A project to document the soundscape of three different cities and marry them with real-time musical interpretation reaches stages in Birmingham, Edinburgh and London this month.
Seán Clancy’s Where the Paths End has taken a year to make and involved capturing city sounds in twenty-one different locations in Birmingham, Edinburgh and London from which he has created three 40-minute Soundwalks using the Echoes app. Selected tracks will then be projected into the performance space where Plus-Minus Ensemble will create musical responses to the material to accompany the soundscapes.
“While there are many pieces that use location recordings in both fixed and live contexts, I’m not too familiar with pieces that invite the audience to experience these recordings both in situ via soundwalks, and through live performance,” says Clancy, a Senior Lecturer in Composition at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University.
“I’m particularly interested in location recordings and generating novel sounds from everyday activities. This project documents the sounds of a city on a particular date in time to create a sonic counterpart to photo documentation.
“I’ve then used the location recordings as a springboard for instrumental material. The result is a 28 minute multi-movement work for ensemble and electronics, with a more egalitarian score where I am less prescriptive.”
Where the Paths End is part of Plus-Minus Ensemble’s programme of three new compositions that explore interdisciplinary interactions between music and new digital technologies. The works are commissioned by Zubin Kanga as part of Cyborg Soloists (UKRI funded project hosted at Royal Holloway, University of London), which is connecting composers, performers and sound artists with researchers and industry partners to develop artistic and technological innovations.
Premiere performances of Seán Clancy’s Where the Paths End are at The Lab, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (27 Oct); Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh College of Art (25 Oct); London, Café Oto (29 Oct); and at the MINU Festival, Copenhagen (18 Nov).
