To Juliette

Killim is an attempt to explore a number of sound-worlds through instrumental sound. But rather than articulate the traditional (abstract) materials of music, the sounds articulate snapshots (brief images) of the instruments which are often transformed beyond recognition into worlds where only the sense of energy present in their playing is felt.

The source material for Kilim come from recorded improvisation on (mostly) reed instruments from a number of cultures, and the work is concerned with keeping fragments of recognisable instrumental sound and retaining their sense of “played” energy, whilst using the sounds at the same time to create more abstract ‘acousmatic’ gestures.

The piece is built around a series of trajectories which act as triggers and cadences, or underpin longer passages, steering the pacing of the music using dozens of short sounds combined to make dramatic gestures or textures. The word, kilim, describes an intricately woven middle-eastern carpet whose designs inspired the piece.

[source: Réseaux des arts médiatiques]

Premiere

• January 19, 1994, Discoveries: Discoveries IV, Northern College – Theatre, Aberdeen (Scotland, UK)

Awards

• 3rd prize, Fixed medium, Concorso internazionale Luigi Russolo di musica elettroacustica 1994, Varèse (Italy)