Music
John Stead
is a composer of electro-acoustic music based in the Yorkshire city of Hull whose work is informed by
his deep spiritual connection with Tibetan Buddhism.
He is a founding member of the Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, a group of composers, musicians and technicians dedicated to the composition, exploration and performance of new music.
His recent work has been on pieces that integrate music with computer-generated visuals composed of fractal images and manipulated natural images. Colours mutate, images transform from one to another, in harmony with or as a counterpoint to the music.
(I must declare an interest here, as I am also a member of E@E and I wrote the extensions and modifications to Fractint that make this all possible :)
Visit the Penguin Café, a
place of interesting, quirky music that is somehow (to me at least) quintessentially English for all of
its South African influences.
Whether any more of this wonderful music will now happen is in doubt, as the founder of the Penguin Café Orchestra, Simon Jeffes, died of cancer on the 11th of December 1997. He is sadly missed.
IRCAM, the
Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique founded by the
composer Pierre Boulez in Paris, is the premier
centre for research into electro-acoustic music in the world.
Living proof that old hippies can be rehabilitated :)
System 7 are my favourite
people working in (if compartmentalisation is really necessary) the ambient/techno
musical scene.
Energising, uplifting music that is never safe or bland. Boffo.
Olivier Messiaen
wrote some of the most profoundly spiritual music I have ever heard. His inspiration was primarily that
of the Catholic church, but to my mind (as a non-Christian :) he touched and expressed a far deeper and
more universal understanding of being; it is no coincidence that birdsong, an expression of nature and
transcendent communication, features as a theme in many of his works.
He was organist at the Sainte Trinite cathedral - many of his compositions are for organ - he also championed the Ondes Martenot, one of the more obscure musical instruments of the 20th century, particularly in his Turangalila symphony.