spectral verses
Spectral Verses was a week of experimental collaborations and performances curated by Modern Studies. It was held at The Glad Cafe in Glasgow between 9–14 July 2018.
Spectral Verses fostered new sonic collaborations and improvisations during the daytimes, which were presented to audiences in the evening events. Events included choral, song cycle and semi-composed experimental music generated by elements of chance and graphic scores, modular synth explorations, live performances and more.
The musicians and artists assembled for the events were largely based in Glasgow’s Southside community – of which the Glad Cafe is at the heart – making Spectral Verses a celebration of the local area’s creative diversity.+
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Co-curator Emily Scott explains,
“‘Let idle hands make busy and spectral verses fill the air’ is a line from our Welcome Strangers LP, and it seemed to capture our hopes for the week’s collaborations. There is this myth that ‘inspiration’ is supposed to strike us artists like some sort of thunderbolt from a higher source! I think sometimes people don’t like to discuss their process as it demystifies the art, and spoils the image of the tortured creative genius. We feel the contrary! When we discuss our work, we solidify our beliefs, we gather inspiration from community, we discover we’re not alone, we generate more as we let go of more.
Over three-dozen musicians got together for our Spectral Verses week and made themselves open to work together in various groups, sharing processes and performing semi-composed music together from fluid genres. There’s a lot we’ll do differently next time, but the premise will remain the same, as we feel there’s a place and need for it.”
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Spectral Verses took shape thus:
On our opening day, we had scratch choir workshops lead by Rory Haye (Glad Community Choir) and Peter Nicholson (One Ensemble), involving community members and local musicians. Various works were improvised using graphic scores, and modern conducting techniques, culminating in an evening performance, including a performance of Cardew’s The Great Learning paragraph 7.
On two separate nights two 10-piece ‘super-groups’ each created a three-movement work based on three prints by artist Tessa Lynch. The goal was to work collaboratively with musicians from diverse fields and experience, but create an environment where every player had agency and a voice.
Elements from the three prints were translated by the group into musical ideas and applied to a graphic grid. As well as this each individual musician’s path was informed by a series of “Ways of Working” chance cards, concerning the passage of time, their texture within the group, and their individual voice. These cards could influence the path of the individual, but the flow of the group as a whole was guided by the known elements decided by the graphic score. In this way, technically the work could be performed by a different group, and still maintain its integrity as a piece in its own right.
The musicians involved were:
Liam Chapman, A. Wesley Chung, Tim Davidson, Robin Adams, Jo Foster, Pete Harvey, Rory Haye, Ali Hendry, Joe Howe, Donna Maciocia, David MacGregor, Simon Liddell, Alasdair Roberts, Emily Scott, Joe Smillie, Karina Smillie, Emily Walker, Owen Curtis Williams.
Our penultimate night saw a modular synth evening exhibiting the talents of Main Hobby, Simon Kirby, and Wavne. There was much geek-talk.
Our final gig was a more conventional band night with Modern Studies favourites Lomond Campbell (Heavenly Recordings) and Adam Stafford (Song, by Toad). In line with our exploratory approach, Bell Lungs’ multi-instrumentalist Ceylan Hay interviewed the acts, alongside our own Pete Harvey, to discuss their process and use of strings in their respective latest albums.
The whole week was recorded, and there are plans afoot with the resulting tapes, permissions pending…
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