Really thrilled to have not one - but two performances at this year's upcoming Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festical, //hcmf. Both pieces are new components of in my ongoing Churches of Lalibela series (started back in 2011). On 23.11.15 Parisian saxophone/percussion duo scapegoat give the UK premiere of betê gabriel-rufael, whilst on 24.11.15 Mexican ensemble CEPREOMusic give the world premiere of bet golgotha.
Both pieces mark a turn in the development of this series and are the first multi-instrumental components to be added to the since ymrehanne krestos, written for ELISION Ensemble in 2013.
Noam Bierstone of Scapegoat performs betê gabriel-rufael in the USA.
In some ways, both new pieces begin to fold my recent ideas concerning notions of 'place' into my previous preoccupations of erosion, encrustation and decay. Place as occupied or experienced space - or even as an embodiment of space. As such, both pieces try and bring their constituent instruments together to inhabit a shared timbral and gestural area, which simultaneously celebrates the differences between the instruments' differing physicalities and the togetherness opportuned by being part of the same ensemble.
betê gabriel-rufael uses a timbral space of multiphonic shrieks and metallic squeaks, produced by mapping the means of playing the two disperate instruments (tenor saxophone and large thundersheet) on to one other. The players are unified into a more communicative and communal 'present' - or perhaps temporal 'place' - by the addition of a computer-controlled click track.
bet golgotha is a multi-instrumental work for seven players. Building on ideas initially explored in my solo violin piece bet denagel (2012). The players each have a series of modules of music arranged in a map or maze through which they are free to move around independently in performance. Each module contains gestural material reworked to be 'embodied' by the particular characteristics of the various insturmental groups. The conductor also has a series of modules, which may also be freely traversed. Here, a series of ralls and accels are presented (of different patterns or behaviours), which the players follow in real time. Again, the attempt is one of unifying the occupants into a common sense of place, as the materials are forced through the lens of the governing tempo of the time.
Hoping some friendly faces will be able to attend. Do say hello if you're there.