'El laberinto' at New Music Scotland awards
Just heard that my new piece 'El laberinto' for voice, bass clarinet and general MIDI is going to be performed by Stephanie Lamprea and Alex South at the Scottish Awards for New Music 2023 on 1st September.
I say 'new piece' – effectively this is revisiting and recontextualisation of an earlier piece 'El laberinto de mi mente'.
Here's what I've written about the new version:
The world has changed a lot since 1998, and I feel much less comfortable about my place in it. Was I only able to become a ‘composer’ thanks to the the middle class white male privilege that gave me the confidence, agency and status to do so? Is there any value to my work, or is it just a self-indulgence? Am I privileged to be able to even ask that question?
The writing for the voice and clarinet is inspired by a tradition of wordless virtuoso unison lines most commonly associated perhaps with Carnatic/jazz fusions. The accompaniment makes self-consciously nostalgic use of General MIDI sounds in a Standard MIDI File, rewinding back to those naively happy days of plain text, ISDN dialup and minidiscs.