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Recently, my old friend and incredible singer, Alex, and I reconnected to revisit and re-record material we first worked on in early '90s London. What began as a nostalgic project quickly consumed all my free time. Before we knew it, we had penned an additional five new songs. To house and release this collection of both revisited and fresh material, we established Soho Ghost Records, a label named after one of our better older tracks.
Our inaugural release, the new single 'Goodbye Shame,' is set for July 7, 2025. It's a powerful song about breaking free from the shackles of shame and embracing personal liberation. Special thanks to the Errata Choir for their time and dedication to this project.
I have been developing ZScore networked music composition and performance system for a number of years as part of my Music Composition PhD at Goldsmiths College London. All my recent scores are utilising this system. More details available on the dedicated ZScore page.
Music making with audience
Music making with audience
Two videos below from different workshops of the same piece "Socket Dialogues" illustrate music making paradigm where audience, musicians and the composer connect over a computer network and perform a piece of music together. The videos below are excerpts only. The full performances of the piece are linked below.
Image generated by Stable Diffusion AI based on the composition description
Socket Dialogues
for Multiple Instruments, Audience and Max
Socket Dialogues
for Multiple Instruments, Audience and Max
"Socket Dialogues", written by SZ, is a pun on Socratic dialogues. Furthermore, the score structure is also derived from Plato's dialogues. The piece consists of a number of "dialogues", each representing one aspect of music (Pitch, Rhythm, Melody, Timbre ...) At the beginning of the performance musicians select roles they wish to play for each dialog. Each dialog has a Presenter (musician) while all other musicians, as well as the Audience can choose whether to Concur or Dissent (Agree or Disagree with the Presenter). The score can be performed by any number of musicians/instruments (automated transposition provided by the system).
'Socket Dialogues' workshop excerpt
'Socket Dialogues' workshop excerpt
with Tom Jackson (clarinet) and Benedict Taylor (viola)
Deptford Town Hall, 4 Jul 2022
'Socket Dialogues' workshop 2 excerpt
'Socket Dialogues' workshop 2 excerpt
Union Rose
for String Quartet, Audience and Max
Union Rose
for String Quartet, Audience and Max
This piece was inspired by the majestic rosette at Union Chapel London, where the piece was originally supposed to be premiered. In this video it is performed by the amazing Ligeti Quartet at Deptford Town Hall. Audience here participates in different ways, from making a decision what to play next to triggering web audio speech and playing granulator audio on their mobile devices.
Comprov
Comprov
Comprovisation with Ligeti Quartet from the workshop in Nov 2019.
The main purpose of the workshop was to explore real-time conductor-led networked comprovisation possibilities based on the limited notated material expanded through various algorithmic and manual performance strategies. The score was written for the ZScore system. The first 8 pages are played as written in the attached score. From then on, the comprovisation continues with the help of ZScore strategies such as Dynamic Overlays and Score Randomisation.
ComprovFullScore.pdf
Vexilla
for Bass Clarinet, Violin and Cello
Vexilla
for Bass Clarinet, Violin and Cello
Vexilla were flag-like objects used as a military standard by units in the ancient Roman army. Later on the meaning of the word extended to represent any object such as a relic or icon carried as a standard into a battle. This piece is an exploration of the emotional and rational responses to various flags I encountered throughout my lifetime, from the fervent teenage patriotism to a deep distrust of any ceremony which requires enthusiastic flag waving.
Deptford Town Hall 1 May 2018
Heather Roche (Bass Clarinet) ,Valerie Wellbanks (Cello), Patrick Dawkins (Violin)
Visualisations realised through InScore
After the fruitful workshop with excellent Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (MCME) I put together the video below which outlines the current configuration of the system I use for networked ensemble composition and performance (as of Mar 2017). This was done as part of my PhD research at Goldsmiths College, London.
Had a great session with Ensemble Interface on Sat 21 Nov 2015. They performed my new piece 'Red Mass' inspired by Rote Messe from Schoenberg's Pierrot. The session was brilliantly led and conducted by Hans Kretz. Top musicians and invaluable feedback, many thanks. They will perform really interesting program on Huddersfield festival including the fantastic new piece by Mauricio Pauly and slightly older Billone's piece. Dan Ross also had his algorithmic piece performed during the session.
Sounds Positive ensemble performs my composition 'Scattered' as part of Anglo - Korean crossover concert on 1 Aug 2015 in Kingston upon Thames
Tickets available via Rose Theatre web site
'Scattered' is written for Bass Flute/Flute, Alto Sax, Trumpet and Trombone
Program notes:
The composition concepts and structure are based on Sanjo, a genre of traditional Korean music which can be loosely translated as 'scattered melodies'. Through the centuries Sanjo has been developed into an art form with well-defined structure, melodic and rhythmical content. Central to Sanjo music is the concept of Jo which defines the character of a particular section. Intricate melodies and rhythmical patterns of Sanjo movements are constructed and performed in a way which evokes the specific emotional response in a well-versed native audience. As with any other style of music, the emotional response of an outsider unfamiliar with the musical language might be very different. While this composition uses many elements of Sanjo, the definition of Jo in each section has been radically modified to reflect composer's response to the traditional musical material.
30 May 2015 Tomorrow Calling
I am delighted to announce that my composition 'Violation' has been chosen for the compilation album 'Tomorrow Calling' published by Demerara Records. It is an honour to be part of a such an exciting initiative which brings together a group of talented composers and musicians from all sorts of different backgrounds and music styles, united by the mission to write and perform new, progressive music. Other works of featured composers can be heard on Demerara soundcloud page.
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