Part 2
How much potential for something “new” is there still in composition? What could this “new” look like?
Certainly! Whilst there have been so many ideas, concepts, techniques, processes, and sounds explored over the history of music, there are new things being tapped into all of the time.
Personally, I try not to get hell-bent on making something “new” to contribute to the New Music world per se, but rather I am trying to make something that is “new” for me.
In terms of the wider picture, I suppose there is more to tap into with new technologies (virtual reality, particularly) and instrument building, particularly, but I honestly couldn’t really give you much of a detailed answer on those elements.
What role do electronic tools and instruments play for your creative process? What does your creative space / studio look like and what tools does it contain?
In terms of electronic tools, all of my music that has been scored and/or recorded has used notation software and/or DAWs to notate, record, and/or write the material; I do use pencil and paper too, but I have also found myself using Word documents, excel and the notes app to help aid my creative process. Going from piece to piece, I always try to change this up, even if it does slow down my creative process somewhat.
When it comes to my current creative space, I am incredibly fortunate to have a small separate room in my flat, which hosts all of my equipment to help me compose and do any other work related to my music. In the past, I’ve had quite some precarious workspaces, which have included beds, sofas, and desks with bad chairs, where I would often be hunched over like Quasimodo.
Thankfully, I am not in a situation like that with this current space. What you would find in my workroom includes a desk, a laptop stand, a heater (incredibly important in the winter, as it does get pretty cold in my workroom), my electric guitar, books, a snake plant, a Super 8 camera, a fair few guitar pedals, and an audio interface.
It is my impression that adding a conceptual, non-musical dimension to one's work is almost a prerequisite for commissions and grants. How do you view this tendency and how “conceptual” is your own approach to writing?
On the one hand, it can be frustrating trying to make your music have an objective meaning, especially when, as an artist, you are typically more drawn to the abstract and interested in exploring sound at its purest level.
However, what I have found is that when I have added non-musical dimensions to my own work, it has aided the material to take unexpected turns and pushed me outside of my usual comfort zone (even if sometimes the expected result didn’t quite match what I had planned).
Generally, I wouldn’t say that I was a ‘conceptual’ composer, but I have found that when I do deal with non-musical themes, I typically opt to choose additional elements, such as visuals, to help aid the message or response that I am trying to get across to the audience.
Working with long forms, complex concepts or new vocabulary is potentially more challenging today because they require us to remember things that happened perhaps minutes ago – while most of us are finding it hard to focus even on what's happening right now. Both as a composer and as a listener yourself, how do you deal with this?
As a composer, I typically use repetition, slow developments in the context of simpler material, and/or juxtapositions as a way to combat this; I don’t use those tools solely as a response to our ever-decreasing attention spans, that comes more from my own musical interests and using listening as a part of the composition process.
When it comes to me being a listener and an audience member, I tend to try to ‘lock in’ with an element in the piece, concentrate on that, and then try to make sense of where that fits in. Programme notes, of course, come in handy to help contextualise the work, but sometimes I just like to go into a concert with no expectations at all, and to just go for it.
My friend, Hugo Bell, once said that going to a concert is one of the few spaces in today’s world where you can get away from the constant feed of information and distractions from our phones, and that also rings true with me.
For many artists, life-changing musical experiences take place live. Few works these days, however, are performed beyond their premiere. What, do you feel, does this mean for composers, and the music they write, and how does this reality influence your own work?
It can certainly make you question yourself during the writing process! In the past, I have asked myself, ‘Should I really put all of these many different elements and spend all of this time only for this piece to be performed once?’
That said, I have found that when I do allow for those risks and push for those different elements, it does sometimes pay off and lead to subsequent performances. When I have caved into those inner thoughts, I think that those works are often less successful and less enjoyable for the performers to play.
When you work with orchestras, larger-sized ensembles, and generally more ‘established’ groups, then the chances of more than one performance are quite slim. However, when you seek out collaborations with newer, emerging chamber groups/soloists and encourage collaboration between yourself and the musicians, then that does sometimes lead to more performance.
Since finding this out for myself, I try to seek out more of these types of projects, as I find them more meaningful and fulfilling.
How would you say are live performances of your music and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?
At this point in time and for the past five years, all of my music has exclusively been written for live performance. I do use electronic elements in my work, however, and the intention for that is to enhance and add another dimension to the sound that is produced by the live performers.
I did have a recording project named Vallé (between 2013 and 2021), which most of the time was in the realm of an ambient, shoegaze, and instrumental dream pop aesthetic.
Looking back, I know that as time went on, I did bring elements from my concert music into Vallé and vice versa.
