dedicated to my father

Superstrings was recorded and composed entirely at The University of Sheffield in 1998/1999. It uses natural string sounds: those made from the piano and harpsichord, predominantly harmonics and gestures made by scraping the strings with the hands and other objects. There are also passages where these instruments perform in the manner in which they were originally conceived with single notes, clusters, strings of pseudo-random walks and harmonic passages being played either by hand or with the help of a MIDI Disklavier. Superstrings resides in a world of pitched and pulsed sections and drifts from the real into the unreal. The sectional nature of the work is highlighted by two similar but contrasting pulsed passages ‘coloured’ and articulated with other sounds. Repetition of other material leads to further understanding of the hierarchies of sound that made up the work.

Superstrings as a word relates to the scientific theory of matter. All matter is made up of superstrings that are multi-dimensional and wave-like in nature. Imagine a nebula where energy and matter collide in a sea of light and heat. The soundworld of Superstrings pulses with this raw energy. Superstrings was premiered at the SEAMUS conference 2000 at the University of North Texas in March 2000 and is available on SEAMUS CD 10