One of the delights of the iPod shuffle feature, something to set off against the number of times it throws up those Scouting for Girls tracks you never really thought much of in the first place, is the way it occasionally deals you an item you’d completely forgotten and which stops you in your tracks. One such, not so many days ago, was a composition, part sound collage, part music, by Jocelyn Pook called “Electra String/Tango With Corrugated Iron”. This was from one of those Unknown Public compilations made up of the weird and the wonderful and this was certainly the latter.
It begins with a note from the piano and then a woman’s voice stating her date of birth, 28th of June, 1907; more notes are followed by the first of many percussive rattles along a sheet of corrugated iron, and then a second voice, male, 16th of September, 1916 – and it’s this voice, London-accented, working class, wistful, that really draws you in; two more voices follow, people stating their age, before, for the first time, we hear a woman calling her children, “Jordan and Kim, Jordan and Kim.” There are more numbers, dates, voices, and then, after a little over a minute, the left hand takes up a tango rhythm on the piano, the cries for the children to return become more urgent, and the tango theme is taken up by orchestral strings; a further minute in and the mood changes, long, sustained chords throb in the manner of a movie soundtrack denoting danger, the appeals to the children are submerged beneath the strings as the tango returns and everything builds to a climax that ends with a single loud note from the percussion and then several final seconds of a thin electronic sound that suddenly disappears.
It fascinates me. Did when I first heard it and still does.
I’d never heard of Jocelyn Pook and thought I’d made something of a discovery, but when I looked her up, I discovered she’s a composer who’s worked widely in theatre and film; she wrote the music for Brick Lane and for Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut as well as for the recent National Theatre production of St. Joan [which I saw, for heaven's sake!] and has an ensemble of singers and musicians who perform regularly [including three concerts last year, which of course I missed, just down the road at King's Place]. There are albums of her music available from the usual sources – I’ve bought one called Flood, mostly choral, which I’ve been enjoying very much – and, of course, she has a web site.
2 responses so far ↓
Tim Adkin // July 15, 2009 at 12:07 pm
JP is indeed an artist to cherish I have a couple of cds on Real World including the one utilising to fairly chilling effect samples of Kathleen Ferrier(!) and Robert Oppenheimer.It also features another wideranging and undervalued figure in Harvey Brough who covers all manner of bases from early nmusic to coolaborating with Jacqui dankworth to being the “Harvey” of “..and The Wallbangers” infamy
harvey70plus // July 15, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Yes, I have both the Ferrier [memories of Family Favourites of my childhood] and Oppenheimer pieces on the “Flood” CD. Which I like quite a lot, though I wanted to find more of the collage/percussion et cetera stuff of my original discovery. I guess that’s elsewhere?