Remembering back to this amazing day in 2016...it doesn't seem like 4 years ago...the University of Huddersfield won the Queen's Anniversary Prize! (I had nothing to do with it) Being chosen by Professor Cassidy (pictured Above) to represent the University as a postgraduate was flabbergasting in itself.

To all students: Work hard, put yourself out there (gigs, school, college, university, talks/lectures, studio sessions, concerts, artist meetings...) be present, be dedicated and who knows what wonderful things will happen.

As a featured artist in ROAR's TalkEx 19 exhibition in May (read about the exhibition), I was invited to prepare a discussion on a topic of my choice, which I delivered this week.

Understanding that the audience may be comprised of mainly visual artists, many of whom might not know about might work, I wanted to give an insight into contemporary, experimental and avant-garde music. Instead of giving the usual discussion about my own work or how I approach materials or sound, I wrote a brief history of noise and sound in music from 1913, introducing a few of the key composers and musicians who influenced my reading, thinking and composition of music.

My intention was to show a sort of evolution within a particular sphere of music practice, somewhat elicited or influenced by/through technology and new listening practices. I created a very simple webpage to accompany the talk and presentation (which is mobile-friendly, simply containing links and does not feature any images or sounds), which you can visit, if you wish.

Many thanks to ROAR for encouraging me to give a presentation! I really enjoyed the writing experience as well as delivering the presentation, which also spurred some further thoughts about writing...

Last month I was interviewed about my creative and teaching practice by marketing and communications assistant for ROAR, Amy Forde.

I've had the pleasure of being interviewed for various things in the past, but this was rather more personal than I've been used to and Amy had a very natural manner and way of asking questions that I found really got me talking. I think Amy is clearly very skilled as she was able to create a succinct and sensible article from my disorganised and (perhaps) frenetic ramblings!

Many thanks, Amy for approaching me about this and for writing so many wonderful words.

You can read a PDF of the article or visit the Chase magazine website (pages 36-37).

TalkEX19 is an exhibition of eleven artists' work who have given talks at ROAR over the last two years. This exhibition is hosted at the gorgeous Imperial Arcade in the centre of Rotherham. The Imperial Arcade is a Grade II listed Edwardian Retail Arcade, with massive ground floor windows. All artist work is being displayed in the windows, making it viewable by all passing public.

My video piece Étude, made from video images of my own classical guitar performance, is being shown along with several other video works on the Corporation side of the Imperial Arcade.

Although I have not yet given a talk at ROAR, I am scheduled to do so in June, so watch this space!

A visit to Whitby for a good friend's birthday presented the opportunity to capture some coastal recordings for my sound library. Unfortunately, I came down with an awful virus that very weekend and had to spend most of our short break recovering in bed - how disappointing!

Although being very poorly, I was able to grab some quick and very rough recordings - nothing of much use but I've certainly learned a lot about recording on wet sand! The great news is my windshield worked brilliantly and even this simple microphone was able to pick up some decent coastal ambience, thanks in large to the quiet pre-amps on my recorder.

Now the weather is improving there will no doubt be more opportunity to get out and capture more sounds in the field without threat of rain ruining my gear or excessive winter wind ruining my recordings!

I am currently working on a composition which makes use of the various sounds generated by 'playing' a variety of coins currently in circulation in the UK. I wanted to use the sounds created when handling coins ( which are a physical manifestation of a national/global system: the 'idea' of the coin is worth more than the actual metal it's made from) for their symbolic nature and how we attempt overcome certain obstacles that arise throughout the course of our lives.

As well as myself, a poet, a visual artist and a documentary film maker were also part of the creative team. The video above is the documentary which captured the excavation and includes several interviews with some of the professional archaeologists and team leaders involved in themassive project...as well as an impromptu interview with me on-site!

You can read more about the excavation itself and my approach to the compositions in this blog post.

The quality of the films were excellent in both fidelity, composition and editing techniques. Some films had clear narrative and intention to communicate, which the musicians easily and readily picked up on. A common theme among some of them seemed to be the materialistic nature of society and waste. What I found particularly interesting about the musician's response to the animated images was the use of gesture: there was a good amount of gestural imitation taken from the screen and into the music. This bounced around the room between various instruments, transforming and creating textures which were thankfully not quickly abandoned. I did feel that some of the visual cues in many films were so strong the musicians would be unable to ignore them, which was the case. This is why I was pleased with the band's approach to Apprentice.

I attended the event with some small degree of trepidation, as Apprentice was never composed to be used as a score, but I had always thought that the piece could be interpreted for live sound. As the screen filled with flashing images of hands, both audience and musicians seemed a little unsure and there was little sound from either. Gradually, the musicians found something to latch on to and began making sound.

As a piece, Apprentice contains a good amount of energy from the outset and only continues to become more energetic. At roughly the halfway mark, I noticed several musicians had latched onto the repeating hand shapes while others attempted to keep up with the rhythmic aspects. This was very brave as some parts of the rhythm is particularly fast-paced!

Somewhat after what I know to be the halfway point, I noticed how intense the soundscape had become and realised the musicians would have to either dig deep to find more from their technique and instruments if they were to stay true to the piece, or somehow find a way out, or maybe even give up altogether - what an opportunity for a lover of improvisation! I am pleased to say, to their testament, the band continued with their frenetic realisation, clearly feeling the physical strain in fingers, lungs and embouchure alike.

At the climax and eventual blackness at the end of Apprentice there was a great breath (of relief?!) from both band and audience. I'm unsure whether this was as a response to the experience in general, or if it was sympathy in response to the intensity of the band's highly physical performance.

The mood of the music was intense, dark, dramatic and climactic - what a sound! Thank you to all who were involved in production of Soundstripes 2, to the faithful and highly-skilled musicians and to the other film and video artists for a wonderful evening of sound and light.

