Much overdue update...
Thursday, 27 September 2007
Well, since the last time I updated this site I've been up to all sorts of stuff. I've been playing with Tom quite a bit as JDTJDJ, performing at UEA, SARC (a few times), the SAN Expo in Plymouth and at a club night in London. Recordings of these gigs are on the site. I recently attended the SuperCollider Symposium in The Hague, performing with Henry as primitiveFailed and delivering a paper on strategies for controlling collective laptop improvisations. Both were recorded, I think, so I shall upload them as soon as they become available.
The bulk of this year has been spent working on a large scale multimedia event which will take place on Monday 26th November. Six Easy Pieces (after Richard Feynman) is a collection of six 15 minute pieces designed to be performed together. They are scored for Cello, Bass Clarinet, Oboe/Cor Anglais, Tape, Electronics, Narrator and Animations. The November performance will feature the amazing ensemble Apartment House. I'll talk more about this closer to the time!
New pieces!
Wednesday, 22 November 2006
I've uploaded my latest piece, completed mere days ago, for your listening pleasure. Hope you like it! It's called (un)lucky mutations? and deals with extremes of frequencies, so be careful with those speakers...
In other news, I've moved my music to the wonderful archive.org. People seem to find this site useful and have been downloading my music (brilliant, I'm glad people like it) - but the result is that my bandwidth usage has increased a lot over the last few months. I'm preempting any fights with my hosting service by spreading the load out a bit! It means I can upload some of my longer pieces and performances as well. You can now grab some of my performances with JDTJDJ and BLISS from the downloads section - check them out.
Rape Crisis Centre NI
Friday, 3 November 2006
You may have noticed a new banner on the front page. The Rape Crisis Centre NI has been providing free confidential advice and counseling services to survivors of sexual violence and abuse (and their families) since 1982. It is a volunteer-driven organisation with only two full time members of staff and relies entirely on a rather paltry amount of funding (c. £60,000) from the Department of Health and Social Services. A few years back the centre exercised their democratic rights and brought the case for an increase in funding to the then running NI Assembly in Stormont. The Assembly agreed that the work of the centre was essential and that the DHSS should consider an increase in the funding they give to it. Since then, the Department has made life rather difficult for the centre. The Department has now withdrawn all funding from the centre following a rather dodgy review carried out at the start of the year. As a result, the centre now faces closure unless the Department reinstates the funding or they find another income stream. They are currently trying to bring about a judicial review of the DHSS decision.
The centre needs all the help it can get at the minute. If you can afford a few quid, you can donate via PayPal from their website - just click on the image and it will bring you there. If you would like to add the banner to your site, then you can use the following code:
<a href="http://www.rapecrisisni.com"><img border="0" height="80" width="160" src="http://www.rinky.org/images/rccdonatecol.gif"></a>
or
<a href="http://www.rapecrisisni.com"><img border="0" height="80" width="160" src="http://www.rinky.org/images/rccdonatebw.gif"></a>
Mutants spotted in Norwich
Thursday, 5 October 2006
I've finally ended 10 years at Queen's University Belfast and have just begun a new period of my life at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. I'm working on a PhD in Composition with Simon Waters and I must say I'm really enjoying having the time to work on nothing but music. You should hopefully see an increase in my output relatively soon - I'll keep posting the new stuff as it appears! Make sure you check back often...
Newsletter
Tuesday, 5 September 2006
Want to find out if I have any upcoming performances, recordings, new pieces or any other gossip? Then sign up for the all new Mutantsounds newsletter!
Site changes
Monday, 21 August 2006
Well, I got fed up applying security patches and updates to the various CMS systems I tried on this site so I scrapped them all and coded everything myself. If anything happens to the site now it'll be my own fault. One consequence of the change is that the majority of the site now complies to W3C standards for HTML4.01 and CSS (hence the icons at the bottom of the page). As ever, if you find any problems with the site please email me.
Busy Days
Tuesday, 09 May 2006
Well, I've been quite busy for the last while! We have another successful Sonorities out of the way (a fantastic programme this year - well done to Pedro Rebelo) and I have been sorting out my future at the same time. I will be heading off to Norwich in October to start work on a PhD in Composition with Simon Waters. I'm looking forward to finally having the time to work on my own stuff for a change!
In the meantime I have been quite active with BLISS. We have played at the Knights of the Round Table in Belfast, on the Lagan Boat Tour as part of Sonorities and the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and the bulk of BLISS took part in the open jam session which closed Sonorities 2006.
Coming up, I will be presenting a Hardware Hacking workshop with Tom Davis as part of the Visonic Festival on the 29th May. That evening I will be in action with BLISS as we team up with The Electronic Hammer (see links page) for a gig, also part of Visonic.
I'm hoping to go nuts with concerts over the summer and leave a trail of sonic destruction behind me before I leave Belfast!
BLISS
Monday, 05 December 2005
I kind of forgot that I added this section - might as well use it!
I have been involved with BLISS (Belfast Legion for Improvised Sights and Sounds) for a while now. BLISS is an audio-visual improvisation collective based in SARC and we have been meeting up for a series of structured and unstructured improvisations over the last couple of years. We had our first public outing last week, but unfortunately the computer in the Sonic Lab which controls the diffusion system chose to knacker itself 2 minutes before we were due to go on...
We have rescheduled the concert for this Thursday (8th December) @ 7.30pm in the Sonic Lab, SARC
It is a free concert, so if you find yourself in the area please pop in.