Stradisphere Music

19/02/2025

12/02/2025

Flirting with the crossover?

06/02/2025

In 2024, we had the privilege of collaborating with Cape Town-based composer Pierre-Henri Wicomb and flautist Liesl Stoltz to record his latest piece, "Love.Neck.Nestle," for solo flute and electronics, which initially premiered at the bowed electronics festival on September 1st, 2024.

The combination of flute and electronics opens up a world of innovative soundscapes and textural possibilities, transforming traditional flute music into captivating sonic tapestries.

The flute, with its wide range of dynamics and expressive capabilities, produces the gamut from whisper-soft lyrical strands to dark, percussive and penetrating tones. When integrated with electronic elements, the flute's acoustic qualities are enhanced and expanded. Various electronic techniques—such as looping, processing, and synthesis—allow composers to manipulate the flute's sound in real-time, adding layers of complexity that would be impossible with acoustic instruments alone.

Electronics can introduce effects such as reverb, delay, and distortion, enriching the flute's timbre and creating immersive sound environments. The subtle nuances of the flute can be amplified or altered, producing unexpected harmonics and textures that captivate listeners. Additionally, the use of sampling and live processing allows for the incorporation of recorded sounds or pre-composed electronic elements, creating a dialogue between the organic and the digital.

This fusion not only enriches the musical palette of the flute but also challenges performers to explore new techniques and sound production methods. Extended techniques, such as multiphonics and flutter-tonguing, can be integrated with electronic manipulation, resulting in uniquely textured sounds that push the boundaries of traditional flute music.

Official release coming soon.

Pierre-Henri Wicomb- composer Liesl Stoltz- flute Electronics by Pierre-Henri Wicomb

31/01/2025

Deux mélodies hébraïques, op. 22 II. ‘L'énigme éternelle’

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Yiddish lullaby.Soprano, Magdalene Minnaar Pianist, Esthea Kruger

31/01/2025

First episode of the Stradisphere Podcast for 2025 in the bag and being edited for release soon. We tackled the over politicization of arts, pros and cons of AI’s influence over the creative process, and to what extent culture has a responsibility to protect the artistic institutions they’ve inherited.

18/08/2024

17/08/2024

13/08/2024

From the archives: The reclusive synth sorceress Wendy Carlos has granted very few interviews over the last 20 years. This one from 1998, to mark the release of her ‘Tales Of Heaven And Hell’ album and published here for the first time, offers a candid glimpse at her musical philosophy, her working relationship with Stanley Kubrick, what she thinks of her fellow soundtrack composers and much more… - Read here - https://www.electronicsound.co.uk/features/long-reads/wendy-carlos-keeping-your-composer/

10/08/2024

No more viola jokes?

01/05/2024

What started as a conversation about the aria ‘Les oiseaux dans la charmille’ in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann ended up becoming a commission and deep dive into vocal technique, the inception and evolution of our most ancient theatrical art, and the life of Nikola Tesla.

‘What if there was an entire opera about a robot?’
‘Where did robotics start?’
‘Wait, Tesla had a deceased brother that he tried to communicate with after a tragic accident?’

Five years later, it’s complete. I spent more time than I usually would with a work, because I think subconsciously I didn’t want the sacred process of weaving all the elements of speech and drama, of flittering ornaments and declaimed intrusions, and in the massive forces of the musicians consuming, supporting, drowning the elegance of the human voice in a style of writing that shows the orchestra at its most coordinated and complex.

5 years ago when we interrogated the subject of Tesla’s latent visions of what would eventually become A.I., we questioned if r it would be a hard concept to grasp. At that time I was reading a lot of post-human theory, and even aimed at the opera to try at a posthumanism style of poetry. I don’t think any of us could have expected how relevant A.I. would become in the process of developing it.

I’d like to thank Magdalene Minnaar for approaching me to write the piece, for perennially motivating me to get back to it when I was sidetracked with other commissions, and for the endless technical advice and references in literature and pedagogy.

To Jaco Griessel for crafting the libretto in such a way that takes maximum effect of the stylistic approach of my vision for the piece, for the endless hours of discussions and trying ideas, for the research surrounding the historical, geographical and cultural items that find their way into the corners of the dialogue and lend verisimilitude to the work.

To Paul Griffiths who read directly into the motivation of the characters, designing the setting, the tempos and moods of the psychology that underpins ether characters strengths and faults

to Hendrik Hofmeyr; one of the last voices I trust to guide my art, for the critical insights, the frequent meetings often spending hours on a single passage or topic, and the continual reminder regarding the cyclical nature between drama and technique.

