CollidedVoices by Stephen Harvey

I desire conflict, friction and incongruity in music—broken detail, fractured sound, noise, silence, ugliness, flexibility and constraint, violence and beauty—sometimes as a device to reveal or mask and at other moments to highlight subtleties that might otherwise go unobserved. It is the stuff that disrupts, interferes or disturbs on which I fix my gaze. Equally it is the influence of gaps, spaces and silences between the details that can often generate the most fascinating results. By layering seemingly incongruous material one can alter the way it is formed, creating interesting gestural quirks and intriguing inconsistency. Seemingly incongruent noises are 'collided' as if in a car crash, creating new shapes, crumpled and disfigured, that emerge from the once rigid surface of the vehicle’s steel body.

It is with these methods in mind that I formalise the ideas behind much of what I do, particularly in reference to the CollidedVoices project. Through CollidedVoices I explore a notion where melody, in the form of medieval vocal music, is both resistant to destruction and is able to co-exist with noise, harmoniously. Contextualizing the work within the realm of improvisation, art music, studio composition, noise, pop and electronica, my work references much that has gone before. However, these approaches to negotiation, exploration and intertextualisation function as a personal filter through which unusual and unique combinations of elements are revealed within the musical frame.

Based between Southampton, UK and Montreal, Canada, The Silent Howl is a record label & music publisher promoting daring sonic experimentations through audio releases, scores and videos. Visit our website for information on our artists and products.

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