Recorded afternoon Saturday 9th June 2018 at Dunsmore Village Hall.

I had for some years wanted to record a long solo piece of music utilising the core instrumentation. A further aim was that this piece of music should exhibit minimal development and statistically be non-episodic, using a variety of instruments over a relatively short period of time. I find that some instruments can only be used once in a performance, the sounds being so unique and seeming forced if used again later. These instruments would not to be used. For some reason, 3 hours was set as the optimal duration. I also like the idea of a sense of place filtering into the music and with this in mind I looked for a location in rural Buckinghamshire. A favoured location for walking is Coombe Hill above the Vale of Aylesbury. Over the years I’ve recorded in the woodland around the hill, solo saxophone in the Summer of 1990, duet game calls with Steve Nash in the Winter of 2000, starting gunshots with John Zealey on a very cold night in 2004 and as a duo with Jon Samsworth on a Spring evening sometime around 2010. I’ve cycled to the hill after school and released homemade fireworks from the monument. As a young child I remember seeing the path that the large monumental spheres had created when they were rolled from the top of the hill. I’ve run down the steepest slope in deep snow, hand in with my Father, my feet barely touching the ground with my legs freezing under my shorts.

(Looking at my notes from February 2018, the location was to be Princes Risborough in woodland call The Slaughters).

Last year, driving back through Dunsmore I passed the Village Hall. I booked 4 hours, providing time for setting up and clearing down, and worked on some compositional elements that would ensure that adherence to the revised form would be achieved. Usually, I develop a vision of what will happen during a performance or recording. The vision is seldom realised, but gives me a sense of preparedness when approaching playing in a new context or environment. In this instance the vision just wouldn’t formulate and the compositional elements were abandoned. I genuinely had no idea what would be recorded 9th June 2018.

I failed to deliver the recording as originally envisaged. I did recorded 3 hours’ worth of music, but the results were more like an extended performance in the style I may adopt when playing a 30 minute set. I found the thought processes required very different when playing over a longer duration, thinking about what could happen in 2 hours’ time and making it happen, compared with reacting on a minute by minute basis. More specifically the minute by minute decisions still existed, but were overlain by other considerations that came with the demands of the larger form.

This piece, using the original title taken from one of Mallarme letters, condenses some of the elements of the total recording. The soprano is largely unedited with some of the other elements drawn from other parts of the recording. However, most of the interaction actually happened. The gong was played in conjunction with saxophone, and some of the interaction with the bowed elements was also achieved live.