I am delighted to announce that I am about to open a new site-specific commission in Leicester, supported by Leicester De Montfort University and IRCAM. The project ‘In Situ’ has commissioned 3 artists to make temporary sonic works that animate historic spaces. I am presenting two works that explore the historic connection between Richard III and the City of Leicester in a former armoury tower, Newarke Gateway (also known as The Magazine) in the centre of the city.

A field in England is an electroacoustic work presented over a four channel speaker array arranged in the corners of a large stone walled room. I started the compositional process with a series of field recordings from in and around the contested site of the Battle of Bosworth where Richard III was killed in 1485. To these I have added a number of ambient and orchestral samples, as well as quotations from vintage vinyl recordings of Shakespeare’s Richard III to produce a four movement, four channel installation that evokes political skullduggery, a battle for the soul of a nation and cries of English nationalism – themes which have a special resonance in 2018.

Prisoners is a “hidden” or secret work placed inside a chimney breast made with manipulated voices taken from a vintage vinyl performance of Shakespeare’s Richard III of the ‘Princes in the Tower’ – the young pretenders to the throne supposedly murdered at the orders of their scheming uncle Richard. Their haunted and haunting voices appear dislocated to the listener, unable to be physically located in space, like a ghostly visitation or seance.

Please come and visit if you are in the area – details below.