“Onset — beginning; attack; articulation; impulse; an event marking a notable change of state.

Offset — displacement; perceptible delay in time; measurable distance in space; dislocation.

Onset / Offset explores the interplay between the real-world connotations of recognisable sounds and their spectromorphological characteristics (their purely sonic qualities). The resulting ambiguities lead to some startling displacements and dislocations between events/articulations and their continuations/extensions.”

— Jonty Harrison [06]

Onset / Offset was realized in summer 1996 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham (UK) and the studios of Northern College (Aberdeen, Scotland) and premiered on June 25, 1996 at the Filmhouse (Edinburgh). It received Honorable Mentions at the Stockholm Electronic Arts Award (Sweden, 1996) and the 1st Concorso Internazionale di Composizione Musicale Elettronica Pierre Schaeffer (Pescara, Italy, 1998).

Composition

• June – August 1996, Electroacoustic Music Studios — University of Birmingham, Birmingham (England, UK)

Premiere

• June 25, 1996, InvisiblEARts, Filmhouse, Edinburgh (Scotland, UK)

Awards

• Mention, Stockholm Electronic Arts Award 1996, Stockholm (Sweden)
• Honorable Mention, Category A (fixed medium), 1st International Competition of Computer Music Pierre Schaeffer, Pescara (Italy)

Mastering

• 2005, Dominique Bassal • Studio Inverse, Montréal (Québec)

“Peel back the layers — what’s under the surface?

The roulette wheel spins and we follow, flying headlong into the frantic, fragmentary world beneath.

As we travel deeper, are we outside? What’s underfoot? Twigs cracking, water running, creaking, scurrying?

Rest for a moment — we’re in a real world whose reality is scarcely less surreal than before.

The crystal turns, the light scatters again, magnifying splinters of a microscopic frenzy.

Children play, voices shimmer in a haze.”

— Alistair MacDonald [06]

Peel was realized in April 1997 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham (UK) and the studios of Northern College (Aberdeen, Scotland) and premiered on April 5, 1997 at the Midlands Arts Centre (Birmingham, UK). It was commissioned by the Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST) with funds provided by West Midland Arts.

Composition

• April 1997, Electroacoustic Music Studios — University of Birmingham, Birmingham (England, UK)

Premiere

• April 5, 1997, Rumours… 97: New Directions — BEAST, Foyle Studio — Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham (England, UK)

Mastering

• 2005, Dominique Bassal • Studio Inverse, Montréal (Québec)

“An archetypal phrase; falling melodic contour, slow movement through the harmonic spectrum. Created from an apparently simple feedback loop, this archetype is explored in a kaleidoscope of extended phrases, sometimes fading away, sometimes abruptly interrupted, sometimes gradually disintegrating into constituent parts, always concerned with gradual evolution and changes of state.”

— Simon Atkinson [06]

Shioum was realized in the autumn of 1994 at the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham (UK) and the studios of Northern College (Aberdeen, Scotland) and premiered on December 4, 1994 at the Midlands Arts Centre (Birmingham, UK).

Composition

• September – November 1994, Electroacoustic Music Studios — University of Birmingham, Birmingham (England, UK)
• September – November 1994, Electroacoustic Music Studio — Northern College, Aberdeen (Scotland, UK)

Premiere

• December 4, 1994, Rumours… 94-95: Programme Music — Public Music, 1, Foyle Studio — Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham (England, UK)

Mastering

• 2005, Dominique Bassal • Studio Inverse, Montréal (Québec)

“From the title, I’m prompted to think of both Claude Debussy and Ken Russell: Debussy’s various sets of Images for piano (and yet another for orchestra), Ken Russell’s film Altered States.

Rather than Reflets dans l’eau (Reflections in water), the composer reflects, among others, on spinning bicycle spokes (Mouvement?) — a banal sound of childhood play and ecological transport refracted, reflected and re-imagined: re-imaged.

The composer as conjurer — Russell’s modern man in a darkened room seeking a sacred, primal experience. Here, it is music… and the composer is in the role of shaman-magician.

Am I hallucinating? Am I hearing? Am I dreaming? I am listening…”

— Joseph Anderson [06]

Altered Images was realized in summer 1995 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham (UK) and the studios of Northern College (Aberdeen, Scotland) and premiered on January 23, 1996 at Concordia University (Montréal). It was awarded the 2nd prize at the 2nd Concurso Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de São Paulo (CIMESP ’97, Brazil).

