The Nowness of Everything

Place of Publication: City University, London

Abstract:

“Below my window in Ross, when I’m working in Ross, for example, there at this season, the blossom is out in full now... and looking at it, instead of saying ‘Oh that’s nice blossom’... I see it is the whitest, frothiest, blossomest blossom that there ever could be, and I can see it. Things are both more trivial than they ever could be, and more important than they ever were, and the difference between the trivial and the important doesn’t seem to matter. But the nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous.”

Acclaimed television dramatist Dennis Potter speaking in an interview in March 1994, knowing that he has a few weeks to live.

During the period in which this music was made, my thoughts kept returning to this quote, posted on a wall in a friend’s house. This music celebrates the details and qualities of the ‘everyday’: in this case, everyday sounds, generated by everyday objects and events. By expanding those moments, captured in the source recordings, this piece is made of new ‘present tenses’ that are inspired by both the obvious and more hidden qualities of those everyday experiences.

The Nowness of Everything was made in the composer’s own studio and at the electroacoustic music studios of City University, London in 2009.

Source: Manual