Sam Longbottom + Tanguy Pocquet

Free event

Sam Longbottom (UK, 1995) + Tanguy Pocquet (France, 1999) threaded | spinning | abrading | possibly breaking (2022) 20’

threaded | spinning | abrading | possibly breaking is a series of interactive installation pieces, all iterations of a single idea. It is music for an ensemble of instruments and turntables, working together as one automated system to create delicate and intricate layers of repetitive sounds in which subtle variations in rhythm, timbre, colour and pitch arise unpredictably despite the system’s automated nature.

A loop of fishing line covered in rosin is threaded through the strings of various string instruments tuned in just intonation, and is drawn tight around pulleys secured to turntables. When the turntables are switched on, the fishing line loop rotates, bowing the strings. Unpredictable variations in sound are caused by minute differences in the set-up; the rotating speed of the turntables; the distance between them; the tightness of the fishing line; the size and type of knot tying it; the angling of the instruments; the amount of rosin on the line; the types of strings (copper, steel, nylon, gut, smooth, bound, new, oxidised, etc.); of course the types of instruments; etc. Furthermore, preparations (brass pins, aluminium foil, paper, etc.) are used on the strings and fishing line, and the instruments are then interacted with by the composers.

Produced by hcmf//