'A Dangerous Journey'

As patron of Able Child Africa I am acutely aware of the challenges faced by many countries through poverty. More recently I have been made aware of another form of insidious crime against innocent young victims involving exploitation, abuse and degradation.

Ruth Beni, Director of Animage Ltd, sent me a video depicting the plight of 2 young girls, Rose and Grace. She asked me to consider composing some music to accompany two animated stories.

As soon as I had time I duly sat down and began watching the videos. I would say I am a fairly worldly-wise person and I am very well aware of many injustices in this world but nothing prepared me for the impact of the stories about the plight of these two young girls - victims of sex trafficking.

It is my understanding the characters featured in this animated film titled 'A Dangerous Journey' are based on real people, coerced as children, out of their homelands and exploited horribly in other countries including the UK. I cannot comprehend the trauma they must have suffered in their very young lives. I cannot begin to assume I know how they feel or how they and countless others will ever lead normal lives. What I do know is I cannot ignore their plight, do nothing, get on with my life or forget what I have seen.

I immediately contacted a composer friend of mine, Philip Sheppard, and we set about writing music to accompany these two animated stories. I hope we did them justice and I hope awareness of crimes like this can be eradicated.

Please watch the video and let me have your thoughts but most of all please send the link to as many people as you can and in doing so hopefully we can reduce incidents of this nature and make our world a better place......

Shadow behind the iron sounds

Shadow Behind the Iron Sun

I recorded a CD titled Shadow behind the Iron Sun in 2004 and some of you will have noticed the short music clips heard on my website are from the CD. The recording was totally improvised which gave me the freedom to create onto a blank canvas.

Improvisation can be liberating and exciting but it can also be frightening at the same time because I am never sure where the inspiration is directly coming from. For me improvisation is about spontaneity and mood which can be triggered in many ways. The daunting aspect comes when there is an expectation of improvisation.

Last year I joined a group of musicians at Kings Place in London to perform improvised music to an audience who were watching old black and white silent movies. The event was titled Not so Silent Movies and it turned out to be enormous fun. The audience triggered the music for each set which ran through the films in all directions. We, the musicians, could see the films and the idea was to just play! The audience were invited to choose an instrument they wanted  to begin each set, which was extremely nerve racking as each of us wondered who they would chose next!

There is also a shadow that occurs before an improvised performance. it can drape like a cloak of anxiousness and concern about what will happen if I cannot think of something to play. As soon as the performance begins it evaporates and the creativity and music takes over.

It would be almost true of most musicians to say there is a nervousness prior to a performance - we are human after all! but for improvisation it can be different because there are no notes on the score spinning around in the head we will not have practised the pieces in advance and all we have to go on is the' ideas' that may come to us as the curtain goes up! I can tell you the' ideas' can be very elusive at that point!

I often tell an audience they are the inspiration, they provide the impetus to begin the process and the applause provides the energy to continue. The excitement builds in different ways depending on the audience. Some audiences are slow to respond but when they do it feels like a burst of sunlight. Others are exuberant from the outset and they keep the tempo buoyant throughout.

Another source of creativity comes from the instruments themselves as well as the collaborators. In the clip attached the set up was magical, the colours and sights of so many instruments positioned in front of me turned into a colour palette to create a supernova of music and sounds. Together with Trilok Gurtu and Fred Frith we created the spirit of Shadow Behind the Iron Sun - I hope you enjoy it and look forward to your comments.

Where have all the emails gone......or the Art of queueing

Once again I am standing in airport queue waiting for hours to be 'processed' and assessed for security risks. As I stand slightly shifting from leg to leg to avoid getting too stiff from inactivity, all kinds of thoughts begin to go through my mind. Is there an Art of Queueing? are certain nations better at queueing than others? is this a British thing?
I wonder if we can train ourselves to constructively use our 'mental time'. Can we go into 'a queue mental zone' and use the opportunity to let our minds rest or wander loosely around the brain in thought. Perhaps you already do this.

Some thoughts that instantly pop into my head are about emails. I find myself reminded of emails, ones I have not responded to or forgotten, emails that I have not received a response from and emails I need to write. Instantly my head goes down to the examine the tiny screen of my mobile phone and I begin scrutinising each entry to see what news is contained in the plethora of emails squashed into my inbox. The new ones have been vibrating constantly since I began queueing, eagerly jostling for me to address them
As I do the luggage shuffle, I am such an expert I don't even look up when I edge my cases forward with a deft shove of my foot! I exercise my thumbs by typing essay emails whilst struggling to check for spelling errors. I am one of those people who type the full email, almost without abbreviation, I wonder what that says about my personality.
Three hours of queueing has resulted in 25 emails, I think I will begin keeping a tally of how many emails I can type per hour.

