Dartington

For the last two weeks of August I was down in Dartington in Devon working with Gerald Barry and Richard Baker. Whilst there, I had some of the most insightful conversations on music that I’ve had, and since then I’ve really been thinking deeply about my practice as an artist. In addition, I have been inspired to re-visit music that I have neglected over the past number of years and have been re-evaluating it in an entirely new light. I’ve come to the conclusion that what really attracts me in a composition is space. Music in which one is given the space to contemplate and comprehend the constellation of material that one has just heard. Very few composers allow this to happen, they get too excited about the next idea instead of realising that they’ve hit upon something good and should dwell there for longer than their patience would allow. For this reason, La Monte Young rather than drawing a straight line and following it, should have just drawn a straight line and remained still…