Year: 2023
Instrumentation:
3 hip-hop artists (require hand-free microphones)
Clarinet/bass clarinet/Singing Bowl/Baking Tray/Cajon
Cello
Percussion: Drum-Kit (requires sticks & brushes)/Brake-Drum/MalletKat (or equivalent, 3-octaves)/5 Woodblocks/2 Cowbells/Log Drum/Second Kick-Drum/5 Wine Bottles filled with Water/Bongos
Fixed electronics for stereo playback
Video projection
Lighting (optional)
Duration: 26:00″
Performance History: Commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra during my Jerwood+ Composer Residency 2023/2024. Research and development funded by the Arts Council of Ireland. Written in collaboration with rap artists Joel the Custodian, Barrowclough, and Kosyne. Premiered on Sat 9th March at LSO St. Luke’s, London. Recorded for release on my 3rd solo album, for release in early 2025. 2nd performance in Belfast, 29th March 2025 hosted by Oh Yeah Centre, Lyrebird Productions Ltd, and Imagine! Belfast Festival.
About:
1.1 Press Conference Fallout
1.2 Elevator Music 1
2.1 The Penthouse
2.2 Elevator Music 2
3.1 The Mezzanine
3.2 Elevator Music 3
4.1 The Basement
In the rural constituency of Nether Whittaker, one local politician believes he has all the answers to the post-Brexit, post-pandemic economic slump his town is facing: a government investment in his wife’s tech company to create jobs and level up the area. After grappling with several journalists at a press conference over the issue, he is accosted by an activist (and old schoolmate) as he enters the elevator. Their bickering is observed by an enigmatic lift attendant, who knows that not everything is as it seems in this particular elevator…
Politics of the Imagination explores the concepts of utopia, political dogmatism, and bitterly opposed worldviews. It asks the question: how can imagination and playfulness inform our approach to political problems? And what is the key to utopia?
Navigate Chamber Works
Echosymbiont
He Hath
Led Me
Politics of
the Imagination
Stop Small
Boats
A Single Tree
Her Name
is Sorrow
Honnold
Shock/Stasis
Lucan Duets
Coimheascar
/Struggling Light
Rasp
The Union is
our God
Woolgathering
Refractions
Cross-Purposes
Common Places
Engines of
Babel
Five Scenes
Enturfment
Hywel
Perelandrian
Drift
Dancing While
Others Sleep
Two Baptisms
Maeshowe Scrawls
Sir, we wish to see Jesus
The Pearl I-II
The Pearl I-III
bluesilver, rust
The Great White Throne
Ripples on a Sea of Glass
Miniature for String Quartet