COLIN BROOM | COMPOSER

(Picture Source: NASA. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050322.html ) Currently my time is being split between writing for the Sound Festival's You Can't Get there From Here (about which I blogged earlier, and will do so again soon), trying to finish my PhD, getting ready to start back teaching at the Conservatoire, and, at the moment, preparing for something of an audio-visual spectacle of a show of original music with gamelan group Gamelan Naga Mas. Gamelan Untethered is a show

​​ One of the interesting things about You Can't Get There From Here process is the fact that we are all such different composers. It means that others can take one's ideas in unexpected directions. For example, the fragment that Sonia sent me, which I spoke about in my last post then went onto John and after that to Oliver. Since passing through both John and Oliver it has taken on a much more dramatic vibe than I (or even Sonia originally) had given. What was a dark, and sl

“In life we do everything to avoid anxiety, whereas in Art we must pursue it.” – Morton Feldman I didn’t really know what to expect from Sonia’s fragment. I’ve only heard a little of her music prior to this project. She had mentioned possibly working with prerecorded/electroacoustic material so I guess I probably anticipated that somewhat, but beyond that I had no idea. Nonetheless when it came in, I was still surprised and intrigued. The whole fragment was as far as i co

NOTE: This post first appeared as a note in Facebook and a post in r/Let's Talk Music on Reddit in January of this year, when Froese had just died. I post it again here partly because I'm trying to collate all these things, and also because I genuinely think you should listen to Tangerine Dream. Found myself spending the first couple of hours or so of today listening to Tangerine Dream, following hearing about Edgar Froese's passing, and I felt I couldn't let the event pass w

You Can't Get There from Here was commissioned by Sound Scotland Festival. It is a collaborative project between composers Sonia Allori, Colin Broom, John De Simone, Drew Hammond, Francis MacDonald & Oliver Searle. It will be premiered by Ensemble Thing on 24 October, at Aberdeen Arts Centre Background Following a really interesting composers residency at Cove Park organised by New Music Scotland, ideas for a collaborative project started to emerge. Composers Oliver Searle