Simon Knighton - Sound Sculptures, Dynamical Systems, Natural Environments (2024)

Knighton’s work explores the boundaries between structured composition, improvisation and chaotic, semi-automated systems. The result of his work culminates in a completely unique album that challenges traditional notions of music and performance. ‘Sound Sculptures, Dynamical Systems and Natural Environments’ invites listeners to embark on a sonic journey, leaving them with a profound appreciation for the unpredictable beauty that lies within both the natural world and the realm of sound.

Simon Knighton's 'Sound Sculptures / Dynamical Systems / Natural Environments' is an album divided into three distinctive parts. The result is a record that explores chaos and nature in an otherworldly, beautiful and haunting manner. The album pulsates from one section to another, creating an electroacoustic collision of sounds that range from organic origins through to metallic futurism - a truly unique blend of acoustic instruments, evocative soundscapes and mechanical musical processes.

The album begins with three tracks from his 'Sound Sculpture No.4'. Knighton began working on his series of 'sound sculptures' in 2019 and originally conceived of these as live performance pieces that sit on the boundary of concert and installation, whereby musicians, electronic sounds and automated systems are arranged in open spaces to create immersive live experiences. However, the global lockdowns of 2020 forced a shift in his approach, pushing him to explore recording and collaboration from home. This transition led to a new way of working: creating graphic scores from which musicians would improvise, which Knighton meticulously then edits and 'sculpts' into the tracks one hears on the album. "The final tracks are the result of many months of sampling, listening, and reshaping the initial improvised recordings. Some of these tracks contain literally tens of thousands of edits, yet the core of the music is very much in the players and their 'off the cuff' performances." says Knighton. "I want here to acknowledge the contributions of Gemma Bass, Amy Gray, Peggy Nolan, Chihiro Ono, Carl Raven, Stephanie Tress and Kathryn Williams, without whose wonderful openness and creativity a very different album would have emerged!".

The Dynamical Systems tracks stem from Knighton's deepening fascination with automated musical systems, inspired by his sound sculpture experiments. Whilst often best appreciated in installation works (for example in the work of Zimoun or Alvin Lucier), the chaotic sonic outputs used here are captured to build frantic, shimmering and oscillating sound worlds that are as urgent as they are tense. Knighton built his own chime bells from sheets of brass to create the many layers of percussion in the final Dynamical Systems track, which are then blended with deep rolling bass lines and synthesised tones that are tuned to the exact harmonic content of the chimes.

The Natural Environments pieces place these dynamical systems and sound sculpture composition techniques within musical analogies of the natural world, offering listeners an auditory journey through imagined landscapes. Using field recordings and organic sounds, the acoustic instruments ebb and flow in a way that makes this section feel both molecular and mountainous, zooming in and out of the vast sonic terrain.