Chris Swithinbank

Everyone in Manchester should come to the International Anthony Burgess Foundation this Friday evening for what promises to be an exciting evening of new music, ranging from experimental new works to improvisation and jazz. The programme includes the UK première of my most recent work, Small Atlas by the Raise Your Voice Ensemble’s Jenny Dyson, Jon Guy, Rebecca Lea and Aaron Parker alongside works by Steve Reich, Morton Feldman, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Malcolm Hayes. The evening also features performances by good friends Trio Atem — performing works by Tom Coult, more Feldman, Ian Vine, Martin Iddon, Harrison Birtwistle, Toru Takemitsu, Georges Aperghis and Michael Mayhew — and finishes with a set from the recently-formed 265 Quartet. Tickets are a bargain at £3!

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As of today, I am studying on ‘Cursus 1’ at IRCAM in Paris. Over the next seven months, I will be following the curriculum covering all aspects of composition involving computers, culminating next spring in the creation of a new work for solo instrument and electronics. I am grateful for the support of an Entente Cordiale scholarship from the French state in continuing my studies.

You will be able to hear my tape piece La leggerezza delle città in an exhibition of electroacoustic and soundscape compositions at the Sonorous-Horreum listening room at the KAPU (map) in Linz, Austria, 2–5 September as part of this year’s Ars Electronica Festival. The organisers describe the exhibition as:

… an exhibition of sound works surrounded by concerts. International sound artists meet local compositions and the audience in a multichannel listening room — the “Sonorous-Horreum”. Sounds and noises that make us doubt in the darkness as at the same time we compose the landscape only by listening.

Many thanks go to Clemens Pichler and Enrique Tomás for organising this.

Two weeks ago, Mario Caroli, Pierre-Stéphane Meugé, Donatienne-Michel Dansac and Vincent Leterme gave the premiere of my new piece for flute, soprano saxophone, voice and piano, Small Atlas, as part of the closing concerts for the Acanthes 2011 composition workshops. Their rendition was crisp, extremely clear and — unsurprisingly — far more integrated than ‘clean’ recordings made earlier in the week. Here it is for you to listen to at your leisure. I recommend the free download as the streaming audio seems to do something funny to saxophone multiphonics.