I'm excited to announce that I shall be composing music for a plethora of instruments as part of an original art installation at Llawn in Llandudno, North Wales in place for the duration of the festival, 23rd-25th September 2016. The piece will be a collaboration with Music Technologist Jay Harrison and Llawn Arts Weekend.
'The Sonic Balloon' (a play on the curious sound phenomenon 'sonic boom') is a fun, interactive musical installation incorporating music technology, multi-instrumental composition, six three-foot helium balloons, and three buckets of bouncy balls.
In a large room, six large helium balloons will be tethered to the floor at differing heights. Three buckets of small rubber bouncy balls will be available to the audience-participants to be bounced off the floor (and if appropriate, walls and ceiling) with the aim of hitting a balloon. Once struck, via connected sensors wired up to a computer, a track (one of six instrumental groupings) is 'un-muted' and plays through the speakers. Any number of these tracks can be muted again by a second ball strike, and so on, indefinitely. The six musical voices are looped and together the public play the part of conductor, bringing instruments in and out of the performance, creating a constantly unique composition by changing its texture, overall dynamic, and instrumentation.
The joy of the piece is that in the finished article, 'audience-participants' become performers who control the way the piece acts by throwing balls as if they were playing a futuristic musical coconut shy.
Hope to see you there!
'The Sonic Balloon' (a play on the curious sound phenomenon 'sonic boom') is a fun, interactive musical installation incorporating music technology, multi-instrumental composition, six three-foot helium balloons, and three buckets of bouncy balls.
In a large room, six large helium balloons will be tethered to the floor at differing heights. Three buckets of small rubber bouncy balls will be available to the audience-participants to be bounced off the floor (and if appropriate, walls and ceiling) with the aim of hitting a balloon. Once struck, via connected sensors wired up to a computer, a track (one of six instrumental groupings) is 'un-muted' and plays through the speakers. Any number of these tracks can be muted again by a second ball strike, and so on, indefinitely. The six musical voices are looped and together the public play the part of conductor, bringing instruments in and out of the performance, creating a constantly unique composition by changing its texture, overall dynamic, and instrumentation.
The joy of the piece is that in the finished article, 'audience-participants' become performers who control the way the piece acts by throwing balls as if they were playing a futuristic musical coconut shy.
Hope to see you there!