Hitchcock Dances
What is going on with this stuff? Some pieces were written as soundtrack music for films (the 'Circus of the Damned' material, for example). Others have a thematic origin. The material betrays a strong interest in the mathematics underpinning music, form, proportion, and the transmutation of pattern and sequence. There is a strong affinity therefore with serialist, minimalist, and post-minimalist modes of composition, and the relationship between order and chaos in both art and life. A lot of our earlier material was made using Jim Johnson's excellent Techno Toys 303 sequencer software, which made it possible to do very complex music in real time.
Being able to create this material live, almost as an organic process, was a key target for Hitchcock Dances. Much of the most recent music we have produced was recorded live (Coming Forth by Day, Agamemnon in Hades, and others).
I've been composing and recording music since 1972. There have been three principal periods: Olympia (1972-1980); Honest Annie ((1980-2000); and Hitchcock Dances (2000 to the present).
The Olympia period begins with some extreme noise terror juvenilia (I was fifteen years old in 1972), then settles down into an interesting exploration of electro acoustic music, the use of loops and tape delay, and ring-modulation. I wasn’t using keyboards much during this period, and alto sax and tin whistles were problematic as pitch controllers. So I was looking for other options.
The Honest Annie period began in late 1979, and was almost entirely keyboard based, with the exception of a chamber group piece I wrote in 1982-3. There is a lot of music from this period, unevenly spread across the years, recorded to analogue tape.
In 1994 I began to explore computer-based music using a Data General laptop. This is the most interesting of the material recorded during the Honest Annie period, though still to be recovered from a number of disks. 1994 also saw some interesting analogue portastudio collaboration with a fabulously intuitive guitarist in Oxford.
After New Year’s day 1995, Honest Annie lapsed into total silence, with the exception of a six second track of computer-based material recorded in Bath in 1998.
Hitchcock Dances came into existence in Bath in 2000. With the exception of the first few months of recording, the approach was now entirely computer-based, using digital sequencing software and other tools. It was now possible to explore a number of avenues opened up several years earlier. We were particularly interested in being able to control multiple instrumental parts in real time, and a number of pieces from the first two years of Hitchcock Dances represent the exploration of this idea.
In the summer of 2002 Hitchcock Dances began to upload files to mp3.com. By the demise of mp3.com in the infamous ‘massacre of the digital commons’ in November 2003, Hitchcock Dances was picking up a lot of plays. But we were gone, along with everyone else. In early 2004 we established a minimal presence on Garageband.com, but life provided a number of diversions, and the opportunity was not pursued.
Late 2005 saw a move from Bath to Edinburgh, and some new recordings emerged as early as January 2006 (Travel USA). A new studio was constructed from scratch in 2007 - massively more sophisticated than anything earlier available to Hitchcock Dances. May 2009 saw its third major refit, and the first week of August saw its fourth. The studio, formerly known as 'Second Solsbury Sound,' is now 'Comma'.
Organization of the site
Each of the periods outlined above is represented by a folder on eSnips. The Hitchcock Dances material was uploaded first, and now amounts to more than seventy pieces. During October 2007 I uploaded the folder Olympia. This contains material from recently digitized reel-to-reel tapes, dating from the period 1972 – 1980. The first soundscape from the Olympia period was uploaded on the 30th December 2007 (Olympia Soundscapes folder). I also created a folder called Hitchcock Dances Redivivus, which contains new realizations of early compositions. Materials from the Honest Annie period (1980-2000) in some cases need more complex processing. Compositions are being added to this folder as and when it is possible to do this processing.
Rules of use
These are fairly simple. mp3 versions of Hitchcock Dances, Honest Annie and Olympia music tracks on eSnips are free to use for non-commercial purposes. This includes use in soundtracks to student films and art installations, provided we are correctly identified as the author(s) of the piece(s) in the credits, and you drop us a line to let us know you are doing this. Internet radio stations may also play these mp3 tracks provided I/we are correctly identified as the author(s) of the piece(s). Otherwise we retain all rights in the compositions and the recordings.
Commercial availability
High resolution versions of all of these tracks are available for commercial use on request, via non-exclusive licenses to publish. Hitchcock Dances intend to publish some of the material available in these folders soon on CD, together with other material. CD Baby is likely to be the distribution route, though other options are being considered. The CDs will come with full documentation, and cover art.
Last updated 06 August 2009.
