Altered Landscapes

Robert Mackay

Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

• Year: 2010
• Location: Sydney, Australia

Abstract:

Program notes: This piece was written for Duo Contour, and uses the following poem `Under the Slates' by Martin Daws as its inspiration: We are earth people Long have we hidden In the rock heavy heart And harboured our strengths Among the agonies of stone Ours is the granite Wind withered to pinnacles And the whispered secret Passed behind its scream And the dark slate blasted Into fragments of its nature Shattered forgotten bodies Patterned random Heaped on houses Dropped on churches Silenced hymns On buried villages lost to light We mourn our eagles Count our sheep Lay our seed on crusted bed spring Spines shrunk with the gravity Dreams pulled out of star flight Driven back to earth to bone To wakeful vision raw with piling rock Against the sun We are the subjects of a skyline Held in hard embrace Its dark love a sanctuary For our healing The poem reflects Daws' response to the altered landscape formed by slate quarrying in the village of Bethesda in North Wales. The role of the instrumentalists in this piece is to create a textural accompaniment to the words. Through different sound transformation techniques, the sounds of the instruments are altered in real-time to create word-painting effects. Video sequences of the poet himself are juxtaposed against images of the area in question. These images are manipulated in real-time by the sound of the instruments themselves. The video imagery, like the music, is intended to re flect the meaning of the text. For this piece, I created my own software tools in Max/MSP/Jitter for live audio/video interaction. About the performer: Rob Mackay is a composer, sound artist and performer. He obtained a degree in Geology and Music at the University of Keele, studying composition there with Mike Vaughan, before going on to complete a Master's and PhD with Andrew Lewis at the University of Wales, Bangor. Currently he is a lecturer in Creative Music Technology at the University of Hull, Scarborough Campus, and is the course director. Recent projects have moved towards a cross-disciplinary approach, including theatre, audio/visual installation work, and human/computer interaction. Prizes and honours include: IMEB Bourges (1997 and 2001); EAR99 from Hungarian Radio (1999); Confluencias (2003); La Muse en Circuit (2004 and 2006). His work has received over 100 performances in 16 countries (including several performances on BBC Radio 3). He has held composer residencies at Slovak Radio (Bratislava), La Muse en Circuit (Paris), and the Tyrone Guthre Arts Centre (Ireland). He has played, written and produced in a number of bands and ensembles, including the Welsh Hip-Hop collective "Tystion" with whom he collaborated alongside John Cale on the film `A Beautiful Mistake', as well as recording two John Peel sessions on BBC Radio 1 and supporting PJ Harvey. More recently, he has done session work for Gowel Owen and Euros Childs. 6 CDs including his compositions are available. More information and pieces at: www.myspace.com/robflute www.digital-music-archives.com

Citation:

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{nime2010-music-Mackay2010,
 abstract = {Program notes: This piece was written for Duo Contour, and uses the following poem `Under the Slates' by Martin Daws as its inspiration:
We are earth people

Long have we hidden
In the rock heavy heart
And harboured our strengths
Among the agonies of stone

Ours is the granite
Wind withered to pinnacles
And the whispered secret
Passed behind its scream

And the dark slate blasted
Into fragments of its nature
Shattered forgotten bodies
Patterned random
Heaped on houses

Dropped on churches
Silenced hymns
On buried villages lost to light

We mourn our eagles
Count our sheep
Lay our seed on crusted bed spring
Spines shrunk with the gravity
Dreams pulled out of star flight
Driven back to earth to bone
To wakeful vision raw with piling rock
Against the sun

We are the subjects of a skyline
Held in hard embrace
Its dark love a sanctuary
For our healing

The poem reflects Daws' response to the altered landscape formed by slate quarrying in the village of Bethesda in North Wales.
The role of the instrumentalists in this piece is to create a textural accompaniment to the words. Through different sound transformation techniques, the sounds of the instruments are altered in real-time to create word-painting effects.
Video sequences of the poet himself are juxtaposed against images of the area in question. These images are manipulated in real-time by the sound of the instruments themselves. The video imagery, like the music, is intended to re flect the meaning of the text. For this piece, I created my own software tools in Max/MSP/Jitter for live audio/video interaction.


About the performer: Rob Mackay is a composer, sound artist and performer. He obtained a degree in Geology and Music at the University of Keele, studying composition there with Mike Vaughan, before going on to complete a Master's and PhD with Andrew Lewis at the University of Wales, Bangor. Currently he is a lecturer in Creative Music Technology at the University of Hull, Scarborough Campus, and is the course director.
Recent projects have moved towards a cross-disciplinary approach, including theatre, audio/visual installation work, and human/computer interaction. Prizes and honours include: IMEB Bourges (1997 and 2001); EAR99 from Hungarian Radio (1999); Confluencias (2003); La Muse en Circuit (2004 and 2006). His work has received over 100 performances in 16 countries (including several performances on BBC Radio 3). He has held composer residencies at Slovak Radio (Bratislava), La Muse en Circuit (Paris), and the Tyrone Guthre Arts Centre (Ireland).
He has played, written and produced in a number of bands and ensembles, including the Welsh Hip-Hop collective "Tystion" with whom he collaborated alongside John Cale on the film `A Beautiful Mistake', as well as recording two John Peel sessions on BBC Radio 1 and supporting PJ Harvey. More recently, he has done session work for Gowel Owen and Euros Childs. 6 CDs including his compositions are available. More information and pieces at:

www.myspace.com/robflute
www.digital-music-archives.com},
 address = {Sydney, Australia},
 author = {Robert Mackay},
 booktitle = {Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 editor = {Andrew Johnston, Sam Ferguson, Jos Mulder, Somaya Langley, Garth Paine, Jon Drummond, Greg Schiemer, Kirsty Beilharz, Roger Mills},
 month = {June},
 publisher = {University of Technology Sydney},
 title = {Altered Landscapes},
 year = {2010}
}