HMS Hood

[DwaneHollands]

This short piece is dedicated to the sailors of the HMS Hood who lost their lives after a 3 minute battle with the German Bizmarck Battleship. More than 1400 sailors died that day and I humbly bow to their sacrifice.

http://www.hollands.com.au/R21Studios/A ... S_Hood.mp3

[Sammas]

Cool stuff, Dwane!

Sounds like grounds for another 3 movements. Haha!

If you haven't already, check out Symphony Da Pacem Domine by Ross Edwards. By
far one of my favourite Australian composers. It was written in 1992 in mourning of the death
of Stuart Challender (Chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony at the time) and also in memory
of the events of operation desert storm.

Not particularly uplifting though. I imagine the live performance leaves the entire audience in
a rather somber mood and not particularly motivated for conversation. It rather drives the point
home.

[DwaneHollands]

Cool stuff, Dwane!

Sounds like grounds for another 3 movements. Haha!

If you haven't already, check out Symphony Da Pacem Domine by Ross Edwards. By
far one of my favourite Australian composers. It was written in 1992 in mourning of the death
of Stuart Challender (Chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony at the time) and also in memory
of the events of operation desert storm.

Not particularly uplifting though. I imagine the live performance leaves the entire audience in
a rather somber mood and not particularly motivated for conversation. It rather drives the point
home.

Sammas,

ha ha, yeah it's quite brief...

I haven't heard that Symphony Da Pacem Domine. But it sounds fascinating. I actually have a fascination with dark and sombre compositions. The profound or mind altering nature of them I think is what fascinates me. And I suppose the complex emotions that can be communicated.

[mylesgm]

I'm in NY about to perform a very intense work inspired by religious cult fever in the 1970's esp. the jonestown massacre in '78. Audio component of the dance work is in 3d or 'global surround sound, live electronic processing of 4 dancers with wireless mics, several mics that fly through the space, flown spinning speakers and an incredibly intense and dark score.
Usually the audience walks out with a very sombre and confronted air but willing to discuss the experience. Its oddly far more rewarding in many ways than an uplifting show in that audience wants to engage rather than have a chuckle and walk off. Must admit though its a rough show to keep taking myself into as a performer.

[Chris H]

What a great experience to be involved in. Hope it all goes well. Let us know.

[DwaneHollands]

I'm in NY about to perform a very intense work inspired by religious cult fever in the 1970's esp. the jonestown massacre in '78. Audio component of the dance work is in 3d or 'global surround sound, live electronic processing of 4 dancers with wireless mics, several mics that fly through the space, flown spinning speakers and an incredibly intense and dark score.
Usually the audience walks out with a very sombre and confronted air but willing to discuss the experience. Its oddly far more rewarding in many ways than an uplifting show in that audience wants to engage rather than have a chuckle and walk off. Must admit though its a rough show to keep taking myself into as a performer.

Man, that would be an experience to watch and listen to! And to have the audience inspired enough to engage and talk about the event is by far the most rewarding result. What instrument do you play in the show?

[DwaneHollands]

I also posted the same piece on the Northern Sounds forum in the Garritan Listening room. To get feedback from the other composers etc.

One fellow posted this:

"Just for the craic, you might like to know that my father in law was on the Hood but due to a very bad attack of athletes foot - like rotting skin - had to be sent ashore just before she sailed on her last voyage, so he survived and still does. 90 next month.

We're seeing him in a fortnight, I'll play it to him but he's bit deaf now"

I'm not sure it will all happen, but for this piece the greatest honour is to have a survivor actually hear the piece that's dedicated to them. I never imagined it even possible! Will keep you posted if I hear any news!

[mylesgm]

I co-composed the music with David Chisholm and we both perform the score live in the show. David does mostly audio playback with some live mixing and I do electronic processing of the live mics, some playback and a lot of diffusion. we won the Green Room Award for best composition and music performance in a dance work for the premiere last year.

If you want to see an impressive facility look up 'experimental media and performing art centre troy new york'. Lawo digital consoles, studer micamps, shiteloads of madi channels with mic/audio inputs all available from any madi terminal anywhere in the building, over 100 D and B speakers (one studio performance space is currently setup in a 30 speaker dome array), concert hall with alterable acoustic (2 sec to 9 sec reverberation with alterable early reflections too) an un-f'in-believable mic list and, my favourite, an audio triggered physical 3d harness which will move a dancer in 3d space with variable parameters in response to audio controlled by max/msp. The building alone is incredible let alone the contents...

http://empac.rpi.edu/building/


These photos are all from the original development and recording of the score at EMPAC in late 2008...
This is David Chisholm in our studio... notice the 6.1 AIR system monitors and the Bosendorfer in the corner for our private use.