Composition

• June – August 1995, Electroacoustic Music Studios — University of Birmingham, Birmingham (England, UK)
• June – August 1995, Electroacoustic Music Studio — Northern College, Aberdeen (Scotland, UK)

Premiere

• January 23, 1996, ÉuCuE XIV: Concert 8, Salle de concert — Campus Loyola — Université Concordia, Montréal (Québec)

Awards

• 2nd prize, International Electroacoustic Music Contest of São Paulo 1997, São Paulo (Brazil)

Mastering

• 2005, Dominique Bassal • Studio Inverse, Montréal (Québec)

“This piece does exactly what it says on the tin!

Short… — not long in duration; small.

The sounds in Shortstuff are brief, crisp and fleeting. They gather together to form exquisite gestures and subtle textures.

… stuff — the material a thing is made of.

The momentum of this work is derived from the dynamic timbres of the material, whether powering to a full-spectrum climax or glistening in a distant light.

The sound-world is crisp and sharp with clear spatial trajectories and tight gestures in counterpoint with dark spaces and the small textural sounds of the night.”

— Adrian Moore [06]

Shortstuff was realized in the spring and summer of 1993 at the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham (UK) and the studios of Northern College (Aberdeen, Scotland) and premiered on October 21, 1994 at The Lemon Tree (Aberdeen, Scotland). It received Special Prize in the Musica Nova 1994 International Competition of Electroacoustic Music (Prague, Czech Republic).

Composition

• March – August 1993, Electroacoustic Music Studios — University of Birmingham, Birmingham (England, UK)
• March – August 1993, Electroacoustic Music Studio — Northern College, Aberdeen (Scotland, UK)

Premiere

• October 21, 1994, Concert, The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen (Scotland, UK)

Awards

• Special Prize, Category A (fixed medium), Musica Nova 1994, Prague (Czech Republic)

Mastering

• 2005, Dominique Bassal • Studio Inverse, Montréal (Québec)

“The first two letters of Aberdeen’s postcode (AB) imply a latent episodic musical structure to the Granite City that is made explicit in this piece. We are thrown from sonic encounter A to acoustic ambience B (via moments of dangerous articulation that seem to have the energy to provide such propulsion) and so ever onward towards Z. Whether we arrive is open to question (the lengthening nature of the episodes working against such a goal), and we most certainly never return to A. It is as if our journey has been somehow interrupted, like an accordion player assassinated in mid-squeeze…”

— Andrew Lewis [06]

ABZ/A was realized in the early part of 1998 at the composer’s studio and premiered on February 10, 1999 at Concordia University (Montréal). It was was commissioned by the BBC.

Composition

• 1998, Personal studio, Aberdeen (Scotland, UK)

Premiere

• February 10, 1999, ÉuCuE XVII — echoii: Concert 10 — Scotland, Wales, Salle de concert — Campus Loyola — Université Concordia, Montréal (Québec)

Mastering

• 2005, Dominique Bassal • Studio Inverse, Montréal (Québec)

“Vox Magna comprises a set of fragmented recollections, a piecing together of the failing memory of an industrial era involved with the taming of the chemical, the electrical and the mechanical; an era of large machines housed in immense, purpose built spaces. It is at once evocative of something very British: an industry whose decaying remains still mark numerous landscapes and people within the north of England and Scotland.

Many images presented are vast, suggesting height as well as depth, as though taken with a wide-angle lens looking up. The listener is pulled rather than invited into the image, sometimes dangerously close to massive, unknown forces, sometimes at a more reflective distance.

It is the very rhythm of the machines, their perpetual motion, which sets the pacing for Vox Magna. Behind the abrupt changes, guttering and fading of the sonic vistas there is still the relentless pulse of the machine.”

— Robert Dow [06]

Vox Magna was realized at the studios at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland, UK) and the composer’s studio and premiered on March 21, 2003 during the Rien à voir (13) concert series presented by Réseaux at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. It received Special Prize in the Musica Nova 2003 International Competition of Electroacoustic Music (Prague, Czech Republic) and was pre-selected for the 32nd Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Competition (France, 2005).

Composition

• 2003, Electroacoustic Music Studios — University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen (Scotland, UK)
• 2003, Personal studio, Aberdeen (Scotland, UK)

Premiere

• March 21, 2003, Rien à voir (13): InvisiblEARts + concert solo, Salle Beverley Webster Rolph — Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal (Québec)

Awards

• Honorable Mention, Category A (fixed medium), Musica Nova 2003, Prague (Czech Republic)

Mastering

• 2004, Dominique Bassal • Studio Inverse, Montréal (Québec)