threaded | spinning | abrading | possibly breaking
this installation features a system of string instruments and turntables, behaving as one automated instrument, and creating delicate and intricate layers of repetition skewed by unpredictable variations in rhythm, timbre, colour and pitch.
in each iteration of the work, a loop of fishing line covered in rosin is threaded through the strings of various string instruments tuned in just intonation, and is drawn tight around pulleys secured to turntables. When the turntables are switched on, the fishing line loop rotates, bowing the strings. Unpredictable variations in sound are caused by minute differences in the set-up; the rotating speed of the turntables; the distance between them; the tightness of the fishing line; the size and type of knot tying it; the angling of the instruments; the amount of rosin on the line; the types of strings (copper, steel, nylon, gut, smooth, bound, new, oxidised, etc.); of course the types of instruments; etc. Furthermore, preparations (brass pins, aluminium foil, paper, etc.) are sometimes used on the strings and/or the line, and the instruments may be tampered with by the composers during the installation.
this installation was performed in London in a nonclassical concert in St John’s Church Waterloo, as well as in the 2022 edition of the huddersfield contemporary music festival (hcmf), and was recorded by the BBC in Manchester, and broadcast on Radio 3 on 28/03/2023.
