Live YouTube premiere of the film to the brand new track Pieces of Mind by Simon McCorry as part of the Good On Paper TV series….
“Pieces of Mind grew out of setting myself a task to create a whole track using just one analogue mono synth, a Dreadbox Erebus. So all drum, pad, lead and bass sounds come from this one unit. It is also an evocation of earlier memories of wandering around London after a warehouse party before dawn and to the music that I listened and danced to in my twenties. That magic time after the stragglers from the night going home and before the first shift of the rush hour, joggers and dog walkers made their appearance. The people I hung out with would have either got a night bus or a taxi if they were feeling rich. I would walk. Sometimes just a couple of miles, sometimes much further taking detours to take in the freshness of the morning and the calmness before the madness that was the city when it came to life.
Sound would be very clear and more distinct than it would be during the day, the background roar of traffic and people was not there to take the edge off things and make it all mud. Sound played tricks and one sound would become another, a train running across tracks on the the North London Line would be come the dull thud of a dance beat from some after party, a car passing on a street running alongside a park a few hundred meters away would become a wave crashing on a sandy distant beach. And the sounds and rhythms would come together to become part in a larger whole. I learnt a lot at that time about listening, a lot about how the brain (or soul?) would synthesise disparate elements into a unity, if left to believe that they were part of a larger whole. There was a magic in that. And from that I learnt a lot about music and the music that I would make. Pieces of Mind is not so much a change of direction as an exploration of the same ideas this time with an analogue synth, recognisable particles of rhythms, basslines and melodies.
Originally I wanted the footage in the film to be catching that time in London just before dawn. Obviously with current circumstances that is a bit impossible. I decided to think about what is around me now in the same way and with the same feeling. I live in a small village overlooking Stroud on the edge of woods. It’s the first place I’ve lived where my heart goes 'oh wow, I live there' and it still does over 15 years later. Time lapses do interesting things with time and show processes and patterns we are not aware of normally. Also they marry up instances in different ways. A short shutter speed with large intervals creates a staccato feel that is slightly manic and anxious making; lots of snapshots of time married together with large chunks missing. Lengthen the shutter speed and you are no longer getting instances or fragments. Time becomes smeared and smudged, and truly condensed, giving a liquid ethereal feel changing the emotion with which we view the process filmed. Fundamentally it is about beauty and a feeling of awe with the everyday around us, whether its a sunrise, clouds forming, smoke from a factory, lights turning on and off in a town on the opposite side of the valley or the play of shadows as the sun moves across the sky….”
Synths (Dreadbox Erebus v3) & Processing - Simon McCorry
Film - Simon McCorry
Mastered - Adaq Khan
Artwork - Richard Howarth
Simon McCorry
Born in London to mixed Indian/British heritage, Simon McCorry’s recent work is a rich combination of field recordings, adept loop based compositions and atmospheric improvisations that explore the rich sonic possibilities of the cello. From droning stillness and devastating harmonic simplicity to abstract microtonal atmospheres, his work recalls post-classical greats such as A Silver Mt Zion at their most plaintive and Stars of The Lid at their most majestic. As a performer, McCorry is well travelled, he has performed at many prestigious events and institutions, including at South Bank, V&A, The Place and St George's Bristol, and continues to compose new music and sound design for film, theatre and dance.
simonmccorry.com