My search for an expressive mode that would bring together sound exploration with compositional thinking was given impetus in the early 1970s by Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie 1 and the music of John Cage, particularly the Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano, Credo In Us, and Indeterminacy. A little-known trio formed in ’72 comprising myself, Roger Frampton, and Peter Evans – the latter two having worked extensively with David Ahern’s TELETOPA – met once a week over a period of about fifteen months to improvise with sound, doing so without having recourse to any established musical language or traditional processes in instrumental techniques. These highly inspirational encounters would prove to be influential in the development of my creative trajectory. 

Some forty years further on my passion for and commitment to the exploration of sound remains undiminished. Through concerted efforts I found common ground for sound exploration and compositional thinking. Then, round 1987, I clarified the parameters by which improvisation and notated composition might interact dynamically, coining the term Collective Autonomy as a reference to this field of exchange; a field upon which compositional processes and improvisation engage in structurally related dialogue; dialogue in which predetermined concepts &/or materials interact with in-the-moment discovery. The nature of these interactions varies greatly: at times unconstrained, at times predetermined &/or limited by defined contexts; at times realised in group exchange while at others, as is the case for this May 7 performance, in a solo setting. Crucial for my music’s making is expressivity – a meeting and weighing of Feelings and Thoughts, the substance of which is conveyed through an instantiated sonic topography. Each topographic contour reflects the thrust, collisions, cohesions, vortices, vertices and energies by which sonic elements are transported, shaped, and made manifest in a formed architectonic.

Several CD releases indicate various aspects of my creative enterprise and these, along with some DVD clips, can be found on my website at feeling-to-thought.com