Output details

Armed Response Unit: Composition for solo percussion and electronics. Commissioned by the Cheltenham Festival/Joby Burgess and premiered at the Cheltenham Festival, July 10th, 2010. Score and DVD. DVD contains Audio Recording and Max/MSP patch. URL and hard copy evidence premiere recording, 2011.

Composed as a companion work to Piece For Tape this uses the same percussion setup but augments the timbres with live electronics. The aim was to create a work that was overtly influenced by Nancarrow's structural techniques and bombastic textures while utilising precise and sudden changes in signal processing inspired by contemporary electronica. The piece functions by obscuring and revealing regular rhythms behind polyrythmic intrusions and using isorhythmic developments before deconstructing into a salvo of irregular complexity. The electronics are a combination of sample playback and live processing and are encapsulated into a MaxMSP patch that contains all instructions necessary for performance. Samples are triggered and processing is started and stopped with a high degree of accuracy by the performer using footswitches and a custom built cuing system. Every effort is made to allow a highly effective result to be achieved by a performer who may not necessarily be an electronics specialist, and to avoid the use of click tracks or a separate computer operator. Even though the processes utilised have all been extensively explored (granulation, random filter sweeps, ring modulation etc) the result, in particular the section from bar 212, produces the kind of rapid changes of sonic context that are synonymous with computer music but less so with instrumental performance. The piece has been recorded by Powerplant for the Album '24 Lies Per Second' on the Signum Label, and has been performed in the UK and US.