CRW_7263.jpg

Another shot of our studio. The camera is actually resting on a speaker stack of D and B speakers so that we would also know how it would translate into the theatre

CRW_7280.jpg

Concert Hall during the session to record the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) from NY

CRW_7266.jpg

Another shot of the concert hall but you can't see the sound field mic and the several DPA mics dotted around the concert hall for room capture. Has anyone used a lawson 47 for tam tam before?

CRW_7364.jpg

[DwaneHollands]

I don't quite know how to respond! If there was a definition of Epic, that has definetly got to be redefined. That EMPAC building is mind blowing. Seriously watching that slideshow 56 with the 3 year build. Oh man.

And the accoustics in that place. I love the different difuser panels they've made. The wooden 'wave' strips, the concave and convex stone tiles. What a elegantly modern take on venue design. It looks like they have large slot resonators at the back and the sides of the stage.

Then the tech behind it. Yikes. Flying someone around based on audio triggering!!! That's the imagination of a child coupled with engineering of a veteran. What about the studio you work in. Are those dark blinds retractable to 'tune' the room? Do they just affect the top end. Are they quite thick, do they act as a broadband absorber? I love the relaxed look of that studio. Large room. Gear floating in the middle. Couch not even at the back of the studio. Floating nicely there.

How inspiring is it to compose there? I mean the foyer alone looking over the city and the architechture, the large spaces, high ceilings, beautiful woodwork. WOW.

[mylesgm]

inspiring to create and compose is an understatement. David Chisholm invited me to co-compose because he wanted someone to co-create and push the bounds of the technically possible.n I said I was up for it of course, then he showed me the venue and the full brief from the artistic director. David and I basically had an almost hilarious session of imagination associated with hell, earth and heaven and the desire of one from the place of the other and the transitions of one to the other. Believe me when I say we went nuts and then the artistic director basically said I don't care what you do as long as that is what is experienced? David and I did so. We recorded two seperate works of David's for string ensemble and mixed ensemble respectively in several forms of surround techniques as well as spot mics and then recorded them in various segments as he and I both saw fit, a phrase here half time, another phrase up an octave, the whole ensemble spaced throughout the hall, double time, quarter tone bends etc. Then over the ensuing 3 weeks we edited, processed, recomposed, reprocessed etc etc until the score had no resemblance to the original and was spatialised both with the original multi tracks and in new ways across the 6 channel horizontal space as well as top and bottom channels, front spots, sub effects and flying speakers. Whilst we took turns creating the score to video of the work in progress we shared duties attending the rehearsals to hear the sounds the dancers were making. They screamed, yelled, spoke and cursed heavily throughout the first third/act so I placed radio mics on the dancers for capture, amplification and live processing with spatialisation. The presentation of religious cults is so intense that I wince and am shocked each time we perform it. There is the manipulation of the mass to an orgiastic fervour and worship of the so-called divine which really is the manipulator though we never see that character we only see the dancers response to him/her. This desire, yearning, out-of-body explosion of energy directed to the (false) divine is frightening and includes group hate and group derision of the weak or questioning. This is all show in the abstract but I think is even more powerful because of its abstractness. I we then recorded segments of the other two acts for manipulation and we added mics that flew in on pulley systems both to capture sound and to visually be both the connection between earth and man reaching to heaven and the finger of God reaching down to touch man and hear his cry. The final segment begins with a space odyssey as the race of man stretches to space to secure his immortality. At the end of this section the dancers discover harmonicas amongst their clothing and play and continuing 4-1 resolving cadence. The layers fold in on themselves and with processing go on seemingly forever so the the resolution never resolves. Mics drop into capture this sound and amplify it both in intensity and with repetitions until the space rings with the unresolved. The premade score drives this forward into an apocolypse or even apotheosis with trumpets repitched, delay processed and strung out until we the audience can not bear the madness further and then there is the miracle.

Two of the dancers appear in the darkness and they are levitating in the glaring spotlights, suspended in air with no supports or harness. The miracle or the imagined miracle...

Seriously this piece, the creating and the performing is some mix of dream and horror, the search for the divine and the darkness of hell.

I didn't mean to go on quite so much, the venue was inspiring, the tech team up for whatever we could imagine with the gear and more to support that. But above all the most inspiring aspect was to create alongside people more passionate than me to create and express an experience absolutely to the full (as percy grainger would say) with a passion unbounded by preconceived ideas of the possible.

If you want to see it we will be presenting it in tasmania (though not with quite the same technical equipment available here) as part of the Museum of Old and New Art's festival in January. On a side note you'll also be able to see a very coll installation by Chris Townend which I cant discuss any more (other than to say you'll kick yourself if you miss it).

Late night 6 beer ramble done now....
M

[mylesgm]

man did I scare everybody off with the long rambling post...

m

[DwaneHollands]

Hey Myles,

Sorry about the delay in my response. Had a really busy weekend, so wasn't able to reply. No you didn't scare me off with the long post. It was very interesting to read. I always appreciate comprehensive responses. haha.

