By Kennedy Blair Miller
Ways of Watching is an album of graphic scores composed by postgraduate students of the Royal Academy of Music, and will be released on October House Records on the 27th of October. The album showcases performers from the prestigious Riot Ensemble and other performers from the Royal Academy of Music. The featured composers are Hani Elias, Archie John, Oran Johnson, Declan Molloy, Mary Offer, and Jonty Lefroy Watt.
The concept of a graphic score is a composition in which non-traditional approaches to notation are used, ranging from abstract artwork to live video installations. Graphic scores invite experimental and original approaches to composing, with a particular emphasis on interactivity and improvisation.
The eclectic nature of graphic scores is evidenced by the six pieces on the album. Hani Elias’s piece, A Way of Watching, features a projected live animation controlled in real-time by a PS5 controller. This striking animation then functions as the score for the players; ‘I wanted to explore interactivity in improvisation, and how both the composer and the score could participate in a performance’, says Hani.
Also making use of a live video projection, Mary Offer’s piece Pulsations achieves impressive coordination between the ensemble, who are nevertheless free to interpret the video entirely as they please. Even though the video does not change, each performance is strikingly different: ‘the ensemble is very receptive to beginning afresh each time we run the piece, which creates vastly different performances every time’.
To celebrate the release of the album, St Mary-at-Hill will host a launch event at 7:30pm on the 21st October, during which each graphic score will be performed. The evening will also include performances of other music scheduled for release on October House Records, including music by Claudia Molitor, Lara Agar, Colin Alexander, and Jonathan Cole. The night’s performers include Zubin Kanga, Stephanie Tress, and Peteris Sokolovskis. Tickets are available here.
RAMpage 