Written in response to a commission for an electroacoustic score to accompany a new modern dance piece in collaboration with Nottingham-based choreographer Marie Fitzpatrick.

I incorporated sound material that I had recently recorded in the Yukon, a far northern territory of Canada, in August 2002. This consisted of recordings of wood, stones and water. I intended to create an impression of constant, though perhaps subtle, tactile manipulation and movement of materials — churning rocks, shifting pebbles, tearing wood, chopping wood and trickling water. I also incorporated layers of pitch — either in the form of constant drones or rapidly fluctuating and unstable pitched material.

[viii-05]

Premiere

• November 13, 2002, Scateren, Allardyce Nicoll Studio Theatre — Muirhead Tower — University of Birmingham, Birmingham (England, UK)