Music

The Pop Album :

Rauschenberg
31 May '82 - Chingford. (originally for quad. tape)
Seven 'moments' based on eight paintings by Robert Rauschenberg:
"Black" ('51-'52)/"Red" ('53), "Collection" ('53), "Crocus" ('62),
"Barge" ('62-'63), "Estate" ('63), "Kite" (' 63) & "White" ('51).
This is the complete version including "White", which is represented by silence broken into three for the three panels of the painting (a nod in the direction of John Cage - a hero of mine).

Riley
21 May '82 (original version) 22 Mar.'99 - Pyhra. (CD remix)
(originally for quad. tape) | In eight continuous parts based on six paintings by Bridget Riley: "Crest" ('64), "Gala" ('74), "Late Morning" ('67), "Rise I" ('68), "Pæan" ('73), "Cataract 3" ('67) plus two aural illusions as bridges (pts. 4 & 7). Little Bridget is a shortened version without the part "White Discs" (originally pt. 8).
For this, 'Rauschenberg' and 'Rothko' ('82) I developed a colour code system to find the pitches from the colours used in the paintings.

Surface Quartet
19 Jan.'88 - Breck's Nook, York. (originally for quad. tape)
Based on the painter Robert Rauschenberg's collage "Currents" (1970), a series of 36 silk-screens 36 x 36 inches. The piece is thirty-six 'moments' each of thirty-six seconds long, separated by 'frame' material. Before splicing the frame material I used it for 'Trailer' ('88), an advert for this piece..

The Pop Album
RW-1-03-012

01 Rauschenberg (part 1) 9'41"
02 Rauschenberg (part 2) 9'11"
03 Rauschenberg (part 3) 5'48"

04 Riley (part 1) 7'35"
05 Riley (part 2) 8'10"
06 Riley (part 3) 9'01"

07 Surface Quartet (part 1) 7'20"
08 Surface Quartet (part 2) 7'50"
09 Surface Quartet (part 3) 6'51"

Total time 71'39"

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Rothko :

Rothko (excerpt) for two simultanious tape loops: (a) 40'19" & (b) 44'31",'total' duration: 10 wks, 4 days. 18:45'49"

(beginning mix)

Original tape version 9 Feb.'82, London, the re-mastered mix
realised: 16 Oct.'99 - Pyhra.
Environmental music inspired by the Seagram Mural Project paintings by Mark Rothko, hung in the 'Rothko room' in the [original] Tate Gallery, London. Painted in 1958 and '59 they were given to the gallery in 1968-69 and the director later wrote "This gift was both an honour and a responsibility, since the artist was always extremely concerned that his paintings should be displayed in such a way as to create a mood of contemplation." The original sketches for this
piece were written in the gallery during several visits throughout the winter of '81/'82 and, for me at least, it captures this 'mood of contemplation' (and does some strange things to the passing of time as a side effect).

The first public 'performance' was for 14 hours (an excerpt) in the foyer of the Jack Lyons Concert Hall in York, as part of the York Spring Festival of Contemporary Music, on 15 Mar. 1986. For this performance the piece was recorded onto two cassettes, spliced to the correct duration - the reason being that turning over a cassette is much quicker than rewinding reel-to-reel tape. The two cassette machines for this were situated at the top and bottom of a flight of
stairs, and as, in those days, reverse-play machines were rare and we didn't have any, I spent the day with an alarm clock in each pocket, keeping very fit and giving a fairly good impression of a theatre piece. So much for contemplation.
Mastering to cassette is a very iffy business and when I re-mastered the piece on computer I was able to get a much more accurate result, editing closer to the original intention. The music on this CD is a mix from the new version and if you would like to hear the end five minutes it's on the CD 'Details #1', track 10: 'Several Days Later'.

Rothko
RW-1-03-013

01 Rothko (part 1) 8'53"
02 Rothko (part 2) 8'53"
03 Rothko (part 3) 8'53"
04 Rothko (part 4) 8'53"
05 Rothko (part 5) 8'53"
06 Rothko (part 6) 8'53"
07 Rothko (part 7) 8'53"
08 Rothko (part 8) 8'53"
09 Rothko (part 9) 8'50"

Total time 79’56“

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Olitsky:

Olitsky (3 excerpts)

for four simultaneous tape loops: (a) 44'43", (b) 44'39", (c) 44'46" & (d) 44'54"
'total' duration: 1,648,171 years, 7 weeks, 6 days, 10:23'33"

11 May '87 - Breck's Nook, York - Re-master 13 Oct.'98 - Pyhra.
Inspired by the paintings of Jules Olitski (1922 - ).
It seems to me that visual artworks occupy space and music occupies time, to re-present artwork as music I try to get durations that are so long that time becomes irrelevant. This is my longest piece to date, coming in at just over 1,648,000 years, it is music you can concentrate on or ignore and regard as background sound, in fact to treat as you would a painting. To create this kind of duration I use simultaneous loops, but loops long enough to try and mask the actual
repeats. The length of around 45 minutes for each loop was simply due to the technology of the time - the only practical possibility was the C90 cassette (the C120 was too unstable), these days I use CDs as the time frame.

The original '87 version actually failed the intention as the fade-ins and outs were too long and created an apparent hole, thus seeming to 'end' the piece after the first 45 minutes, so when re-mastering I edited the tracks to create a true overlap, the first notes becoming part of the last chord.

