A 1999 RDF/Channel 4 production which explored sex, death and fear in the air and our relationship with flying.
This was my first commission, and all but one of the tracks were composed entirely out of found and foley sounds and edited using the multitrack facility in Premiere (I had no other equipment at the time). Instruments were minimal (a few keys played on a piano, a trilled violin string) and natural sounds predominate (many were recorded with a minidisc at Manchester airport including live Jet engines warming up, taxiing and then taking off). The latter include samples of my own voice in a variety of timbres to give texture and emotional inflection. The whole project was like a sort of architectural construction, literally building the tunes up out of samples rather than playing anything in using a keyboard (I only used a keyboard on one track - 'Arrival'). At some points I had thirty tracks running simultaneously.
Again, the 8 tracks that helped make this programme the great success that it was are becoming available on CD and can be ordered in advance by maillng me and saying that you want to take off and fly too. The CD will simply be called Plane Crazy and it will feature the tunes
1. Planesong
2. Airport
3. Pensive
4. Jetstream
5. Take-Off
6. Oxy Voices
7. Flight
8. Arrival
This is, perhaps due to the theme or to my incredible novitiate enthusiam, widely regarded as the most original work I've ever done - and the jet engines have to be heard to be believed!
This was my first commission, and all but one of the tracks were composed entirely out of found and foley sounds and edited using the multitrack facility in Premiere (I had no other equipment at the time). Instruments were minimal (a few keys played on a piano, a trilled violin string) and natural sounds predominate (many were recorded with a minidisc at Manchester airport including live Jet engines warming up, taxiing and then taking off). The latter include samples of my own voice in a variety of timbres to give texture and emotional inflection. The whole project was like a sort of architectural construction, literally building the tunes up out of samples rather than playing anything in using a keyboard (I only used a keyboard on one track - 'Arrival'). At some points I had thirty tracks running simultaneously.
Again, the 8 tracks that helped make this programme the great success that it was are becoming available on CD and can be ordered in advance by maillng me and saying that you want to take off and fly too. The CD will simply be called Plane Crazy and it will feature the tunes
1. Planesong
2. Airport
3. Pensive
4. Jetstream
5. Take-Off
6. Oxy Voices
7. Flight
8. Arrival
This is, perhaps due to the theme or to my incredible novitiate enthusiam, widely regarded as the most original work I've ever done - and the jet engines have to be heard to be believed!
