Internal Terrains Music
25 Feb 13:
Natasha Davis commissioned a music soundscape for her new solo show, Internal Terrains. I’ve made the sounds for all her shows so far, but the idea for this one was big: 60 minutes of continuous audio. As work on the show progressed, we realised there were actually going to be moments of silence in there, so I’ve created a number of related instrumental pieces that reference a main piano theme called November, which appears in full at the end. In these earlier sounds, fragments of piano from November turn up, and reflect off the various moods that each piece evokes. Plus I made a couple of stand alones to highlight specific extreme parts of the show…
November was a piece I’d been working on previously, for a Foster/Dechery show about the 20th Century called Epic. It was never used, but Natasha heard me playing it one day and felt it fit her idea of the show’s finale. The future participatory version of Internal Terrains requires a longer, slower paced contemplative version, but here is the original demo: variable tempo, missed hit notes and all...
The first work I made specifically for the commission was Internal Terrains 1: Rise, using a flex-a-tone, digitally decelerated, an upright piano and Logic Pro Wurlitzer in overdrive. In this point in the show, Natasha will step on top of the white lighting cables, extend her arms, and slowly, gracefully spin around a suspended cage holding a pico projector casting photographs onto her head and torso, while she recites a Serbian fable... It's a beautiful scene, and I wanted to capture a dream like space, a lyrical feel, and electricity.
This is Internal Terrains 4: Hera, inspired by the Jonny Trunk track, Zeus, which breaks into thunder and rain in much the same way (Picasso said good artists copy, great artists steal…) Just before this music begins, Natasha will start a metronome ticking on stage, perch herself on a looped chain and begin reciting a list of the 40+ addresses she have lived at through her magratory, exilic life. Hera recalls that metronome, subtly clashes with it, and ultimately imposes a new tempo as the stage metronome slows and fades. I wanted to capture the feel of the passage of time - the chords from November break in at one point, layering distance and memory.
Lastly, here’s one of the stand alones: Internal Terrains 3: Software, created from the data-to-audio conversion of the MS Paint computer programme, converted by Random Davis (see the original on his soundcloud site: R2Bl3nd). I had a good time making the remix, and it highlights one of my favorite surreal parts of the show. Internal Terrians will be playing around the UK and abroad over the next year, and it’s going to be beautiful. Check her website for details: www.natashaproductions.com..