For this piece I produced a circular score (left) using time-space notation (only note-heads - sharps shown as semibreves) with the staves on the background and the note-heads on four moveable transparent sheets. Each sheet is moved the appropriate distance over the staves at the end of each loop's cycle to place the beginning point at the previous end point.
The first few hours of Olitsky was first performed in the foyer of the Lyons Concert Hall, York, 11 March 1989, as part of Media-Mix Weekend solo concert 'Mel Day'.
The piece is also used as the tape part for 'Greek Princess' (1987) for violin, synth, and tape, or 6 violins and tape.

Olitsky
RW-1-03-014.1/.2

RW-1-03-014.1
(Beginning mix)
01 Olitsky (part 1) 8'45"

Total time 79'54"“

RW-1-03-014.2
(Middlemix)
02 Olitsky (part 2) 8'45"
03 Olitsky (part 3) 8'45"
04 Olitsky (part 4) 8'16"

(End mix)
05 Olitsky (part 1) 9'00"
06 Olitsky (part 2) 9'00"
07 Olitsky (part 3) 9'00"
08 Olitsky (part 4) 9'00"
09 Olitsky (part 5) 9'22"

Total time 79'56"

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Sjem (Walking Through Bedlam) :

Mulysa Variations Fall #2
8 Jan.'97 - Westcott.
The material was originally composed as a choir piece, 'Asylum #9' in 1980 for a collaboration with a friend, Mike Ellis, on a dance production 'The Men Must Learn A New Dance'. Several years later the score was reversed, rearranged and re-voiced for these variations.

Telling Fibs
23 Mar.'96 - Westcott.
89 against 55 against 34 against 21 against 13 against... etc. etc.
Number crunching, with pitches from the beginning and end of a harp and piano piece '(Parp) On The Rug' ('90). Nice noise though (well I like it).

Mulysa Variations Fall #1
7 Jan.'97 - Westcott.
The dance mix. Well, more of a shuffle. Well OK - it would be more useful to have around if you're contemplating suicide.

Thirteen Gods
19 Aug.'97 - Pyhra. (for Vibraphone and unreal orchestra* - realisation)
Based on Henry Purcell's 'In Nomine 1 - in six parts' for Viols, Z. 746. The first piece I finished after my move to Austria, not that this means you can smell the mountains or anything. Another variation on this is 'Strungout Boeing' ('97) for piano, vibraphone and marimba.

Other Gods & Shaving Devils
31 May '99 - Pyhra.
It uses material from 'Studies for Other Gods' ('94), a collection of variations on a tune for 'Cold Gods' (an unfinished piece), combined with recordings of old devils going about their morning ablutions.

Sjem (Walking Through Bedlam)
RW-1-03-015

1 Mulysa Variations
(Fall #2) (part 1) 7'56"
02 Mulysa Variations
(Fall #2) (part 2) 6'26"


03 Telling Fibs (part 1) 9'59"
04 Telling Fibs (part 2) 9'23"


05 Mulysa Variations
(Fall #1) (part 1) 9'57"
06 Mulysa Variations
(Fall #1) (part 2) 9'15"


07 Thirteen Gods (part 1) 6'17"
08 Thirteen Gods (part 2) 4'51"


09 Other Gods & Shaving Devils 9'28"

Total time 73’53“

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Sex, Hats & Videotape :

Brush Work
27 Feb.'93 - Dorking.
Soundtrack for the animation "Brush Work: Divertimento #3" by Clive
Walley (for S4C/BBC 2), a kind of short fast history of painting.
The piece includes various sounds from Clive's studio as a 'frame'
around the action.

Stretch Marks (3F)
20 Dec.'97 - Pyhra. (for unreal orchestra*)
Based on Henry Purcell's '3 part Fantazias' for Viols, Z.732, Z.733 and Z.734, laid out simultaneously and stretched, pushed, pulled and otherwise beaten about the head.

Clandestine Relative I
4 Apr.'92 - Westcott & Chingford. (for unreal orchestra*)
Based on the painting "Clandestine" (1973) by Bridget Riley. It uses a colour code system I developed in 1982 for 'Rothko', 'Riley' and 'Rauschenberg' to find the initial pitches, overlaid with a pattern created from the painting.

Recognition 117
15 Mar.'91 - Chingford. (originally for quad. tape)
A mix of the tape part for a four-screen video projection in
collaboration with Mireille Chan (video artist) as part of S.P.N.M./ Central St.Martins College of Art & Design music/video project 1990-91. It uses many excerpts from previous pieces of mine. This project was a very satisfying collaboration, I had a hand in the video editing and Mireille had a hand in the sound mixing.

Hat Music
30 Sept.'92 - Dorking.
This was recorded for a second collaboration with Mireille Chan that never came to fruition. It seemed a relevant CD filler.

Sex, Hats & Videotape
RW-1-03-016

01 Brush Work 3'27"

02 Stretch Marks (3F)
(part 1) 9'50"
(part 2) 9'37"
(part 3) 9'07"

05 Clandestine Relative I
(part 1) 7'06"
06 Clandestine Relative I (3F) (part 2) 8'08"

07 Recognition 117 (part 1) 7'38"
08 Recognition 117 (3F) (part 2) 8'42"
09 Recognition 117 (3F) (part 3) 7'05"

10 Hat Music (AP2) 1'30"

Total time 72’25“

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