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The Derek Shiel Sound Sculptures

This extract is from the sculpture "3 Levels", an experimental improvisation using intuitive vocalisation and percussion.

"We must not think of the sculptures as a crude percussion instrument, or as a set of crude gongs, or, as with the use of a bow, an instrument with very limited capability for bowed notes.

To realise the full sonic potential of Shiel�s sculptures we must adopt a radically different viewpoint. They are fashioned taking inspiration in the manner of the Balinese Gamelan and in that sense are a collection of instruments tuned to itself and representing a unique orchestral whole in its own right. The 'tuning' in this case must not be thought of purely in terms of pitch and scale, but from the viewpoint of an overall aesthetic involving the manner of collection of the disparate parts, their visual harmony and dissonance, their common materiality and form of presentation and construction together with the varying combinations of arrangement in collective spatial configurations.

Moreover in order to liberate the full sonic potential of such an instrument collection of instruments, the performers, together with their creator (where possible), must undertake an extensive period of research and experimentation to understand the true sonic nature and multiple aesthetic that this collective instrument is fully capable of, as individual components, individual sculptures and in varying proportions including the collective whole.

Such multiple interrogation of the sculptures would reveal, not only the means of successful interaction, but would also suggest means of documentation and consequently scoring to assist both formal and informal composition together with free improvisation."

From research notes, Derek Shiel, Viv Corringham, Dallas Simpson, 2004.