READER: TOXIC COLOUR
02.08.2025
Dusk’s Gait (2018) – 12′
The Swifts of Pesaro (2024) – 6’07
Toxic Colour (2024) – 15’20
Electronic Music
For this concert, I have chosen three works that reflect different aspects of my acousmatic composition, projected in higher-order ambisonics 3D sound. The first work is from 2018, and the other two are from 2024. Beyond their spatial audio approach, all three works share an emotional reflection on the natural world: on what is hidden, what is revealed, and what is being destroyed. Although they are also underpinned by ecological theories of perception, each work creates a musical journey that seeks to carry the listener into the information afforded by the environment through abstraction.
By exploring the transition zone between abstraction and allusion, the works aim to offer an individual interpretation of where the journey begins and ends. Program notes are an important aspect of my work, but I encourage you to read only the title before hearing each piece and then read the program note afterward.
Natasha Barrett
DUSK’S GAIT
As dusk falls, an ecosystem of fictional creatures appear, projecting their characters through their gait, or in other words, the manner in which they move. Dusk’s Gait celebrates moments of real nature that may easily expire. The composition captures many late evenings and nighttime experiences of nature, and fantasies behind the veil of darkness. Dusk’s Gait was composed during an Edgard Varèse guest professorship at the Electronic Studios of the Technical University Berlin, and in the composer’s own studio.
Natasha Barrett
THE SWIFTS OF PESARO
In November 2023, while preparing for the premiere of a large orchestra and live electronics composition I had some days off from the intensity of performance, people and concert halls. To unwind, I visited a few of the recordings I made during the warm nights of Pesaro (Italy) earlier in the summer. Experimenting with these recordings resulted in ambient and immersive soundscapes, which, unlike the high-energy composition materials I was currently working on, I didn’t really think much more of. It was also a meditation amidst the destruction wreaking havoc in the world at the end of 2023. Later on I found solace in these materials and experimented with how they could live on in a short composition. The result is The Swifts of Pesaro. Dedicated to eco-acoustics researcher and sound artist David Monacchi.
Natasha Barrett
TOXIC COLOUR
Mining. Construction. Industry. Cleanup or coverup? The first outdoor exhibition showcasing aerial photography that captured the human impact on natural landscapes was The Earth from the Air by French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, shown in Paris in 2000. The paradox of these mesmerising photos, in contrast to the often ravaged human-altered landscapes that they capture, has become the theme of many photo-art projects. Despite my being repeatedly drawn to such stunning imagery, their statements are becoming lost in our oversaturated world of digital visual media. I thought it was time to make a statement in sound. Toxic Colour was commissioned by EAU with support from Arts and Culture Norway.
Natasha Barrett
