Dale Jonathan Perkins

Tilt Zero AV on Vimeo.

Tilt-Project (2011)

Information on the Tilt project will be posted soon.

Axe (2010)

Axe is composed from unprocessed, but amplified guitar materials that include ‘clicks’, ‘thumps’ and ‘bangs’. It is the first work that falls under the project title, Taking Down Trees, and is influenced by the popular composition technique/style: ‘mashup’. Axe, however, is not a work that plunders previously released audio/music to generate structure. Structure is built from the original electric guitar materials, which are processed and organised into ambient, glitch, heavy metal and dance groove combinations before culminating into a tapestry of popular music references. Very little of the arrangement has been produced by traditional sequencing methods, but rather the materials are sustained for long durations and rhythms are produced using side-chain gating techniques (all source materials were performed by David Lawrie  - www.Davidlawrie.co.uk).

Voice Without Words (2007-2009)

Voice Without Words (originally conceived in 5.1 surround sound) is divided into three sections and is a project that explores the paralinguistic qualities of the human voice. It is an experimental piece of electronic music that integrates electroacoustic sonic transformations, glitch-based artefacts, chronometric rhythm, stylised ‘beat boxing’ and the raw emotive qualities of the voice. The majority of the sonic materials were sourced from the experimental vocal improviser Maria Jardardottir (www.maria_jardardottir.com). Materials were recorded under the direction of the composer before being used for compositional purposes; the exceptions are the bass pedal drone and harmonic support materials near the beginning and end of the 3rd movement. These were created by filtering white noise using filter maps derived from a fragment of the vocal material). Voice Without Words focuses on the non-lexical characteristics of the voice that communicate emotive qualities and therefore potential psychological states. ‘Swan Song’ (section 1) explores notions of innocence, surprise and curiosity; ‘Cuckoo-borough’ (section 2) explores ideas of exhaustion, pathetic inadequacy and eventually anger; ‘Dark Bird’ (section 3) is much more self-reflective and directly represents misery, suffering and distress. Although it is hoped that the listener will experience these emotional qualities as an emphatic response through the listening process, no lexical indications are given to present an established language more commonly associated with syntactical organisation (for example, the syntax of English). However, from a semantic point-of-view, such vocal externalisations and treatments are likely to be perceived as suggested psychological states. Chronometric rhythms are derived from the vocal materials and are used in all three movements to drive the piece forward (the urban rhythms and harmonic materials in section 1; the asynchronous loops and glitch materials in section 2; the stylized ‘beat boxing’ throughout section 3). The piece was conceived and composed in 5.1 surround sound and the centre channel and associated monitor acts as centre stage for the main, largely untreated, vocal materials that address the audience.

Swan Song – (Section 1). This section makes use of the rhythmic character of a short motif generated from a vocal extract, along with other 'intimate' vocal utterances. The vocal utterances build into dense textures, which are dynamically transformed into tonal and harmonic materials to either create cadential statements, or to harmonically support other vocal materials. The rhythmic qualities of the material are explored both chronometrically and within irregular time patterns.

Cuckoo-borough – (Section 2). The common cuckoo may be described as a brood parasite, because it lays its eggs in the nests of other bird species. After surveying a chosen area within a borough occupied by other species, the hen cuckoo flies down to the victim’s nest, pushes one egg out of the nest, lays a replacement egg and flies away. Once hatched, cuckoo chicks methodically evict all progeny from the host nest whether that be an egg or a chick.

Often a borough is a single town with its own local government. However, in some cities it is a subdivision of the city. Whatever the case, a borough will be populated and will be measured in various ways. For example, crime rate and therefore questions of morality. Many interesting comparisons can be made with the common cuckoo when comparing it to, for example, crime, law and government policy. Cuckoo-borough explores the auralisation of exhaustion, pathetic inadequacy and anger; the potential symptoms of cultural anxiety. Cuckoo-borough makes use of asynchronous repetition, pitch manipulation and glitch-based artifacts.

Dark Bird  - (Section 3). Dark Bird is the last of 3 movements from Voice Without Words. Where the first movement uses materials that can be related to ‘surprise’, ‘curiosity’ and ‘innocence’, Dark Bird is more reflective and the sonic materials relate to a darker side of the emotional spectrum i. e. the externalisation of ‘misery’, ‘suffering’ and ‘unhappiness’. Further to this, some of the rhythmic materials from the first movement have been extended and developed. Dark Bird makes use of spectral freezing, filtering, distortion techniques and gated rhythms.

Submarine (2000-2001)

Submarine is an acousmatic work that was motivated by the catastrophic suffering that the Kursk submarine crew must have endured during their entrapment at the bottom of the ocean whilst facing their inevitable death. This event set forth the realisation that I had become increasingly desensitised to the world, therefore, submarine can be viewed as an introspective analysis of my own emotional reaction to the disaster. The overarching aesthetic is to aurally concretise emotional states; potential subjective states that can be produced when one emotionally relates to a catastrophic event. This is partly achieved by the sonic material used and through public domain knowledge of the disaster presented by the media. The piece makes use of the 'horrific' and attempts to reproduce anxiety through the externalisation of emotionally generated material such as intense screaming, sounds of asphyxiation and the gestural articulation of words and other sonic events (the words twenty-three in section 3). Submarine makes use of 'affiliated' materials organised and manipulated in order to produce sonic landscapes and features that could be related to the Kursk submarine disaster. Inherent gestures located in the sonic material are caricatured, magnified and augmented in order to produce emotional states within the listener through sonic documentary and metaphor.

Fundamental Manoeuvre (2003)

Fundamental Manoeuvre is an acousmatic piece that was created from an environmental recording of city trams in Göteborg Sweden. Part one (Embarkation) begins with a short melodic motif which gradually unfolds to reveal a larger and more complex sonic structure, or, more precisely, the original sonic material is reanimated. Part two (Turning point), in contrast, makes use of pitch material of long duration that has been generated through granular manipulation techniques. Part three (Reversion) involves the return of the original melodic motif and goes through a series of modifications before the piece draws to a close.

Sax? (2002)