My first reaction to the cutting was how familiar the image looked to the style of various graphic scores I've seen, played from and composed. My first step was to tag the work with sticky notes on which I wrote my immediate reactions so I could then spend more time thinking about the soundscape I might create...I was given just two weeks!

Noticing the controlled ranges of colours and shapes and how they seemed to move across the page filled my imagination with ideas of an open wind-swept landscape and the sounds of small unseen creates moving in their own unique way. This prompted me to use a mixture of found objects which included a metal filing cabinet, screws and pieces of wood as well as traditional instruments; I knew I would need to spend time sitting and playing with the unfamiliar sounding objects to find out what they are capable of. I recorded the instruments and sounding objects using a combination of contact and ambient microphones to try and create texture in the sounds themselves. In the end, I edited in some changes of volume and panning, as well as cleaning up some of the chops and gaps using Logic Pro X for the Mac.

This experience has reminded me how much I enjoy improvisation working from a score and also brought back some buried thoughts on improvisation and composition.

Listen to the Unnamed Soundscape

We were given a tour of the house and grounds, including the space we would later choose to work in for the day. Two rooms struck me immediately: the first was the Marble Hall, designed c.1725 by John Carr of York. This 60ft square hall, finished with Italian marble, is an astounding space. The reflection of both light and sound is impressive and has given me plenty to think about since my visit! I would love to compose a piece of music especially for this room - one which makes full use of the amplification and reverberation of this amazing space: all sounds seem impossibly loud, yet truly loud sounds fly from corner to corner! I felt as though I could listen to this space for a good while.

The second room was the Painted Drawing Room which was used in several scenes for the TV show Wives and Daughters in the late 1990s. The room is decorated with images depicting the human senses, painted directly onto the walls! This seemed the perfect room for me and I positioned myself in the corner which depicted sound and music.

The light was pale and the room cold but it was serenely quiet. This was perfect for finishing the second movement of a piece I am writing for the Great Places Scheme, which saw a research excavation take place on a site near the Elsecar Heritage Centre, which is directly connected to the history of Wentworth Woodhouse.

If you've not visited Wentworth Wood house, I urge you to do so - the rooms and gardens are spectacular! The roof is currently being replaced with new tiles. For a small fee you can have your own tile inscribed with whatever you wish, to become part of the house's history.

I was delighted to exhibit two pieces: Questioner, 1863 and Apprentice. These pieces demonstrated my use of video in creating realtime scores for musical improvisation, as well as silent video art aimed at generating an imagined sonic experiences.

The large concrete space carried the flute sounds of Questioner, 1863, creating dream-like apparitions throughout The Factory, while the darkness of the projection room provided excellent contrast to the hands seen in Apprentice.

Collecting feedback through exhibition is essential and although there was some competition with the royal wedding, football cup finals and delightful weather, many artists were presenting work. Discussing exhibiting artists' sculptures and pieces of audiovisual installation with them inspired me to think about new ways of working for exhibition.

I saw this as a perfect chance to come up with a piece for the gallery which hosts my teaching studio as I had not yet composed anything specifically for them! I wanted to provoke the viewer into considering what a musical notation actually is, or what it could be. I created a score which provides the performer with some rather tricky decisions. Some musicians would consider this to not be a completed score, others would enjoy the freedom the score provides.

The score provides some indication of pitch, rhythm and dynamic but meter, bar line clef and instrument(s) are absent. As the score is somewhat indeterminate I have no idea what sound it would produce if played.

I have composed several indeterminate pieces in my short years as a composer, but I have not done so for some time and really enjoyed working on this short notation.

I have no idea how fast, slow or long the piece is (any time), exactly what instruments may be used, nor exactly what pitches would be revealed through performance (any place).

Any time, any place (2018) is available for download from my Compositions page.

I always welcome your input, so any questions or comments on this or anything else on the website can be addressed to musicalmrfox@gmail.com

A selection of pieces have been added along with sound and/or video files and performance notes.

So, what’s next?

The two pieces from my MA portfolio, Syncretism and Apprentice, are still being exhibited at Access Space until the 15th June, 2017.

Please check out information about Access Space and the exhibition.

Access Space in Sheffield has agreed to show these two works along with a brief discussion from myself on the opening night. The event opens on July 1st at 5:30pm and will be shown for two weeks.

Further information about Access Space and the exhibition can be found here.

I also included some details about how this experience, and that of speaking at a conference in support of the published work, had an impacted on his current research at the University as a postgraduate researcher.

The short article can be found at the University of Huddersfield’s Press blog, with a permanent file available for download.

This was an amazing opportunity to discuss my work and gain even more experience in public speaking.

Many thanks go to Katherine Jensen for organising the whole thing!

If you have any questions, comments, queries, or would like to know more about the work, please do get in touch via info@musicalmrfox.co.uk or musicalmrfox@gmail.com

The University of Huddersfield won the prize for ‘world-leading work to promote, produce and present contemporary music to an international audience’. The award was accepted by Professor Bob Cryan and Professor Rachel Cowgill.

A party of staff and students attended the ceremony which included Mr Chris J. Brown, Professor Martin Hewitt, Professor Aaron Cassidy, Khannah Bint Saliym, Jung In Jung, Chi Ching, Beavan Flanagan and myself.

Many thanks to the University of Huddersfield, and particularly Professor Cassidy, for this absolutely amazing opportunity; it was an absolute honour and a wonderful occasion which I will never forget.

Do feel free to check out some official photographs of the occasion!

I am keen for this work to reach as many people as possible. It, along with any of the other journal entries, can be downloaded for free from the University’s digital repository.

If you have any questions, comments, queries, or would like to know more about the work, please do get in touch via info@musicalmrfox.co.uk or musicalmrfox@gmail.com