Telluric Currents: Voyage (2003) 18'40
Voyage is the 2nd piece in the trilogy Telluric Currents and is inspired by Homer's The Odyssey. The 7 mvts chart a journey exploring the varied characteristics of climate, topology, customs and traditions encompassed on a long voyage through many lands. Each movement captures a tale, an experience, a shared energy: Perceptions of a stranger.
In the tradition of oral poetry, The Odyssey would have been 'improvised' to listening audiences. Encounters told, retold and re-emphasised.Voyage attempts to recreate and re-frame the fluidity of storytelling without narrative, in a journey of sound; a freeform expedition, tracing the topology of landscape and character.
The main sources for the piece are recordings of beautifully crafted glass bowls played percussively with and without water. Mvt 5 was written using a hydrophone recording of orca whales.
i. 03’37”
ii. 03’49”
iii. 02’35”
iv. 01’23”
v. 02’21”
vi. 02’01”
vii. 03’00”
Click here to go to Ithaca poem
Thanks to Mike Z for his percussive inspiration, Nikos for his deep voice and Adam for his recordings of 'free willy' the orca whale.
This piece was composed in the University of Edinburgh Studios made possible with funds from the Scottish Arts Council
Voyage is the second piece in the Telluric Currents trilogy
and is inspired by Homer's The Odyssey. Seven movements chart a journey
exploring the varied characteristics of climate, topology, customs and
traditions encompassed on a long voyage through many lands. Each movement
captures a tale, an experience, a shared energy: the perceptions of a
stranger. This is a delicate work and requires deft handling in its diffusion.
Gestures are poised and gentle, but grab the attention of the listener,
who is invited to anticipate what may be about to happen in a land of
surprise encounters. The exploitation of spatial location was paramount
in this piece and many sounds are placed specifically and carefully within
the stereo panorama. The left/right positioning of many processed sounds
can be perceived as continuous and extreme, but with the additional depth
of field available in diffusion, the topology of a variety of landscapes
is presented by necessarily swift and deft movement.
In the tradition of oral poetry, The Odyssey may have been 'improvised':
encounters told, retold and re-emphasised. Voyage attempts to recreate
and re-frame the fluidity of storytelling in a free-form expedition.
The improvised source samples of glass bowls in water, and the way in
which individual moments of sound are isolated, developed and re-assembled,
create an imagined language or means of expression, particularly in movements
1, 3, 4 and 6. Movement 5 uses a hydrophone recording of ‘Free
Willy’ the orca whale whilst being ‘tracked’ off the
coast of Iceland, which effects a shift in listening emphasis to a highly
associative natural sound-world. However, the supporting material ‘converses’ with
the vocal sounds of the whale, whilst managing to keep the listener in
the realm of an artificial or imaginary world. Movement 2 and 7 are inspired
specifically by Odysseus’ visit to the ‘Hall of Hades’ and
his subsequent account of his visit, where he meets his mother’s
spirit. The drone textures in these two movements aim to contrast the ‘choppy’ nature
of the other movements, allowing the ear to follow a linear constancy
rather than the juxtaposed and multi-layered lines of conversation.
