Abstract:

Peel continues recent concerns in my music to investigate the musical and structural potential which lies behind sounds which are familiar to us. 'Peeling' back the outer layers of these sounds reveals new unfamiliar sounds which, when juxtaposed with the familiar sounds, create surreal soundscapes. Sometimes the peeling is violent, sometimes gentle. The boundaries between the real world and unreal worlds become blurred - eventually we begin to recognise the unknown.

Peel was commissioned by BEAST with funds provided by West Midland Arts. It was realised in the Electroacoustic Music Studios at Northern College, Aberdeen and at the University of Birmingham and was also produced using the One Voice Scottish Composers Resource, with the support of the Scottish Arts Council and the UK National Lottery.

Peel was composed using recorded sounds (natural and synthetic) which were edited and processed within a ProTools environment using software and plug ins such as SoundHack, GRMTools, DVerb, Hyperprism and Audiosculpt.