On Thursday May 4th as apart of the guest lecture series hosted by UAL LCC and CHRiSAP two members of staff and artist Rory and Ecka spoke about their practice. Rory is a musician and sound artist who associates himself with organic sounds, field recordings, and music concréte all combined with piano and compositional music. Ecka is a musician who bases her practice around the cello, horse hair harp, and music concréte with objects such as an egg flute and door hinge. Her practice is also integrated with scent, recently designing perfumes around sounds.

Rory’s work “Free Music on the Clock (Chocolate Monk)” was inspiring to me and I listened to the piece after the lecture multiple times. The use of feedback and what sounded like a dicey pot from an electric guitar was used in a musical way that felt entirely compositional and deeply coloured to my taste.

Ecka’s recent release “Promise and Illusion” was incredibly inspirational and tonally complex. I listed to the album on my way home from the lecture and was amazed. The use of the voice alongside the door hinge as an opening demonstration of the feel for the entire album was both unique and compositionally inspiring.

Expanding on my inspiration from the lecture, I developed an idea for one of my own compositions from both of there perspectives, especially Ecka’s use of a horse hair harp throughout the album. For my Creative Sound Projects Module I am going to compose a score to an impressionist painting that is meaningful to me and incorporate elements of the environment as well as instrumentation that is sonically period accurate to the painting.