Magic City Counterpoint
DIALOGUE
EP/Game Out Now
Wander into a surreal world conjured by music
Composer, Video Artist, Educator
I make music for heads and hearts.
Father of two, social media defector, monotasker.
I’ve got a mailing list.
UPCOMING STUFF
4 August: Magic City Counterpoint “Dialogue” EP/Game Release
20 August: Magic City Counterpoint & Big Dead at It’s Still A Secret
19 September: Nonsemble at Brisbane Festival - City Hall Lunchtime Concert
Live Electronics and Strings
Composing for stringed instruments and performing live with electronics are two of my main areas of specialisation, and recently the two have begun to converge wonderfully in my work.
GoMA commissioned Nonsemble and myself to make some music for their Margaret Olley exhibition. We came up with some music for string quartet and electronics, and presented fun pop-up performances in the gallery throughout the season. Alongside the incredible string players of Nonsemble, I performed on Ableton Push, a very versatile and expressive instrument controller.
The Push + Strings configuration worked so well that I continued writing new music in the format. This culminated in Nonsemble’s “Archaeopteryx” suite, a set of five pieces based on giant prehistoric birds. These bold, rhythmic pieces were performed at Dots+Loops, Anywhere Festival at Queensland Museum, and in Brisbane Festival. We recorded Archaeopteryx and can’t wait to share it with fans on October 25, 2022.
This has also led me down a path of exploring the Push (and pad controllers more generally) more seriously as an instrument. As well as developing my own technique, I’ve been looking into ways of notating and composing with these new instruments.
“expertly crafted texture, rhythmic impetus from phasing and interlocking parts, unexpected shifts and deep influences from contemporary music.”
Limelight Magazine
Audiovisual Music
I’ve been working for a long time on tightly synchronised audiovisual music.
Most recently, I’ve been using abstract animation to try and give form and movement to the sounds, mimicking the kind of imagined shapes the music conjurs in my own mind’s eye. Under my solo electronic project “Software of Seagulls”, I’ll be releasing a “Visual EP” in this vein very soon.
My experimentations didn’t start there though - it began as a much more rational experiment in elucidating polyrhythms using loops of found footage. From around 2012 I began collecting short snippets of footage, pairing these with sounds, and creating compositions which explored polyrhythm, phasing, and polytempo with tight pairings of sound and vision. The piece “Wave Pendulum of Falling Cats” is a playful exploration which has been exhibited at the Yper Museum in Belgium.
This led me to compose many audiovisual pieces specifically for live performance with live instrumentalists - a challenge which has been very enjoyable and rewarding. “Samurai Loops” for two pianos and video has been performed at MATA Festival in New York City and Extended Play Festival in Sydney.
Collaborative Music Projects
I am into collaboration, and am lucky to collaborate with some amazing people on a regular basis in a variety of ensembles, bands, and groups.
Nonsemble has been a huge part of my musical life since its inception in 2012. An attempt to truly erase the boundaries between classical and pop, it has been a wonderful vehicle to explore that just-right balance of ambitiously challenging and beautifully affecting music. Nonsemble’s typical configuration is a septet with string quartet, piano, drums, and guitar, but we also perform as a quintet with strings and electronics. It began around my own compositions but has since grown to incorporate a lot more, including pop arrangements and work from other local composers.
One collaboration that has grown from within Nonsemble is with the amazing violinist Flora Wong. Flora and I worked together to create the work “Escapement”, a duet for violin and Metronome. You can watch Greg Harm’s lovely video of Flora performing the piece with Jodie Rottle expertly executing the deft manipulations of the mechanical metronome which the piece demands.
I’ve also recently been working on an exciting collaboration with composer, producer, and sound designer, Madeleine Cocolas. We’re calling it Magic City Counterpoint. We’re working with game designers Fuzzy Ghost to create a multimodal experience around the music we’re writing.
Mr. Maps was an instrumental math-rock band that I was in with some wonderful friends from about 2007 until about 2016. We released a double EP and an album, toured the east coast a couple of times, then disappeared. In 2022, largely thanks to the legendary Jungle Love Festival, Mr. Maps has returned and is writing new material. Somehow I think we sound better than ever and I can’t wait to share our new material.
Recent Blog Posts
Concert Music
While my relationship with Western notation is often tumultuous, I am in awe of the process of communicating a composition through this arcane set of arbitrary symbols, and having musicians bring it to life in their own way. Essentially what I love about notated music is its capacity to facilitate an interplay between musicians, the work, and the audience. I call my notated work "concert music” (as opposed to “contemporary classical" or “art music”) because I am most interested in those human interactions it creates, especially in live performance.
I’ve been really fortunate to have some of my concert music performed by incredible and inspiring musicians, such as Veronique Serret, Flora Wong, Kieran Welch, QLD Camerata, Hobart Chamber Orchestra, and Ensemble Offspring.
Education and Research
I teach people to make and perform music with technology at the University of Queensland. I often give composition workshops in schools.
I completed my PhD in Music Composition at UQ School of Music under Rob Davidson’s supervision. My research explored the role of the medium in the compositional process.
I’ve presented my research at TEDxBrisbane, International Computer Music Conference, and in Australian Music Centre’s Resonate Magazine.
Music for Media and Performing Arts
Occasionally I turn around projects for advertising, media, and the performing arts.
I was very fortunate to work with Queensland Ballet, creating music for their 2021 season launch. With less than a month to compose, record, produce, and deliver this work, I am very proud of how it turned out. I was extremely fortunate to have some wonderful string players to call on who really brought it to life!
Join the mailing list
You won’t find me frequenting Facebook and Instagram (etc.), so the best way to get updates on what I’m doing is to join the mailing list.
I send out text-only emails once a month. I don’t use analytics, because frankly I don’t think it’s my business what you do or don’t click on. The list is in a spreadsheet in my computer, and the only data I keep is your email address.
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