Electroacoustic Wales (Dir. Andrew Lewis) – Richard Craig (flute) – Bangor New Music Ensemble – Swansea Laptop Orchestra (Jenn Kirby and Simon Kilshaw) – Siwan Rhys (piano)

Andrew Lewis: Earthline for bass flute and electronics

Earthline is a companion to my electroacoustic piece Skyline (2016). The earlier work develops and extends the sound of a Blackbird recorded in my garden at dawn one summer morning. In Earthline, thirteen individual phrases from these same Blackbird recordings are slowed down and lowered in pitch, revealing the alien world of their inner detail and bringing them in the bass flute range. This is the source material for the bass flautist, who evokes the distinctive vocal shapes and strange colourations of the Blackbird’s song using a variety of highly virtuosic colouristic techniques.

Earthline was commissioned by the Bangor Music Festival and composed for flautist Richard Craig, whose remarkable bass flute playing is also heard in the electronic part.

Samuel Davies: Ascending Descending

I was inspired by the ascending and descending stair cases depicted by M. C. Escher, which is an illusion of going somewhere and yet nowhere at the same time. I implement this in my music in many ways. Firstly, the key. The piece is mainly in the whole tone scale, giving it a feel of uncertainty and confusion. Secondly, the main motif, which is a simple descending line, played in bar 1 by the clarinet. It is then split between the flute and oboe and retrograded in bar 3 giving the feeling of ascending and descending. You will find similar passages throughout the piece. Finally, I use perpetuum mobile to create a continual yet static idea representing the going somewhere yet nowhere at the same time, combining it with the infinity series to place emphasis on this idea of static movement, and yet trying to go somewhere.

Tanya Dower: Chiron’s Return

Tanya Dower works with sound and music as a therapeutic tool for health and wellbeing and creates electronic and natural soundscapes that very often reflect the environment and surrounding landscape of the South Wales valleys. Using natural and electronic sounds including voice, she has composed for inclusive theatre, international multimedia and local community exhibitions.

This composition for CoDI ELECTRONIC is inspired by Greek mythology and astrology. The healing frequencies of ‘Chiron’s Return’ invites the participant to arrange and play their own healing journey along the orbit of the Centaur Planet Chiron. The only stipulation is that any instrument is to be played in the key of F major.

Siwan Rhys: Dwylo (‘Hands’)

This piece is for hands.

Alan Chamberlain: Pen Dinas In Voice

Pen Dinas in Voice brings together technology, field recordings from the site, interviews, archaeological data and local understandings as a way to explore the sonic possibilities of the Welsh hillfort Pen Dinas. Over a series of years Alan has been engaging with the archaeological site and undertaking work to better understand the place and the ways that people have used the site, both past and present in the village of Penparcau (near Aberystwyth).

The composition consists of three sections, these represent the evolution and construction of the site, each have their own distinct sonic qualities. Like the differing interpretations of the significance of the hillfort and the multiple meanings it holds for those connected with it, the piece is developed to be able to be performed in numerous ways, using different approaches and methods to its performance, and yet still consist of recognisable elements each time it is performed. Within the piece there are elements which provide the structural ‘backdrop’, while a series of audio ‘fragments’ are given to the performers with which they can interpret and use to perform the piece.