Low winds and fair tides

It's been a busy few months.   The Wolf Pack shows in February were fantastic to do, and I recently took part in a performance with them at the National Maritime Museum, playing John Eacott's Floodtide, in which clever algorithmic computery jiggery-pokery transforms readings from the Thames tide are transformed into musical notation. Further Wolf Pack events will be occurring later this year, and I have plans for a piece for them involving many bass instruments, as well as a bass flute piece for their flautist Laura Beardsmore.

Low winds seem to be this year's thing! I'm also writing a piece for bass flute and bassoon for rarescale, and a new work for the Scottish Recorder Orchestra, an ensemble of around 50 players who cover every size of recorder you can imagine, as well as a few you probably can't, such as the sub-subcontrabass, a gargantuan instrument  that reaches down pretty much as far as a double bass in pitch.  Writing for an instrument like this is a bit like encountering a mythical beast like a unicorn or the Loch Ness Monster or something. It's a very exciting prospect, and it's one of the great joys of the web that I can make contact with people who give me the chance to do things like this that I'd otherwise never have the chance to do.

I'm also plotting the next Ramshackle Orchestra project, which will be based around folk songs, and build on two recordings I made as part of Radio 2's celebration of Cecil Sharp. You can hear those here and here.

I've also been experimenting with manipulating field recordings, and I'm also playing with loop pedal and cello. Who knows where it'll all lead?