The summer has been hectic. Stupidly busy. It seems like a moment ago I was saying “I can’t believe we’re one month into this project”….when in fact another 2 weeks have past since then and now I’m saying scary things like….

“It’s only another 2 weeks until the Experiment ends.”

Two weeks ago the collective met together in the same room for the first time in Belfast. We have been exchanging words and sounds since the beginning of July, preparing to lock ourselves away in a dark room and write everything we possibly could. Short-term and high-speed is what TSE is all about, whatever your platform. I think that’s what I enjoy about this project the most.

As a collective, we write a different style of music to what I’ve been writing on my own and so it requires a different writing process. It’s taken me long enough this year to find my ‘sea-legs’ with regards to my own process and I know that it will continue to shift and refocus continually throughout my career. I tend to build the larger musical narrative upon some loose form of a psycho-theatrical or psycho-visual process (whether it’s driven by an emotive narrative or by shapes/textures) so I can establish the map of the piece. Raw materials usually precede the larger form, and I usually find myself beginning with harmony/timbre. And so a constant exchange of development of material influencing structure and vice-versa continues to fill out the work…too many details are a little arduous to read! But when I approach writing with a group of musicians like the other members of the TSE collective my approach changes dramatically.

As anyone working within any group will tell you, knowing each others strengths and weaknesses is the most important aspect. There’s a brutal honesty that goes unspoken and yet accepted as a group of musicians open up the floor to debate and know who to trust on various musical issues. I find that really exciting…knowing that where you fall down another can pick you up. The project becomes a learning curve for each of us as we fly the flag for our individual passions…whether it be harmony, timbre, electronics, rhythm or structure…and then of course there’s the inevitable arguing Brilliant.

We’re separated again until the final stages of the Experiment at the end of this month. In a lot of ways it quite suits me, I can take away the raw materials we’ve created together and structure them on my own and approach the others with a new framework. Rhythms which were created at speed in Belfast during the initial meetings can now be reconsidered in terms of their timbre and polished in preparation of performance…exciting times. Keep your eyes on the website for regular updates of audio material to hear the various treatments of the same material.

I could ramble all day….and arguably I already have. If you’re interested in my own work please take the time to visit my website.

Ruaidhri@TSE