty much wrote half an hour of music in 2 weeks! Felt like being an undegrad again – good for my teaching and, in the end, for my work. Met some great people who I hope to work with again. Few pics…
I’m excited to be going Bournemouth in a couple of weeks to take part in The Cohan Collective 2018 residency. This project brings together choreographers, dancers, musicians and composers to explore collaboration. Mentoring comes from choreographer Kim Brandstrup and composer Kenneth Hesketh, with founding directors Robert Cohan and composer Eleanor Alberga leading the residency. The project is led by Yorke Dance Project in partnership with Pavilion Dance South West and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. I can’t wait to get working with dancers again…
I’ve finally managed to edit together the video for ‘Separately Together’ from my Rambert mini-residency in September. Here it is!
Earlier this month I had a great time taking part in the final stages of a mini-residency working at Rambert Dance Company. 
The residency (thanks Rambert!) allowed me to try out an idea I had for a piece in which two dancers are paired with two pianists who perform on piano and synth. The new idea I wanted to explore was the idea that at the beginning of the piece the only people that can hear the synth playing are one of the dancers and the synth player. This allows the possibility for two clear visual choreographies to exist but the audience are not able to hear what is instigating the movements of one of the dancers. Later in the piece the synth material becomes audible and the listener is (hopefully) able to understand the choreography they have been seeing but not ‘hearing’. Well we tried this and I think the idea worked pretty well. I’m super grateful to choreographer Melanie Ingram, dancers Neus Gil Cortes and Chris Darmanin and musicians Yshani Perinpanayagam and Edward Pick for their patience and talent to bring it about! One of the great things about the project was the opportunity to show the work in an informal setting and receive feedback from an invited audience. This was a valuable process and one I’d be interested in exploring more in a contemporary music setting…
We made a video of the performance and I hope to edit it and upload it to Youtube fairly soon.
I am currently in the midst of a mini-residency with Rambert Dance Company in a collaboration with choreographer Melanie Teall. We are working on a new piece for two dancers and two musicians (piano and synth). The marvellous Edward Pick and Yshani Perinpanayagam are playing keyboards. There will be a ‘showing’ of the new piece in September at Rambert, watch this space for more information.
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