As if we had not been is primarily concerned with the relationship between a subject and its environment as represented by the flute and tape respectively. The tape consists of electronically-manipulated sounds, predominantly those of the wind and an engine, taken from a boat a sea. I was particularly interested in exploring the ways in which the flute and tape parts could be understood to affect each other, whether that be in their convergence towards similar sounds or in the development of quite disparate characters that seem to ignore each other. It is with regards to this idea that the music thus privileges texture and harmony in order to convey its fundamental narrative.

This piece forms part of a collaboration with the glass-sculptor Sally Fawkes for an inter-disciplinary installation that combines video, sculpture and music. The project takes as its starting point a trip Sally undertook in 2016 when she sailed round the coastline of Norway, and it is from this context that the desire to engage with a discourse of ‘subject and environment’, or ‘human and nature’ arose. Indeed, the tape part of As if we had not been is made up of the audio from a film Sally captured during her expedition. This collaboration took place at Chapel Arts Exhibition, Cheltenham in early 2018.

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You may also be interested in Plastic Ceremony.