Two Movements by Conal Blake, Regan Bowering & Li Song

Li Song, Regan Bowering and Conal Blake create work spanning improvisation and performance scores. Their music explores different combinations of snare drums, amplifier feedback and sine tones layered and manipulated through portable speakers.

Two Movements extends the ideas which underpinned their previous release Music for Snare Drums and Portable Speakers (Infant Tree 2023) by incorporating motion in two distinct ways.

‘Swinging’ (Side A) involved hanging three snare drums from the ceiling of Cafe Oto. The drums were amplified by attaching three different feedback generating set ups (a guitar amp and contact mic, a microphone feeding back between a sampler and a Bluetooth speaker, and a lavalier mic feeding back into another portable speaker). The score moves between sections where Blake, Song and Bowering interact with the equipment to change the sonic outcome, and long periods where the snares and feedback devices are left to ‘play themselves.’

‘Oscillating’ (Side B) was recorded in the intimate, resonant space at Hundred Years Gallery. This piece explored movement on two levels. First the rising and falling of three sine tones played through Bluetooth speakers, and second, the gradual, circular movements of the performers and the snare drums around the space. These subtle adjustments to the placement of bodies, sounds and objects in the space created an intense, fluctuating soundscape which was shared, yet unique, shifting and alive for each member of the audience.