producer-musician-songwriter-composer
MIKE WEST
COMPOSITIONS
MIKE TRIES to EXPLAIN
"I can't pretend to know what I'm doing here, but...
"When lockdown happened, like many musicians, I found myself unemployed for the first time in decades. To stop myself loosing my mind, I wrote to Goldsmiths College in London to ask if they'd accept me for a masters in composition. They did.
"I'd never written a score. I couldn't read music. But I jumped in at the deep end and had some fun with it. I finished the MA and enjoyed it so much I decided to continue on to a PhD. And what's my PhD? Researching the possibilities of writing music for banjo in different ways, putting my favorite instrument in some unfamiliar situations. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't."
SOME SOUND BITES
The Faucet
(The title gives it away. The entire piece is derived from one recording of a dripping tap)
Aeron Pughe
(A sound portrait of friend and farmer, Aeron Pughe)
The Ferrograph
(A cut and splice piece made with a 1960s BBC Ferrograph tape machine)
A FEW SCORES
(Cycle for banjo and grand piano)
(Cycle for banjo and mechanical instruments)
(Three pieces for solo violin)
(graphic score)