Hello: I'm a composer, producer and bass player. Bass singer and bass clarinettist too: I seem to feel at home with those more relaxed frequencies. And home is where the studio is: you can listen to some of my productions here — from spooky lullabies and dance tunes to songs for kids, sound art, and era-bending electro-organic chamber music.
See below for news of the latest shows and recordings: hear some of my latest work, plus music from way back. And acquire delicious Blake product secure in the knowledge that as well as being beautiful and worthwhile, most of this stuff is so obscure that it'll supercharge your collection with ineffable coolth.
November 6, 2012
Some great SANS gigs in Europe this year: here's a longish bit (at least two cups of teasworth) from our concert at Croatia's EthnoAmbient Festival:
And while in London, I spent an enjoyable four days doing the MUSARC Field Studies course: dropping hydrophones in the Thames, contact-miking the Wobbly Bridge and and recording the hidden voices of parking ticket machines... Thanks to Lee Patterson and the rest of the Field Studies team and participants!
Since I've been back in Canberra I've been taking part in a couple of projects at The Street Theatre: sound design and music for The Burning Heart, which is working with Canberran artists on their experiences of the fires of ten years ago; while The Pocket Score Company is teaming up with the Canberra Academy of Dramatic Art for a multi-layered Shakespearian show: The Polyphonic Bard. There'll be forty layers of PSC in our karaoke version of Thomas Tallis' greatest (and densest) hit Spem in alium...
April 17, 2012
SANS, the new combo with Tigran Aleksanyan, Andrew Cronshaw and Sanna Kurki-Suonio, will be starting this year's European tour on June 23rd with the Home Festival at Dartington Hall in Devon, followed by gigs in Croatia and Norway and a couple of weeks in the depths of the English countryside working on new music and doing some recording.
But before that, some theatrical stuff: I've just been doing some creative development on a project by Zsuzsi Soboslay, Anthems and Angels, and I'm about to get into sound design mode for a project from Jigsaw Theatre. Plus playing for Canberra's Finnish dance group Revontulet and singing with Coro, a new chamber choir. The Blue Bear studio complex has been busy recording classical guitar and violin duo John Couch & Judith Hickel, and editing live concert recordings for The Oriana Chorale.
December 29, 2011
Here's the video of that SANS show at St Ethelburga's. I'm relaxing there at the end of the stage, just listening to Sanna finishing the concert with a beautiful Finnish lullaby. Because sometimes it's best to just listen.
Taedet Animam Meam by ianblake
...and The Pocket Score Company recently recorded this: we're working up to a CD to be released in 2012. It's from the Matins of the Dead, set by Tomás Luis de Victoria.
Now, this is Francis Pilkington's lute song 'Rest Sweet Nymphs' in a version for four voices:
Hello: I'm a