electroacoustic composer

Zonohedra (2005).

The raw material for this work was recorded at Bretton Hall Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, a landscape which was rich with natural, environmental sounds. However, the true identity of these sounds is concealed in the piece through extensive processing, and only very occasional echoes of the original environment emerge through dense textures.

Zonohedra are 3-dimensional geometric shapes built from parallelograms. They can exist in simple to extremely complex forms, but each variety stems from the same essential shape or 'rule' of form. They can often take the appearance of very beautiful structures, arguably sculptures in themselves. This piece explores the hidden mathematical concepts and constructs found in life - their veiled complexity emerging and disappearing depending on our perception or frame of mind at a certain moment. It considers the paradox that often the very simplest of structures on the surface can, with further examination be mathematically complex, and with every closer look this complexity may multiply or mutate to the beholder. Ever changing, but ever the same - two people might experience very different sides of a multifaceted structure but concurrently it must always exist in its most stable state, its 'true' state (whatever that may be.) Dense multi-layers of transformations, and continually changing dominance of certain sound materials relate to ideas of flux in presence and perception of any structure.

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