New work for pianist Rolf Hind
My new solo piano work for Rolf Hind to be premiered at Kings Place, London.
Waiting was written in May 2020 for pianist Rolf Hind as part of his Lockdown Miniatures project. A short piece to reflect the times we were facing early 2020 during the global pandemic, and also a personal reflection as i'd just discovered I was pregnant.
I’m delighted it is getting its premiere at London’s Kings Place, Wednesday 6 October 2020. A rare concert with an actual audience!
Tickets: www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/classical/rolf-hind-is-it-too-soon-to-talk-about-all-this/
You can watch Rolf Hind play it here www.facebook.com/583299409/videos/10158829562029410/
If you fancy playing it, i’ve made the sheet music available in my shop elliewilson.bandcamp.com
Rolf Hind
Video: Recording 'The Past Has a Life in the Forest'
Recording with cellist Jo Quail in Epping Forest’s Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge
Below is a short video of me recording ‘The Past Has a Life in the Forest’ in Epping Forest’s Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge. This work is track 6 on the album/sound installation and is inspired by the Iron Age hillfort Loughton Camp. (See my blog post about the history of Loughton Camp).
You can order the album and the graphic score that we are performing from on my Bandcamp page.
Many thanks to cellist Jo Quail for helping me bring this work to life, and to Ryan Pearce (videographer) and Thom Ashworth (recording engineer).
The Loughton Camp map, drawn by BH Cowper in the late 19th century was a graphic score waiting to happen, and the forest location is perfect for a bit of psychogeographic pondering. The hillfort has distinct archaeological features; the earthwork ditches and banks are still prominent, as are the entrances. Silt can be found in the soil where a spring used to be. Then there’s the folklore: the supposed location of Turpin’s cave and the strange form of old pollarded trees, lopped by the billhooks of 19th century ‘commoners’. All these layers of the past add to the spirit of the place today.
There’s a magical, hazy light that appears through the trees on the east side of the camp, and long shadows of branches that stretch claw-like along the forest floor. The colour palette is silver, bronze, brown and green, and the sounds are of aeroplanes, birds, children playing on their bikes and the distant hum of the M25. All of these things have been absorbed into Part II Ancient Earthworks. The graphic score is split into eight sections (From the ground – Shadow claws – Hazy light – Streamlet – Pollarded trees – Forest floor – Turpin – Into the ground) each with a different sound world that relates to a particular area of the camp.
There are two song extracts, no. 5 ‘Pollarded trees’ is a fragment taken from The Lopper and the Landgrabber and for Turpin’s Cave I’ve used the melody from folk song Turpin Hero. The work is written for electric violin and electric cello plus effects, and was recorded live in Epping Forest’s Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge in 2019.
Music video for Halyard
Video for my single Halyard.
My mate David Lefeber has created this atmospheric video for my single Halyard. We filmed boats, sea, lobster pots and some dead things in Hastings last year.
Halyard was written, performed and recorded by me in Imogen Holst's Cottage in Aldeburgh on a very dark and rainy day - I reckon you can hear some of that gloominess in the music!
Here’s some photos from the day of filming:
Nice words about Halyard …
‘... in a very short time she creates a wonderful arch and line of sound. Saving a little surprise towards the end - a beautifully poised and composed work combining electronics, violin & bass’ Errollyn Wallen, BBC Radio 3
‘A really haunting piece ... there’s a real sense of place’ Sean Rafferty BBC Radio 3 In Tune
Artist-In-Residence Epping Forest
I’ve been invited by City of London Epping Forest to be its Artist in Residence in 2019.
If you follow me on Instagram you may have recently noticed an influx of photos of trees, mushrooms and ponds. I am excited to announce that I’ve been invited by City of London Epping Forest to be Artist in Residence in 2019 - a whole year let loose in the forest to explore nature, local history and sound.
Having lived near the forest all my life, I'm in my element researching how people have shaped Epping Forest throughout the centuries: you can find Iron Age camps, medieval roads, a Tudor hunting lodge, an C18th grotto, pollarded trees, ponds created by WWII bombs, and maybe even Dick Turpin’s hideout!
Although most of my reading is online, it’s lovely to have some books to dip into. Some of the older ones I own belonged to my Great Grandfather, who lived on Smarts Lane in Loughton. I’ll shed some light on my family connections to the history of the forest in another blog.
Over the coming months I will be writing music inspired by the stories and the places I visit in the forest. If you want to follow my progress, please sign up to my newsletter and follow me on Instagram I Facebook I Twitter.
Forest Focus Magazine announces my residency on pages 5 and 13.
My project will be linked to Waltham Forest’s year as London Borough of Culture 2019, a Mayor of London initiative, and will integrate with an exciting new project called ‘The People’s Forest’ which is being curated by Luke Turner and Kirsteen McNish.
Want to visit Epping Forest? The London Overground connects London Liverpool Street to Epping Forest at Chingford and the Central Line offers access points to the forest from Leytonstone through to Epping.
Guest Presenter for ResonanceFM
My show focused on new releases from the folk and contemporary classical worlds.
This year I’ve been guest presenter for The Nest Collective Hour on Resonance 104.4FM. It’s been a lot of fun building playlists for the show, which have focused on new releases from the traditional folk and contemporary classical worlds.
I’ve had some great live guests too, including Moore Moss Rutter, You Are Wolf, Jo Quail, Santiago Quartet and Cunning Folk.
My Top 5 favourite new releases played this year:
Maarja Nuut & Ruum: Haned Kadunud (Muunduja)
Anna & Elizabeth: Ripest of Apples (The Invisible Comes to Us)
Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet: Dreams (Landfall)
Missy Mazzoli & Olivia De Prato: Vespers for Violin (Streya)
Richard Thompson: The Rattle Within (13 Rivers)
You can listen to all my shows on mixcloud. Here’s some of my favourites:
