Robert Coleman
Decay is inherent in all things is an outdoor work for solo violin and a live recording and playback system. A chain of 3 microphones and 3 speakers line up across the site. Sounds are recorded and played back and passed down the chain, each time getting more decayed but also picking up new sounds in the process. A kind of structural and temporal counterpoint emerges between the violin and it's decaying self which moves further and further into the distance. This work deals with one of my main fascinations: creating multiple viewpoints on musical material, and here with the added interest of allowing the environmental sounds to seep in to become part of the fabric of the work.
This setup was inspired by the action of erosion; the gradual movement and decay of material from one location to another.
( Watch video here )
Robert is One of the Creators of Biosphere.
We Asked Him What Motivated Him to Create These Events:
“Last year I wrote a site-specific piece especially for an outdoor land art structure: James Turell's Celestial Vault in the Netherlands. This was a big turning point for me. It allowed me to work with the environment in a way I had never done so before, where it became completely inseparable from the music itself. I now feel the need to continue working in this way as a means to realise my own ideas. Kirkos has always been concerned with the extra musical experience of an event; everything beyond the music that shapes the listeners interpretation of what is heard. Any venue will apply expectations and limitations on how to operate. It seems like a very natural step for us to take then, working outdoors in more unknown or unsuitable environments and forcing us to form new habits and methods, where we can't always control the outcome. New challenges arise in responding to a new environment that has not been designed with musicians in mind; the result is unknown in many ways and exciting.”
Robert Coleman completed his Masters studies at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague with Yannis Kyriakides and Diderik Wagenaar in June 2019. A previous graduate of UCD School of Architecture his research while at the Hague focused on ‘musical object’. This concept filters into much of his current work where spatial setups are used to provide listeners with multiple perspectives of the same material. As a result recent work has also included site-specific, installation and audiovisual configurations. In May 2019 he directed Dune Works, a site specific event for James Turrell’s Celestial Vault in Kijkduin, the Netherlands, which included his work ‘How many sides do you see?’ performed by the Dutch ensemble But What About.