Beriom 8 - Electronic music, Em 32 - my 85th album. Number 8 of a series of twelve pieces of increasing length and complexity, ultimately developed from a fragment by Luciano Berio - the Beriom Series - In homage to the master. Number 8 is dedicated to my great friend Jim Tetlow.
Beriom 8 - Rh 227. The 8th piece of the 12 - it’s a long way down from here - this is somewhere I have never been before. The series has moved now from the Tape manipulation of Phase music, Phm - to pure Electronic music, Em (32). It has crossed currents as I say - crossed genres. Looking at the sound form with a different kind of telescope. It is a new Generation of the Beriom series - the fluid Projections - a second of three generations. The flute circle of nos. 4 to 7 have given way to almost pure breath, bubbling through some deep fluid - it curls and folds, I can almost see it doing so. The sound has an abstract construction beyond the flutes it was developed from. It is my favourite of the Beriom pieces - striking - strident sound - music for the deep imagination. I say music because it is not natural. It was conceived and directed - it is ‘Considerable as time and process’ - my limit definition of music - It has elegance - it has beauty. Constructing it was a very exciting experience. This piece and no. 9 I call ‘the Fluid Projections’ - a second Generation of these pieces. I must thank Jim Tetlow for his work on the amazing covers - like the Beatles I got a red and a Blue album out of this. To my mixed up senses, the music takes a dimensional presence, in the light of that iridescent Red There is something hallucinatory about it all - like the way the Beatles cut up the backing tape of ‘For the Benefit of Mr Kite’ - threw it up in the air and pasted it back together, howsoever it fell. Thus Berioms 8 and 9 are like hallucinations - in Pure Sound - as Pure music.
The Beriom Series - in three Generations
Numbers 1- 3 for six trombones were originally intended to be a stand alone set - but a second experiment, this time with 5 and 6 flutes, became Beriom 4 - 7, and these formed an iconic bedrock for a series of vast electronic Landscapes in 5 further cycles, looking ever harder at the material. These give a series of 12 in all. A number beloved by me, as an Artist, years before, in numerous sets of 12 pictures.
The Beriom Series, of 12 pieces - over 8 hours - on 7 albums - are all after fragments from Berio.’ They fall into three ‘generations.’ The ‘Foundational’ - numbers 1 - 3 and 4 - 7.’ Then a mid generation - the ‘Fluid Projections.’ Then a ‘Last Generation’ of nos. 10, 11 and12. No.10 is rigorous and testing - nos.11 and 12 float like clouds. I am testing the material to destruction (all but) - in the search for Music, as ‘a consideration of Sound, Time and Process’ -searching for my Inner Self.
An early reorganization of my music research interests had defined my music into dedicated sets of Albums. This way things of a kin got heard together - as one type of album or another - by Genre - or Tranche as I styled them. In this Case Electronic music, Em. - Music taking the longest processing detour from an original acoustic source. By Convention Em.
Beginning as a percussionist my first 7 albums are for Drums of various kinds, Drum music or Dm, my first area of research interest or Tranche. I soon realised there was a second area of percussion, as a generality over a specialism - percussion on anything other than Drums, Metal Percussion music, or MPm. The third of five is the Phase music, realised by tape looping and timing, Phm. The fourth, a genre of Electro Acoustic composition, Music for Strings, Electronics and Percussion, or MSEP. The last genre is Electronic music, Em, taking the longest processing detour from an original acoustic source.
Album numbers 76 to 95 form my fourth ‘Group’ - a 4th time division across my Genres, my Inner Blue Group. This builds on the foundational 'Blue Cherry Group' [where I had introduced my 5 areas of research interest] and the big 'New Horizon Group' - [where I explored to see where these five genres were leading me]. There then seemed to be a ‘band of gold’ across my discography. My Golden Band Group, that mark a particularly successful time for me. The albums that follow that, 76 to the end, are a ‘Blue Horizon’ - after the phrase’ blue sky research’ - the ‘Blue Horizon Group.’ For convenience, I divided this Huge area into the Inner and the Outer Blue Groups. So the Fourth Group is the Inner Blue Horizon - or Inner Blue Group.
There are nine Em Albums in the Inner Blue Group, Em 29 to Em 37.
[] Album Em 29 Auda, documents a series of vast Aural experiments.
[] Album Em 30 Haus music, is for the Bauhaus - music of metallic klang.
[] Album Em 31 is Magic Lilly music - a sweeter klang for a little girl who by all accounts could fly.
[] Album Em 32 Beriom 8, is a sea change in my work - the red album - my Beriom series crosses genres from Phm to become Em, with a huge increase in scale.
[] Album Em 33 Beriom 9, the blue album, dives under water.
[] Album Em 34 Beriom 10, the grey album is even bigger and bleaker.
[] Album Em 35 [Untitled] if that is the case, is Beriom 11 with all but name - a far flung extreme.
[] Album Em 36 Rothko Triptych is a homage to a master in three wall sized pieces, gallery music.
[] Album Em 37 Ober, lastly - is a set of shifting surfaces.
DCM 094 - Dm 14 - 4th Inv Dj - Dm Sn no. 8
DCM 095 - MSEP 21 - Bela Whispers
The DCM album numbers list volumes in a [for the most part]
chronological edition - the ‘DCM Broadhurst Edition’ - Prepared for the British Library in 2021. The volumes or albums themselves were actually released as and when it was possible. The Edition though, was planned from the start to stand on the 'foundation Stone' of the Blue Cherry group.
The Rh catalogue, numbers my individual works in order of Completion.
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