Here are a few of the things which have been, and indeed still are, occupying me of late.

Bass Instinct - Chamber music:

I was recently invited to compose a work for this extraordinary Vienna based ensemble of six basses. An intriguing prospect to say the least, I am basing the work on a painting by Cy Twombly, ‘Nine Discourses on Commodus’.

Opera

I am now in the early stages of an Opera in two acts with a Spanish libretto by Barcelona based philosopher and writer Jaume Florenza. The work considers matters of conflict and balance as expressed through such fundamental urges as faith and knowledge, control and freedom, art and enterprise. It examines the implications of these questions for the psyche of the individual and for the nature of human interactions. The working title is ‘Beyond Belief’.

Song Cycle for Baritone and Piano:

This is a group of six songs, setting poems by the wonderful poet W.S.Merwin. Recently finished I am hoping to record the complete cycle in the autumn with pianist Victoria Tzotzkova.

Cavernous Ruins for String Quartet and Marimba/percussion

This recently completed work, caste in three movements, is something to do with conflict, loss and the echo of potential.   

Excursions

‘Excursions’ is an on going long term compositional project which is a series of studies in modulation. Written for one, two, three or four instruments these short works are an exploration of tonal and linear relationships and their implications.

Urgent Whisper

Urgent Whisper is the name of a new group (trombone,electric guitar, bass, drums) I have begun to create material for and with whom I hope to begin performing in late 2011 or early 2012.

Orchestra - ‘Seismology’ for piano and orchestra:

Although currently only a few sketches on the paper ‘Seismology’ will certainly get more attention later this year. The idea is to play with notions of sediment, elements, density and shift - the sediment of history, the five elements of being (wood, fire, water, metal, earth), the density of human experience and the drama and dissonance of upheaval and change. The simple musical idea is to explore timbrel mass and blocks of tonal colour, in contrast, pulling against each other, pushing into each other, colliding, splintering off and so on; using the orchestra as the symbolic containment of the forces of nature and the cosmos and the piano as the embodiment of humanity and the individual.