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Accumulations  2024

photo Kat Peddie.jpg
In 1983 I recorded a number of piano improvisations on compact cassette. I kept these recordings to myself not really knowing what, if anything, I could do with them. Listening to the atmospheric slow pieces from time to time I felt they had some special qualities I really liked, and had meaning, but still I didn't know what to do with them. In 2024 I transferred these analogue tapes to my computer. This made them much more accessible and got me thinking how they might be developed and shared. The slower, more meditative recordings might be taken up and developed by an experienced pianist, or enhanced with very subtle additions. Other, more experimental recordings, playing with the sonic qualities of the piano, seemed to lend themselves to far more open ended exploration. I started with a simple, almost clockwork like track, later calling it Dressage Blues, where I layered the tracks over four different sequences.
From this starting point I devised a musical experiment,now called 
Accumulations, using the piano and other, more recent recordings as source material.
This is how the project proceeds:


Track 1 - Initial soundtrack
Track 2 - musician 2 responding to track 1
Track 3 - musician 3 responding to track 2
Track 4 - musician 4 responding to track 3
and so on...  

Each subsequent track is either recorded by a different musician, or a new sound recording layer is added.
Each new instrument/recording is added to preceeding track(s), layering up the interactions, creating a connection between all the players, though none of them play directly with each other.
There is no opportunity for rehearsal or to become familiar with the track before the player is recorded.
I have the freedom to edit and alter each recording sequence.
This process continues, potentially indefinitely, although there may be markers at certain times which acknowledge particular points that have been reached.
"Writing music is like driving a car at night in which you can only see as far as the headlights...you get an idea of the landscape and it accumulates in your head". 
Harrison Birtwhistle - BBC Masterworks 1999
Beginnings
Accumulation 1
Alto Clarinet (2023) Will Glanfield
Beginnings - Accumulation 1
00:00 / 03:03
Accumulation 2
Alto Clarinet (2023) Will Glanfield
Piano (2024) Sam Bailey
Beginnings - Accumulation 2
00:00 / 03:23
Accumulation 3
Alto Clarinet (2023) Will Glanfield
Piano (2024) Sam Bailey
Harmonica (2025) Chris Turner
Beginnings - Accumulation 3
00:00 / 03:42
Accumulation 4
Alto Clarinet (2023) Will Glanfield
Piano (2024) Sam Bailey
Harmonica (2025) Chris Turner
Double Bass (2025) David Leahy
Beginnings - Accumulation 4
00:00 / 03:43
Piano 5 (2)
Accumulation 1
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
Piano 5 (2) - Accumulation 1
00:00 / 03:54
Accumulation 2
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
Piano (2024) Sam Bailey
Piano 5 (2) - Accumulation 2
00:00 / 03:59
Accumulation 3
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
Piano (2024) Sam Bailey
Double Bass (2025) David Leahy
Piano 5 (2) - Accumulation 3
00:00 / 04:00
Piano 6
Accumulation 1
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
Piano 6 - Accumulation 1
00:00 / 05:22
Accumulation 2
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
Alto Clarinet (2025) Will Glanfield
Piano 6 - Accumulation 2
00:00 / 05:01
Accumulation 3
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
Alto Clarinet (2025) Will Glanfield
Double Bass (2025) David Leahy
Piano 6 - Accumulation 3
00:00 / 05:02
Lament
Accumulation 1
Double Bass (2025) David Leahy
Lament - Accumulation 1
00:00 / 04:12
Accumulation 2
Double Bass (2025) David Leahy
Piano 4 (1983) Will Glanfield
Lament - Accumulation 2
00:00 / 04:12
Accumulation 3
Double Bass (2025) David Leahy
Piano 4 (1983) Will Glanfield
Blean Woods (2025) Will Glanfield
Lament - Accumulation 3
00:00 / 04:12
KJ Meets ES
Accumulation 1
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
KJ meets ES - Accumulation 1
00:00 / 03:08
Accumulation 2
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
Piano (2024) Sam Bailey
KJ Meets ES - Accumulation 2
00:00 / 04:15
Accumulation 3
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
Piano (2024) Sam Bailey
Double Bass (2025) David Leahy
KJ meets ES - Accumulation 3
00:00 / 04:26
Accumulation 4
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
Piano (2024) Sam Bailey
Double Bass (2025) David Leahy
Drums (2025) Jim Howard
KJ meets ES Accumulation 4
00:00 / 04:26
Dressage Blues
Accumulation 1
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
Dressage Blues - Accumulation 1
00:00 / 01:09
Accumulation 2
Piano (1983) Will Glanfield
Piano (2024) Sam Bailey
Dressage Blues - Accumulation 2
00:00 / 01:21
Three Buzzards
Accumulation 1
Alto Clarinet (2024) Will Glanfield
Three Buzzards - Accumulation 1
00:00 / 01:59
Accumulation 2
Alto Clarinet (2024) Will Glanfield
Piano (2025) Sam Bailey
Three Buzzards - Accumulation 2
00:00 / 04:00
Accumulation 3
Alto Clarinet (2024) Will Glanfield
Piano (2025) Sam Bailey
Double Bass (2025) David Leahy
Three Buzzards - Accumulation 3
00:00 / 04:01
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