Iron Filings (2018) // composed by Oscar Smith // performed by SPIRAL

This is a live performance of my composition 'Iron Filings', composed in 2018. We performed this on our tour to Melbourne in November 2019, at the Prudence Myer Studio (Ian Potter Southbank Centre) during a joint concert with Melbourne-based ensemble six-four.
SPIRAL was lucky enough to workshop this piece with the Bang on a Can Allstars in August 2018, when they visited Australia for the Extended Play Festival.
Program Notes:
"Iron Filings is a structural experiment in "accordion" form, where each section becomes progressively shorter (from 400 semiquaver long to 3 semiquavers long) towards a central climax and then reverses itself to the ending, with each section growing in length. To make this developmental strategy clear, each section had to be immediately juxtaposed without transition, and often with a metric modulation. The material explores odd time signatures, polytonality, various pitch transformations, cross-rhythms, rhythmic phrasing processes, and unusual timbral combinations. The piece ends with a haunting unison melody played by the unconventional pairing of the highest and lowest instruments in the ensemble - flute and double bass, which puts them both out of comfortable playing ranges."
Video/Audio: Tom D'Ath (six-four)
SPIRAL Ensemble
Flute: Josephine Macken
Tenor Sax: Johannes Macdonald
Electric Guitar: Joshua Winestock
Piano: Oscar Smith
Wurlitzer: Sarah Elise Thompson
Double Bass: Will Hansen
Electric Bass: Rory Knott
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