Angel James Taylor Gallery London C+R

Angel (preview) by Jo Thomas

This week my work Angel is being performed at the James Taylor Gallery, London. It is part of a series of performances arranged by the new sound collective C+R.

http://callandresponse.org.uk/programme/

Angel is a very special work to me. It was my first major commission (INA-GRM Paris, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival) The work was written in the Studio's of INA GRM in a duration of 3 weeks.

It is a long work with tonal and harmonic structures which evolve and disserpate over very short spaces of time. It requires a certain type of concentrated listening to make full musical sense I'm lucky ,the C+R Programme will have 8 channels of immersive sound and I think it will sound lovely.

'''Programme notes'''

Angel Jo Thomas

Angel is an exploration of sound and visual metaphors questioning the passing of time. The human body and the imagination are referenced closely together throughout this work as a means of exploring strange imaginary landscapes, fantasies of flight, timelessness and the extreme beauty of the human condition. Notions of landscape and the human body were essential components to the creation of the sound world.

When writing the music I wanted to reflect an atmosphere which was neither the ground nor the sky, night nor day, water nor air - a strange world, which stood in between worlds, - a multitude of spaces where one, could step into and perhaps, imagine and reflect.

Angel is also a work full of voice. Some scream with Arch strength, some sing with the warmth of Guardians and others simply call for peace.

Angel exists as both an audiovisual work and a piece of electroacoustic music. The work was written in 2002 as a commission from the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, INA-GRM Paris, and Sonic Arts Network. The work had its world première in the Huddersfield Festival 2002 and was performed in GRM, Radio France with the acclaimed diffusion system.

http://soundcloud.comJo Thomas