An imaginary ‘sound diary’ in three sections: Räfstad; Montréal; Dobbiaco. Each of these sections frames field recordings made by me in different locations — sounds with a quality that drew me to them, zoomed in on with close-microphone recording. These sonic moments are framed with fragments of the original recordings developed into new rhythmic and spectral constructs… deepened, recoloured or set in relief against blends of digitally generated sonority. Räfstad is based on recordings made around lake Åsunden near Räfstad in Östergötland county (Sweden); Montréal centres on the scuffing, squeaking sonority of an escalator in the city’s Outremont metro station; in Dobbiaco the focus is on a litter of young pigs at an animal park built around the (alarmingly dilapidated) composing hut used between 1908 and 1910 by Gustav Mahler at Altschluderbach in South Tyrol, near the town of Dobbiaco (Italy) — an improvised impulse response generated by a sharp hand clap recorded in Mahler’s hut spawned additional material.
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Hidden Spaces was realized in 2019 in the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Laboratory at De Montfort University (Leicester, UK), and premiered on June 4, 2022, during the Klang! électroacoustique 2022 festival in Salle Molière of the Opéra comédie in Montpellier (France).
Premiere
- June 4, 2022, Klang! électroacoustique 2022: Ambrose Seddon; John Young, Salle Molière — Opéra Comédie, Montpellier (Hérault, France)