False Self

False Self works are systems music compositions that work with found materials, such as existing texts, video or music and subject this material to systematic processes to create something new. These compositions explore themes of identity, authorship and language.

The series began in 2016 and so far, consists of three collections of works:

• False Self Plays Music For Six Pianos (2021)

• A False Memory Of A Sports Party (2018)

• False Self (2016)

False Self Plays Music For Six Pianos (2021)

False Self Plays Music For Six Pianos (2021) was composed whilst undertaking lessons with Jim Denizen Simm. Jim kindly indoctrinated me into his own working methods and some of the methods of his friends, many of whom are ex-Scratch Orchestra members; such as Michael Parsons, John White, Christopher Hobbs and Howard Skempton. These lessons led me to abandon SuperCollider in favour of working with more flexible, and to my mind, more interesting systems designed on paper.

The compositions are experimental, system based works for six pianos. They deploy integer tables to arrange found cells of slow, jazzy piano music. Each piano has eight cells of music and one silent cell. The cells mobilise as hypnotic cyclones of repetition, that move in and out of sync, to create complexity from simplicity. As the compositions progress, the cells extinguish themselves in a languid, stuttering fashion — before the process begins anew.

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A False Memory Of A Sports Party (2018)

The second album in the False Self series was inspired by Elizabeth Loftus's research into the formulation of false memories. The creation of the work past through two distinct stages. The music was initially generated by the Supercollider algorithm that I authored to create my 2016 album False Self. The algorithm generated MIDI data that was sonified by a selection of electronic instruments that were designed in the 1980s and early 1990s.

I then sat with the material for 30 days, before gently reworking it. I viewed this remoulding phase as akin to a memory being altered by time.

The voices that inhabit the album are sampled from a session between the psychiatrist R.D. Laing and his client Rory. The voices speak of past traumas, however both Rory and Dr Laing are unsure whether Rory's memories are recollections or confabulations.

False Self (2016)

The False Self series began in 2016. The first iteration of False Self was a generative system. An algorithmic musician created in the SuperColider programming language, to play and compose alongside my true self.