The Transatlantic Half-Pipe, Cross Country Runner and Between Dog and Wolf, involved recording physical play. Between Dog and Wolf used samples from a mountain bike and the piece was modelled after several myth-travel narratives combined. The Transatlantic Half-Pipe was made of samples from skaters in Berlin, the UK and Alabama, recordings of myself, skating in Bangor Wales’s concert halls, in addition to studio recordings of dismantled skateboard parts. It was another motion/travel work, intending to invoke feelings of speed and distance. Cross Country Runner used recording of runs through the local countryside in Leicestershire. Taut, as well as k, both drew from a physical relationship to the guitar and trumpet respectively.
All these activities and the sounds they make were well known to me long prior to the recordings being made. It was intended that the long-practiced involvement with these items and actions would act as top-down organizing influences.


The plastic body

As mentioned before, the composer himself is a recording device of sorts. Experience changes the body and those changes follow the composer into the studio. In the earlier works, experience was extant and sounds were gathered around them. The composer, due to many years experience, is weighted towards listening to those sounds in a certain light. Turning the order of this around, I began recording samples for Gravity’s while I was fairly na•ve to the sport of rock climbing. It was an activity begun in order to explore sounds yet unknown. As I grew more familiar with the discipline, my listening attitudes were already in place in a search for musically valuable sound. The neurophysical changes (arguably large changes) were being made as the sounds were discovered.