I ritually look up briefly to check my place in the queue. I assure myself I am in the correct queue, feel in my pocket for my passports and tickets before turning back to the icon of communication staring back up at me, urging me to do just one more email or perhaps a text or even a tweet or maybe not.
I don't find queueing very inspiring, for me it is rather a process of reflection. Mentally checking and double checking and for wondering what to cook when I get home. I have started cooking meals relevant to the place I am visiting. This weekend it will be goulash because I am on my way to a percussion festival in Gyor, Hungary. Ah I can make a note of some of the Facebook tips I have received about making this traditional dish, best cuts of beef, plump peppers, sweet onions only one problem it is making me feel hungry now and I have only moved a few feet in the queue! Bon apetite and have a lovely weekend..

Feed the brain music

SESAME STREET

Do you ever encounter something you knew all along and then read it in an article and suddenly it all makes sense?

This happened to me recently when reading a back copy of International Arts Manager magazine, titled 'Study in children's music training has enormous implications'.

The article carries forward the ongoing debate about the importance of music education in schools, a subject very close to my heart and indeed I was part of a consortium some years ago with the late Michael Kamen, Sir James Galway and Julian Lloyd Webber together we lobbied the then UK government of the day to increase funding for music education - we succeeded and the budget was increased by £332 million.

The article goes on to report about recent research carried out at York University in Toronto in which it is found that 'the verbal intelligence of four to six-years-olds rises after just one month of musical training'. I have always believed musical education encourages cross disciplinary benefits and this confirms my lifetime thoughts.

The cognitive improvement is apparently demonstrated clearly in response to musical training. Although I do not have children my experiences over the years leave me to believe this kind of research is true and many children are missing out. I personally feel the discipline gained from music education and indeed arts in general have enormous benefits in so many areas. Team work is definitely one area that is noticeably improved in children who have worked together as part of an orchestra.

I grew up in a family where we gathered socially to enjoy playing music and listening to music. As a child none of us were perceived as particularly gifted it was just a great family social gathering enjoyed by every age group. Encouragement from older members of the family to the youngsters was always strong and supportive. This attitude was also prevalant throughout my school years and I honestly believe it became the foundation of good communication and confidence in each of us to develop our skills and enabled us to hold our own amongst others.

Children demonstrate interests and curiosity in music when they are very young. From babies learning to create sounds from striking saucepan lids to a host of toddlers on You Tube who love having a go at playing all manner of instruments and keyboards and then it appears these traits are somehow eroded when they enter school. I am frequently told about the lack of funding, lack of teachers, lack of space etc. which means parents are left with the dilemma of covering the cost of private tuition for their children, this should simply not be the case especially where children are concerned.

Am I being really old fashioned?
Are we missing a trick?
Research suggests we are - what do you think?

I have seen and touched the sound...



As I walk a gravel pathway or across a wooden bridge the crunchy sound of stones and the boots on the wooden planks vibrate up through my body. It makes me wonder if you are feeling and touching sound or are you in too much of a hurry?
Feeling and touching sound is my domain. Because of my profound deafness my other senses are heightened. Very often I see sounds being drowned out for others by a cacophony of noise. I see headphones, mobile phones, ear muffs barring the traditional channels but I also see a great deal of  haste around me today. I see people rushing, pushing and pacing quickly to arrive on time, early or just to get there!
I have deliberately extracted myself from the hubbub of city life; I have taken a step back to enjoy the sounds of the countryside where I live. However even in the city there are places to stop, withdraw and just take in the environment. Where and when did you last stop and really listen?
March winds seem to be upon us now and I remember from my childhood how they sounded. The memory of the wind lashing against my face is my way of feeling that sound now. When I recently arrived back to the UK, to a deluge of snow, I stood at the open door to feel the snowflakes gently resting on my skin. As I did so, I was reminded of being asked to create the sound of snow on the snare drum by my music teacher at school.
My school gave every child the chance to be part of the school orchestra. My music teacher, Ron Forbes, encouraged me to explore every avenue of sound creation. He would say to me 'Evelyn create the sound of the sun radiating on your face' and I wondered - how was I to do that?
What he was really asking me to do was to express the feeling of sound. He was asking me to 'address' the environment and in doing so he was encouraging me to develop a healthy curiosity towards our own surroundings.
As spring arrives why not have a go. Stop what you are doing for one minute. Look up and down, look around and breathe in the air. Listen carefully to each sound and then take it one step further - touch that sound.
What on earth do I mean? Let me explain, if I see a bird flying way above me I use my memory of what a bird in flight sounded like and I imagine what sound it might be making now. As I grew up I felt sounds on different parts of my body. As a bird soared above me or swooped for it's prey it might have disturbed the air as it flew by and that sounded like a whoosh. Birds are also quite noisy as the gather on wires or in trees, they whistle and sing, squawk and chatter. I soon learned to recognise those sounds as they would be felt on my high cheek bones where the high sounds might still sit today.
A tractor passing by created a low sound which could be felt in the tummy. Sitting on an aeroplane I can feel the vibration of the engines through the floor and up through the seat. The rumble of the wheels on tarmac vibrates up through a bottle of water close to me. If I hold that bottle I can feel the movement.
Before you take your breath of fresh air have a listen to this piece 'A Little Prayer', I performed this piece with the Guitarist Fred Frith. People tell me it opens the body to prepare for slowing down and relaxing. It is performed in an old sugar factory which was dusty and dirty but the feeling of peace and being close to the sound was immense. Enjoy!!