Man, that's real trippy stuff! Trying to get my head around it all! Wouldn't there be crazy phase issues with so many speakers and spinning speakers?

I mean it's hard enough to mix for stereo.....lol

[Sammas]

man did I scare everybody off with the long rambling post...

m

I found it rather riveting

I watched a piano piece about 6 months ago where the girl performing it was a
blubbering mess by the end of it, yet she didn't slip a note. I don't think there is
any greater feat in music than writing/performing/watching/listening to a piece of
music that drops the actual musicians performing it to their knees (or there roundabouts...)
under the emotional strain of the music itself. What more can a musician ask of him/herself?
It sounds like you have f&%king loving life, Myles!!

The fact that your piece is largely electronic based makes me even happier! I personally
can't stand the common perception of "electronic music".

[mylesgm]

Just a heads up that the piece I was writing about will be performed in Hobart as part of the MONA FOMA festival. All the tickets are free though you should book as there is a limit to seating and I expect most of the festival will be fully booked. Look for Balletlab and the show "miracle". There are some incredible performances in the festival as well as the opening of the MONA museum in which Chris Townend has a pretty fascinating installation that I'm assisting on so if you have any reason to be in Tasmania the 17th through the 23rd is going to be a great time to visit.

M

[DwaneHollands]

Sorry Myles!

I just got back from leave, and have a crazy year ahead of me. Won't be able to get away for some time!

Best laid plans of mice and men...and all that.

Good luck with it! I know I will miss seeing the incredible setup!

[Mickstape]

Myles, You have the job that I went into (name removed) college looking to find. I still hope to reach a position where composers/art directors come and find me specifically for projects like the one you are working now. In time perhaps.

Any chance of getting a sneak preview of your methods via digital forms? It doesn't have to be the entire show, just snippets of parts you found the most challenging and ultimately rewarding to work on? I'm unaware whether or not this would be subject to copyright laws or not, if this is not the case, if you feel like rewarding some of us peasant audio folk with some sounds then please do.

[mylesgm]

Hi Michael,
The key is to go looking for the jobs, when you dont find them make your own projects and present them so that your intended future employers see that work and want to collaborate. Its still a struggle getting jobs doing this sort of work and I leap at all the opportunities that pass my way as well as actively pursuing jobs that I hear about and encourage others to spread the word of what I do. Though I do a few project likes this each year my main income is still producing and recording albums.
Sadly I can not post any audio as all of the work I do for these large scale theatre/installation works is in many and varied multichannel formats and I rarely if ever reduce to stereo either for release/broadcast or portfolio as the scale of the multichannel system and the immersion in that environment is key to appreciating the work.

In regards to processes they change for every project though I use a combination of max/msp, protools and digital performer as software. The most challenging aspect of working any project for is actually the communication with the other artists involved. Every has a different method for communicating and many of us use the same words but with different underlying meanings. So understanding/interpreting the other artists ideas and how my work will support, challenge or engage with it is key to delivering a satisfying outcome for all concerned. In terms of the most rewarding element it as actually creating and presenting works of this scale. Taking an idea, developing it, trying this out and conceiving new elements is immensely rewarding as is making technology serve the art as technology is both powerful and limiting depending on your point of view.
I love the story of stockhausen doing a 4 channel work with a 'spinning' sound. Cant remember the name of the work but it was one of his earlier works and 4 channel sound was very new indeed. Everybody asked him how he mad the sound 'spin' between the speakers, it smoothly moves from channel to channel surrounding the audience. Everybody was expecting an amazing new processor or black box and he said he simply put a speaker on a turntable and setup four microphones around the turntable. Played out the sound he wanted to 'spin' through the speaker, turned on the turntable and hit record. Simple, very effective and relatively obvious if you think about it and yet many would have spent time bemoaning the fact that there was no black box to do it, or they would build or commission their own black box or moan that the black box didn't make smooth transitions. Cleverness usually makes whatever artistic concept you come up with technically possible but finding that solution is definitely challenging and rewarding.

If you are in melbourne you can come and see the presentation of a work in progress called "curtains" at the arts centre from tonight till tuesday night. This work is a broadway, vaudevillian reinterpretation of faust and features 4 cabaret artists, string quintet and digital instrument. I built the digital instrument by sampling several handcranked fairground organs from the 19th century and extending them both notewise( they all had very limited note selection, diatonic and in 1 or 2 keys) and with expression. Built in Kontakt, it covers the full 88 note midi keyboard with multi layered samples of each organ plus a couple of layers of percussion (from a very large powered organ) including glockenspiel, woodblock, snare and bass drum, xylophone and tambourine. The organ provides the work with an incredibly cooky, fiendish and darkly bizarre musical sound. Another challenging but very fun project.i'll be there from tomorrow night as I'm in Tasmania recovering from completing the MONA work with Chris and the truly wild opening night.

M