I had an amazing time putting on a gig with my good friends and fellow composers interested in silence, openness, and collaborative approaches to making music together, Gregor Forbes and Sophie Stone.
Gregor kindly invited myself and Sophie to put together an evening as part of his long-running Glasgow Experimental Music Series at the Old Hairdressers, mainly due to our shared connections with Wandelweiser and interests in experimental approaches to sound, silence, musical play and exploration, text scores, and expanded listening.
Stone: postcard-sized pieces (2020-)
Forbes: Oliveiras (2022)
Forbes: Portugal Soundscape (2018-19)
Leomo: the surface of the night (2020/22)
Unfortunately, Sophie couldn’t make it up to Glasgow due to adverse weather conditions, but her presence was still felt through her contribution of a field recording which formed part of our realisation of her great postcard-sized pieces, presented in a specifically curated version for this event.
Gregor attempted to bring a bit of Portuguese warmth to a freezing Glasgow evening through Oliveiras and Portugal Soundscape, through some more rhythmic and repetitive playing and by presenting some lovely field recordings of Portugese goats, evoking memories and warmer landscapes.
We finished off the programme with my the surface of the night, reaching the quietest volumes of a quiet intimate evening.
Many thanks to everyone who made it the Hairdressers in spite of the awful weather and of course, to my collaborators Sophie and especially Gregor! Really looking forward to musicking with both of them in the future.
