more than human songs
[Image credit: Riot Ensemble, ‘the arrival of the plastic’, Kings Place London, 14 Feb 2020] I’m very privileged to have several ‘in the flesh’ performances of ...
Knot thinking…
Excerpt from conference paper: ‘Knots and other forms of entanglement’ (Lim, 2013) …One could think of this musical language as textilic: a music of intertwining fibres and chaotic entanglements, structures of mesh-work or of threads becoming woven textures. A key aspect of this quality of ‘textility’[1] is the notion of sound rooted in a dynamic ...
An ‘intercultural’ education
I’ll be participating in a forum next week hosted by Cambridge University as part of the activities of the Commonwealth Creativities in Intercultural Arts Network (CIAN). One of the preparatory questions asked by Dr Brydie-Leigh Bartleet, convenor of forum 2, was ‘In your experience what is the single most important thing to take into account ...
Tongue of the Invisible CD released on WERGO
I’m very excited that the Tongue of the Invisible CD is now out on WERGO (WER 68592). This is issued in the Music of Our Time/Edition musikFabrik series and documents a beautiful collaboration between myself, writer Jonathan Holmes, musicians Omar Ebrahim, Uri Caine, Ensemble musikFabrik and conductor André de Ridder. The CD is a live recording ...
The Weaver’s Knot
The Weaver’s Knot (2013), a string quartet based on aspects of hardanger fiddle playing and written for the Arditti String Quartet on the occasion of their 40th anniversary for performances in 2014. The ‘weaver’s knot’ (also known as a ‘sheet bend’ in knot parlance) is a traditional technique used for hundreds of years in textile ...
Lespugue Venus
‘Lespugue Venus’ (26-24,000 years old, carved mammoth ivory) – I was transfixed by this beautiful statuette in the Ice-Age art show at the British Museum. It’s in a cabinet right at the start of the exhibition and it took me ages to tear myself away from its radiant presence. According to Elizabeth Wayland Barber, this ...
Video of ‘The Navigator’ opera online
The full video documentation of my opera The Navigator (2008), libretto by Patricia Sykes, now appears on the Institute of Musical Research (University of London) website as part of their ‘New Music Insight’ series. The video was filmed in the Judith Wright Centre just prior to the premiere in Brisbane in July 2008 with the ...
