… First disrupted by the storms in February and March, and now, postponed until further notice due to Covid-19. It has been hard to finish this residency with my Hijinx Academy team in Aberystwyth without any warning, and with little opportunity to wish the actors and all involved well. The final performance of Cynefin by the Aberystwyth Academy was due to take place in Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 2nd April 2020, but has been postponed due Covid-19. It will hopefully be re-scheduled for the Autumn.
Creatively, the CoDI Move residency with Hijinx quickly pushed me outside of my normal composing routine; I usually ruminate for a while on musical motifs before putting pen to paper, and the nature of the rehearsals and the residency necessitated a faster musical response to movement. It gave me the opportunity to quickly explore and refine my knowledge of the GarageBand software, which I used to create many of the music tracks and soundscapes for the work, and even pushed me to write a piece of electronic dance music - my first foray into that genre!
Already I’ve been using that musical knowledge elsewhere, beginning a small side project writing more electronic music, and utilising those same skills to quickly put together intro / outro music tracks for my local church who had to quickly turn to online services on YouTube & Facebook in light of Covid-19!
In spite of the lack of final showcase at the moment, the residency feels like it has shaped and pushed me forward as a composer; in this case it feels like the process was more important than the performance.