New Release

‘Ellie Wilson’s haunting Moth x Human turned data about night-time moth activity into a beguiling synthesised fabric’ The Guardian ★★★★

‘So beautiful. Haunting’ CBC Radio

‘A moth symphony … each species has its own distinct musical sound’ Scott Simon, NPR

BBC Radio 3 live recording from PRS Foundation’s New Music Biennial out now on NMC Recordings

Ellie Wilson writes … As biodiversity declines globally, the quiet disappearance of insects often goes unnoticed. I wanted to compose a piece that not only reflected this loss, but also allowed the insects themselves —specifically moths — to help create it, resulting in a sort of interspecies dialogue between moths and humans.

I don’t think I realised quite how much time would be spent staring at spreadsheets before I could start making music. I was introduced to scientists at the UKCEH who use an automated, solar-powered device that records moth activity overnight. It has a light source to attract moths, a camera to photograph them and a computer plus AI to identify the species and timestamp each visit.

I selected a single evening of data and transformed it into music. A custom-built Max/MSP device let me bring this data into Ableton. Each moth’s visit was converted into MIDI, with species assigned a unique pitch or timbre. I condensed real-time monitoring of a whole evening into the 12-minute duration of the work, capturing the ebb and flow of moth activity throughout the night. At some points the moths have created short melodic fragments, and these can be heard later in the piece as repeating motifs in the cello and piano.

The piece sonically represents the impact of biodiversity decline by using data from the same evening but two contrasting locations. It opens with data gathered from Parsonage Downs in Wiltshire, a healthy chalk grassland habitat. Over the course of four hours, 80 different moth species were recorded. The sound world is rich, very active, demonstrating a thriving ecosystem. The closing section of the piece uses data from a monoculture farm in Cambridgeshire where pesticides are used. Here, only 19 moth species were recorded during the same four-hour period and the soundscape is noticeably more sparse and monotonous.

Moth x Human is scored for 2 violins, cello, trombone, piano and analogue synthesizer, but at the heart of the piece is the fixed media track built from the moth data, which plays alongside the live instruments. Most of the writing for the two violins is delicate (marked ‘gossamer – like moth wings’ in the score). They move in fast, whispered exchanged with lots of string crossing that moves from flautando to sul ponticello to bring out a wide range of overtones and timbres. This creates a sort of dreamy, fluttering soundworld. The cello brings contrast and character: playful pizzicati, glissandi, Bartók snaps, and even percussive tapping on the body of the instrument mimic the frantic flutter of a moth caught in a lampshade. I was very lucky to work with The Northern School of Art, who even designed a new module around my project. Fine art, animation, and photography students all created moth inspired artwork that was then 3D animated to make the visuals that are used in the live performance.

New single: Delta + Music Video

Delta is the second single from my solo album Memory Islands, released on Bigo and Twigetti 29 September.

Ellie says “Delta was created entirely on my violin with pizzicato chopped up and spread across drum sample pads, allowing me to play patterns that wouldn’t have fallen naturally under my fingers. It was inspired by my father’s recovery from a coma after a cardiac arrest (he thankfully made a full recovery). As his brain fired up, memories were replayed as if happening for the first time, then filed away in the right places. In Delta, I was thinking about the electrical pulses that transmit this information around the brain. Memories returned slowly at first but then the floodgates opened. It reminded me of a TV documentary I’d seen where a dried-up riverbed filled with water after a monsoon; the water found its way through all the previously carved chasms and cracks in the bed (not dissimilar to the grooves on the surface of a brain) and then into a large river.”

The music video was made by my brother Mark Wilson. He explains the techy stuff much better than me …

“The animation in this music video is the output of custom developed Python code. The application samples audio chunks of Delta in real-time and evolves and adapts the evolution and appearance of lines, intersecting triangular formations and background gradients in response to pre-defined grouped frequency band intensity thresholds. Due to an element of randomness in vector calculation, the line animation will evolve differently each time the application is executed, so this video represents one of many possible interpretations of the audio stream.”

Download/stream single: https://bfan.link/ew-delta
Album CD/DL/Stream: https://bfan.link/memory-islands

New single: Unnamed Unseen + Music Video

Unnamed Unseen is the first single from my solo album Memory Islands. Written for Hardanger fiddle and electronics, it is inspired by a line from Robert Macfarlane's book Landmarks about nature words falling out of our language. “Once they go unnamed they go to some degree unseen. Language deficit leads to attention deficit.”

The music video was made by Marry Waterson, woven with hand painted film and drawing on themes of nature and fading/lost memories.