And finally, to my wife Shelly-Ann Blair who always endures the worst parts of the creative burden, yet who has always been a comfort when the traumatic experiences of life derail my focus on work.

I finished the orchestral score in early March, sitting at 300 pages. The vocal score(pictured below), was finished today after nearly 2 months 5 days a week 10 hours a day. The vocal score is 123 pages. The complete work is 2 hours 30 minutes.

Also another special thank you to Hendrik for convincing me to do the reduction myself rather than source it out; the process of reduction is an art in itself that hitherto was hidden to me, but, at the completion of, I could not fathom leaving to someone else.

15/03/2023

https://youtu.be/mwWofOA7X9g

10/10/2022

Within the last ten years Criterion has restored and made available some of the lesser known films of Ingmar Bergman. It is always an indescribable experience to engage this work for the first time from a director who is capable of transcending time.

This weekend I watched two films; The Devil’s Eye and Hour of the Wolf. The film score was notable enough to make comment here; that is, the effect of a score that one cannot recall.

During the former, a scene presents the artist confessing his role in the drowning of a young boy after an ambiguous altercation. After hitting him in the head with a rock, Max von Sydow’s character attempts to bury evidence of the altercation by tossing the boy into the sea who’s head is smothered in blood. Bergman closes in as the boys hair gently rises with trials of the blood until he descends further into the depths of the ocean. Throughout this scene is the gentle crescendo of string fragments sparsely punctuating a drastic silence. As the encounter grows more nervous woodwinds chatter back and forth invoking seagulls gathering, and their insistence breeds an anxiety as it mimics the hunting call of feed time. All of this is underplayed and almost imperceptible, nearly at the periphery of consciousness.

The murder itself is bathed in silence, while the visual element of the film shows our protagonist drunk in passion repeating violent blows offscreen.

It is only when we see the lifeless head of the child descending that the music swells, strings and chattering woodwinds now swirling, and reversed and warped by tape. The effect of such is an impossible dualism that can only be experienced as an observer on the outside — a perspective we too often take for granted that the advent of film has afforded.

This is not music per se, but it’s effect is unparalleled. The swirling of the texture, the crescendos and glissando of the strings, the bickering of the woodwinds in reverse all cause the viewer to psychologically feel as if being pulled downward, correlating to the boy, as well as to feel the raising sense of anxiety and dread washing over the murder. In essence, we feel both of these internal forces manifest in us at once.

The murder itself is not obscene or visually shocking, comparatively so by todays standards. What effectuates all gruesome shock is audible.

It is so simple, but so effective.

The late American film critic James Monaco, as late as 2009 lamented that many directors fail to respect the relationship that film procures between image and sound. My own business partner, and co-founder at Stradisphere today suggested this has much to do with where sound and music fall in the timeline process of film creation. Sound and music is tends to be ‘attached’ to the end, rather than an integral part of the teleology, staging and narrative of the work. I imagine that it extends further than this. Directors have become too comfortable in a role that confuses ‘vision’ with expertise. Film composers should rather be closer in rank to their collaborators.

Budget constraints in a post-covid, Netflix obsessed industry have also aided in the devaluation of the film composer. Intuitive merit and technical expertise have been sidelined by the proliferation of sound libraries and under experienced composers.

It is not to say that an untrained composer is less than a trained composer. There are too many countless examples to prove the opposite to be true; especially as it comes to film. But rather I suggest to elucidate the peculiarity of a repression of what I suspect is much latent genius oppressed under a commodity industry that struggles to accurately identify art from entertainment, vision from expertise and effect from aesthetic.

… And yet, in the earlier days of film where such collaborations were more equally married, we see that it was not only possible, it has a lasting effect whose message is clear and effect is impeccably received today.

Even as film directors perpetuate greatness in their craft, the side of music declines progressively on the whole(many exceptions aside).

An unparalleled form of art is certainly being slowly lost.

03/09/2022

We are busy mapping out the recording on Hendrik Hofmeyr’s latest opera, Sara Baartman. Vibrant, mysterious and engaging, we are looking forward to capturing and sculpting this important South African work for an upcoming album release by Stradisphere records.

03/09/2022

Nearly a month of being sick, I’ve finally emerged for rehearsals for Hendrik Hofmeyr’s latest Opera and Stradisphere’s latest recording project.