See the 40 minute version here
IN:FLUX
A collaborative work with accordionist Gary Daley, this piece premiered as a live electroacoustic performance at the ‘Millions of Us’ and ‘Now You Hear Her’ festivals in April 2021, before later being streamed at the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2021.
This ambient composition delves into the subtle, often overlooked textures of the piano accordion, revealing their potential to build an immersive and richly layered sonic environment. The boundaries between acoustic and electronic sound are deliberately dissolved, allowing both worlds to merge into a single, unified soundscape.
Gestural control plays a central role, enabling the electronics to be performed with the nuance and immediacy of an acoustic instrument, an approach that reflects a core thread of Fiona’s creative practice.
Construction.
In:Flux is structured as a long form ( 30-50minutes) free improvisation based on the precepts of response and deep listening. Gary Daley on accordion improvises live and processes his sound using a ring modulator, digital delay and looper.
Fiona Hill improvises by triggering banks of sounds with a push controller setup in an Ableton live session. This bank of sounds includes field recordings and some pre-recorded accordion which enhances some of the textural beds that are used in the performance.
Additionally, Fiona uses a noisbox (a metal box with springs, wires etc. that has a pickup) which is fed through multiple FX in Abelton (delays, distortion and spatialisers) as well as two gestural controller rings which are used to play sounds loaded into the granulator instrument in Ableton.
The set is, as the name suggests, constantly evolving, in a state of flux. The premise of the performance is that Gary and Fiona both are actively listening at all times, in a state of free improvisation. Both respond to each other, as well as offer sounds and ideas throughout the performance which in turn evoke a response from the other. Some of the sounds used are drone based, as well as many textural ideas which are explored throughout. The use of the gestural controllers is a way to enhance the organic playing of the electronics component by Fiona, with the intent that the electronics truly becomes another instrument in the performance, not seen as something separate, or an add on.
