Date of composition: April 2024
Instrumentation: Improvising performer(s) with field recordings and generative strings
Duration: 45 minutes
Coastal processes are continuous. Their daily rhythm spans hours. Their effects accumulate over millennial spans of time or, in times of dramatic acceleration, overnight. Coastal process function at the scale of molecules of water and grains of sand, which aggregate to outline the boundaries of nations.
The coastal system of Spurn Point almost renders these scales perceptible. At least, it offers an illusion of comprehensibility. It’s both small yet vast; tangible yet ungraspable; constant yet changing. It is certainly a fragile landscape, yet it certainly endures.
This piece responds directly to this unique landscape and invites improvising musicians to make new responses for each performance.
Coastal Process was created as part of the larger multi-disciplinary South Holderness Project at the University of Hull. Funded by the UK Higher Education Innovation Fund and the Ferens Education Trust.
Image: Stewart Baxter (Hinterland Creative)
Sound & Structure
This piece is made up of three main sound elements: field recordings; a generative string section; live performer(s).
Field Recordings
The substrate of the piece is formed by nine 5-minute field recordings made on the Spurn peninsula on March 20th, 2024. The recordings were made during a ‘transect walk’ that was inspired by the numbered telegraph poles that once punctuated the peninsula. These numbered poles were referred to by the local population as having particular characteristics (e.g. there’s some good fishing to be had at number 44) and as a way of navigating the landscape. This transect walk was a way to try to understand what Spurn sounds like – from Warren Cottage to the rounded point jutting into the River Humber. Sound was recorded for 5 minutes, followed by a 10-minute walk. These durations spanning the distance of Spurn gave nine locations (and 45 minutes of audio).
Generative Strings
The generative string section is made up of 8 instruments each of which has 8 components, forming 8×8 grids for each section. Once initially triggered by the performer (in whole or as individual elements), the string section continues to cycle through, automatically selecting and triggering the next component to play. As this process happens in each of the 8 instruments, the combinations across the section changes each time.
Live Performers
Improvising musicians are offered a simple tetrachord for each section that undergoes a slow process of change over the piece in an analogous way to single pebbles rolling diagonally southwards on the tide.
The piece is for any instrument/voice or any combination of instruments/voices alongside the pre-recorded sound materials that are performed using a software package: Ableton Live. Live instruments/voices could be amplified and processed (perhaps through the Ableton set) to blend with the pre-prepared audio elements as determined by the specific acoustic (but don’t necessarily have to be).
Performance
Performing the Piece
Just as landscapes invite exploration (which way shall we go in this new, unknown place?), this piece invites improvisation. No two performances should be the same, though the piece is patterned. A performance may be a live event (for an audience or just for oneself) or it may equally be an act of making a recording (for a future audience or, again, just for oneself). The three elements of the piece (field recordings, generative string section, live instrument(s)) are to be balanced in the performance. Not all sounds need to be present all of the time – the various combinations of sounds decided in the moment is part of what characterises each performance. The piece can be performed in full, from start to finish (with a duration of probably around 45 minutes), or sections can be selected, ordered or combined freely as the performer wishes.
Score
Each section of the piece is characterised by a tetrachord (and, later on, two tetrachords combined), which undergoes a slow process of evolution. Tetrachords can be parsed freely. They are intended as structural starting points as opposed to dogmatic restrictions. Pitches can be omitted or added as the flow of the improvisation suggests.
Texture, density, articulation, timbre, register, technique are all left to the improvising performer(s). Microtones and other tuning systems are welcomed. Indications about the character of the field recordings and generative string section are given in each section, which may serve as prompts for the improviser(s).
The indicated BPM shows the underlying metrical structure used to create the generative parts. This metrical structure could be articulated or ignored during performance.
Technical Requirements
The Ableton Live software element is organised into nine 8×8 grids corresponding to the nine sections of the piece. A hardware controller for shaping sounds in performance should be used. A Push (which is a brand of audio controller) is ideal, though any controller that can be mapped for controlling volume will work.
Controllers to be mapped are: field recording volume; string section group volume (or, for more control, each of the 8 string components as well); live instrument volume(s) if they are being processed via the Ableton software.
A performance requires a stereo playback system as a minimum, though a system with more speakers may be more immersive.