Download & Stream single: https://ffm.to/unnamed-unseen
CD/DL/Stream album: https://bfan.link/memory-islands

New Release on Accidental Records

A new work of mine for violin and electronics is released today on Accidental Records. The compilation called Antechamber Music features music by a fantastic selection of experimental artists and is available on limited edition cassette (with glittery tape!), download, and streaming.

The piece is an shortened version of an unreleased track Will I Dream? which gets its title from a quote from Peter Hyam’s sequel to the Kubrick classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. The moment the onboard computer HAL confronts his digital ‘mortality’ – all memories erased. It has an unsettling sound world with lots of space between the notes to create a sense of void. Most of the sounds you hear have originated from the violin, manipulated through FX pedals (including the TC Helicon VoiceLive) and computer processed effects.

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New Release - Dominion of the Sword: Henry VI and Richard III

This time last year I was frantically writing music for Shakespeare’s Globe 19/20 productions of Henry VI and Richard III. Working long hours with a bunch of inspiring colleagues to create something I was proud to be a part of. It all feels so removed from the world we currently find ourselves in.

This new release is a celebration of what we acheived and has been specially created to support Shakespeare’s Globe at this difficult time, with all proceeds donated to their unique theatres and education facility. #supporttheartsUK

Photo: Sophie Russell (Richard III) and Jonathan Broadbent (Henry VI): (c) Marc Brenner

Dominion of the Sword: Henry VI & Richard III
elliewilson.bandcamp.com
Release date: 6 November 2020 CD I DL + Booklet PDF

This EP features a selection of incidental music along with speeches by some of the Globe Ensemble actors, plus a specially written booklet note by Shakespeare's Globe research assistant Hailey Bachrach.

The music was hailed as ‘impressive … this season’s most memorable’ (Fringe Review) and described as ‘melt[ing] seamlessly into the drama’ (The Guardian) and ‘tonally akin to a Scorsese film’ (What’s On Stage).

Folk songs Adieu to Old England and Dominion of the Sword rub shoulders with 1960s country-rock hit For The Good Times which becomes an ironically haunting theme song for Richard III himself, accompanying his murders as a symbol of his world’s growing desensitisation to violence; and closing number, When the Roses Bloom Again. These are stitched together with cinematic underscoring, creating a doom-laden, unsettling world as the plays become more bloody and horrific.

“By pulling songs from across time we sought to explore how Shakespeare’s vision of a troubled, chaotic England spoke not just to his time or to our own, but could represent the wide and messy history of the whole nation.”

— Hailey Bachrach

Tracklisting:

1 Henry VI ‘Was ever king that joyed an earthly throne / Woe above woe’
Jonathan Broadbent (Henry VI - Part II, Act IV Scene IX / Part III, Act II Scene V)
2 Dominion of the Sword
3 York ‘Now, York, or never, steel thy fearful thoughts’
Colin Hurley (Henry VI - Part II, Act III Scene I)
4 Henry VI ‘This battle fares like to the morning’s war’
Jonathan Broadbent (Henry VI - Part III, Act II Scene V)
5 Doom Adieu
6 Clifford ‘Here burns my candle out; ay, here it dies’
Nina Bowers (Henry VI - Part III, Act II Scene VI)
7 Adieu to Old England
8 Queen Margaret ‘What, were you snarling all before I came’
Steffan Donnelly (Richard III - Act I Scene III)
9 For the Good Times
10 Richard III ‘Give me another horse! Bind up my wounds!’
Sophie Russell (Richard III - Act V Scene III)
11 When the Roses Bloom Again

Globe Ensemble Actors: Nina Bowers, Jonathan Broadbent, Steffan Donnelly, Colin Hurley, Sophie Russell
The Globe Band (Bastard Feudalism):
Ellie Wilson violin, saw, vocals
Thom Ashworth lead vocals, percussion, guitar, mandolin
Jay Chakravorty piano, harmonium, guitar, EBows
Midori Jaeger cello

All music written/arranged by Ellie Wilson
Music recorded in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe, London, December 2019
Speeches recorded in actors’ homes 2020
Edited and mixed by Thom Ashworth
Mastered by David Lefeber
℗ & © 2020 Ellie Wilson

Shakespeare’s Globe is an independent charity that receives no regular government subsidy and generates 95% of its income from theatre tickets and other on-site activities. Due to the 2020 pandemic, it is losing nearly £2 million a month. They need support more than ever to get through this most challenging time.

This release has been specially created to support Shakespeare’s Globe, with all proceeds donated to their unique theatres and education facility. It is available from my Bandcamp page only. elliewilson.bandcamp.com