Works of mine like Objects and Portrait Projections (2021) Between Two Trios (2022), Fractured Motion (2022), Passing Through (2023), Moments of Escapist Thoughts (2024) and Pathways, Passages (2025), all utilise drum machine/beat sounds and/or emulate that ‘wall of sound’ aesthetic that I used to try to attempt when I was making music under my Vallé alias.
To some, the advent of AI and 'intelligent' composing tools offers potential for machines to contribute to the creative process. What are your hopes, fears, expectations and possible concrete plans in this regard?
Intelligent composing and AI certainly have the potential to speed up some of the more ‘systemic’ and laborious work that makes up part of the composition process; none of this is really new for our world, though. For several decades now, there have been random number generators, spectral analysis tools, software looping, etc.,
So the recent AI boom is more of an addition to the tools that we have available rather than completely revolutionising the practice. There are some composers who actually like the slow, laborious processes, such as Matthew Lee Knowles; to them, it’s an integral part of their practice.
Of course, the advent of generative AI has enabled people to generate music by simply writing a prompt and hitting a button, which really does make me empathise with those composers who primarily operate in the commercial and recording based worlds; that could sadly put a lot of people out of work. But on the same token, wouldn't that make some people (a small community only perhaps) want to boycott companies, labels and streaming platforms that do this?
When it comes to live music and contemporary classical music, I think that generative AI will just spur us composers and performers to focus even more on the live experience and the collaborative processes between ourselves. After all, music is all about creating, sharing ideas, and connecting with each other. If we take that away from the equation, then it is merely a digital product.
Are there approaches, artists, festivals, labels, spaces or anyone/-thing else out there who you feel deserve a shout out for taking composition into the future?
There are so many names to mention here. In terms of individuals, there are folks that I have known for a long time, and it has been a pleasure to watch them grow as artists, but there are also some composers whom I have come across more recently who have blown me away.
Naming a few of my colleagues and people around my age for the most part, composers such as Robert Crehan, Lise Morrison, Christian Drew, Lara Agar, Eden Lonsdale, Hugo Bell, Cem Güvan, Celia Swart, Thanakarn Schofield, Robert Coleman, Chris Cresswell, Alex Tay, Yixie Shen, Sky Macklay, Maya Verlaak, Robert Nettleship, Matthew Lee Knowles, Luke Deane, Paolo Griffin, Wilson Leywantono, Anibal Vidal, Gloria Xia, Neo Hülcker, Christine Cornwell, Zygmund de Somogyi, Anna-Louise Walton, Andy Ingamells, Sasha Scott, Rebecca Galian Castello, Peter Bell, James McIlwrath, Matt Gilley, James Oldham and Laila Arafah, I could go on, but I feel as though I would be thinking for a very long time.
In terms of performers, I’d like to give a shoutout to the ensembles Standard Issue, Terra Invisus, collective lovemusic, Freesound, Ensemble Klang, Kirkos, 315 Ensemble, XTRO, and Kluster 5, as well as soloists Kathryn Williams, Chris Cresswell, Alfian Emir Adytia, Huw Morgan, and Dauphine Van der Velphen. I have had the privilege of either working with them or I am currently in the process of working on a piece for them at the time of writing; they have all been great and dedicated to their collaborations with me on top of their steadfast commitment to performing and developing new music.
To blow my own trumpet again, but PRXLUDES, it was formed back in 2020 as a blog by Zygmund de Somogyi and over the five years has grown into an online contemporary music magazine that actively platforms and supports our rather niche community. Today, it includes Zygmund (as the artistic director and editor), myself (as the creative director), Georgie West, Sofia Jen Ouyang, and Finn Mattingly; very soon, we will be starting our first set of events with the PRX.LIVE Launch Party taking place on the 5th of February at Folklore in Hoxton, London.
With regards to other organisations, series and venues, there is SAOM, The Hundred Years Gallery, Avalon Cafe, Cafe Oto, Spanners Club, The Horse Hospital, 840 (ran by Alex Nikiporenko and Christian Drew), Eternal Series (curated by Sasha Elina), Radio Killed the Video Star (hosted by the charismatic James Oldham and ran by Resonance FM), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Wigmore Hall’s living composer days, Centrala and Artefact in Birmingham, Mainly Slow Organ Music, De Link in Tilburg, Gaudeamus Festival, Rainy Days Festival in Luxembourg and November Music.
The Montreux Festival intends to preserve its archive of recordings for future generations. Do you personally feels it's important that everything should remain available forever - or is there something to be said for letting beautiful moments pass and linger in the memories of those that experienced them?
As a person who is very big on documentation, my gut feeling is to have most things available forever.
That said, documentation never truly recreates that in-person experience you have whilst you are at a concert; it’s purely to capture what happened and then be used as evidence to show that it took place.