Blogging a blog

This week I am cheating! I am reblogging a blog! Well not quite, I did provide some of the raw data for the following blog on behalf of Audio Network Australia. Jess Ossington transformed my responses to her questions into a very readable article and I wanted to share some of their article with you.

Real Instruments, Real Stories – creating emotion through sound.

What if I told you there was a phone that can be bowed, struck, scratched, plucked or caressed in any manner to create the perfect atmospheric sounds for your film? Put a little water in it and you will get some amazing results. No I’m not talking about the latest iPhone! The Waterphone is a percussion instrument originating from France. An unusual instrument to look at, it consists of a wide stainless steel resonating bowl surrounded by brass rods of various lengths and a long tube like neck. What is so remarkable about the waterphone is that it can be played in almost any way to create a diverse range of sounds. It can be struck like a percussion instrument or bowed and plucked like a string instrument. This versatile instrument comes in various sizes and thus creates a range of frequencies from a low “whale” like sound to a high and screeching sound.There’s a distinct metallic yet malleable quality to the Waterphone’s sound which makes it an amazing instrument for creating atmospheric textures – perfect for film.Percussion virtuoso and Audio Network composer, Dame Evelyn Glennie has long been an enthusiast of the Waterphone, praising the instrument for its versatility in composition.

“The sounds are so special and unique. The moods I can create are extraordinary – from frightening to sorrowful; lonely to chaotic; melancholy to high spirited the range possibilities are never ending”.

As a composer for film and television, Evelyn is always searching for innovative ways to express emotion and tell stories through sound. Evelyn’s use of the waterphone demonstrates its broad sound spectrum and ability to instantly evoke a feeling; from the ethereal sounds on “Harmonix” to the chilling “Creeper”.“I can manipulate the instrument by using other “tools” with it such as placing it on top of a timpani or by using sleigh bells, rattles, whistles on and around the Waterphone to create sound extensions from the instrument. By putting a little water into the base of the instrument I can create extraordinary effects - even I don’t know what may happen! The sound palette is truly incredible!” Evelyn explains.

Evelyn has been a composer for Audio Network for ten years. As a composer for Audio Network, Evelyn says, “I have always had the freedom to express myself as a percussionist, musician and sound creator”. 

I hope you enjoy this article and if you have any thoughts about other interesting and unusual percussion instruments please let me know.

A Civilised Charm

As the sun melts the snow in the surrounding Cambridgeshire countryside I thought I would see what the internet has to offer regarding the history of Lichfield.

"In 1776 Dr Samuel Johnson took his friend Boswell to Lichfield to show him

"genuine civilised life in an English provincial town". The description still

rings true today, for although Lichfield has grown considerably, it still

retains its civilised charm and many of the fine buildings at the heart of the

City, including the house in which Johnson was born, have remained largely

unchanged over the intervening centuries." www.lichfield.gov.uk

This description conjures up the most quintessential image of a very charming place and despite the snow and cold temperature forecast I am really excited about meeting and chatting to the people who come along to this evenings event at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre.

I love the spontaneity of these events and find each one takes a new turn, a different direction and a chance to really think about who the audience are and what they experience from me.
It can be a very scary process, opening oneself up in this way. So far audiences have been very kind and considerate and I hope the genuine civilised folk of Lichfield will bring along their charm this evening.
I will pack my car with as many items of interest I can possibly squeeze in and hope the colours, sounds and instruments will work their charm!