Low-bypass: a long form composition of several movements as well as exploring a single sound source, in this case the jet engine.

Low-bypass (2011) 21’30 (Fixed media - 8 channels) is as part of a portfolio of compositions that form the practice-based element of my PhD. This research explores the compositional and sociological links between forms of commercial beat driven music and the acousmatic tradition which grew up in France during the 40s and 50s. Low-bypass was composed specifically to explore two different areas of my, previously unexplored, compositional practice. These two areas were working with a long form composition of several movements as well as exploring a single sound source, in this case the jet engine.
The piece is derived entirely from two-channel and four-channel recordings of jet engines in various states. These recordings were taken while the engines were under their own power as well as ‘at rest’; the motion and sound being generated was a result of the wind blowing through their tremendous turbine blades. The ideas of gesture and interaction were central themes in both the recording and compositional processes. These gestures and interactions resulted in both compositional structuring of sounds as well as the selection and processing of source materials that make up the work.
Source and cause within the context of the piece are, by their very nature, abstract. Whilst my previous work has relied more on processing sounds in order to obscure and abstract them from their source, the acousmatic nature of this work relies less on processing and transformation, but instead gives more emphasis to the selection of sound sources and the recording techniques utilised to capture them.
Performed at:
MTI Team Event 1, De Montfort University (01.10.11)

NoiseFloor festival 2011, Staffordshire University (14.01.11)

Sound Sight Space and Play conference, De Montfort university (02.06.10)

Live at SOUNDkitchen, Birmingham, UK (12.05.11)
Released on:
amp bit if go recordings (http://www.ampbitifgo.co.uk/amp010.html) (01.12.11)