Daniel Elms
‘Post-genre’ is o en a term that’s used for music like mine. It sounds pretentious, but it refers to music that comes from a classical tradition but has been changed by the influence of other genres. A lot of new music is very technical, but you don’t need to be informed to appreciate it. Everyone is creating their own toolkits every time they write a new work, so you’re never going to understand everything about it on a deep level.
I’m always looking at how to augment an orchestral colour palette with technology. My music explores timbre and colour, using synthesizers as a legitimate voice. It’s quite sounds cape oriented, so the listener can take time to explore the breadth of moods and colours.
Writing The Age of Spiritual Machines was the first time
I’d worked with dancers and choreography. I sat down with Alexander Whitley, who also uses a lot of technology in his practices. While I use synthesizers and field recordings,
he uses projection mapping and motion-capture suits.
We looked at a cultural movement called ‘transhumanism’. It’s about people trying to improve themselves with technology. It started as a sci-fi idea, but now it’s a reality: we all have search engines in our pockets. I sent violins through processing units to create di erent sounds, then stripped those synthesized elements out and re-orchestrated the piece using the harmonies and textures those processes made. We wanted to show what’s le in the human form a er we’ve been altered by technology.
There are two parts of my compositional process. The first involves thinking and theorising, consciously processing thoughts and ideas. That can take months. Then it’s just a case of piecing it all together. There’s a strange catharsis in using field recording and synthesizers, because it’s just you and the machine. The only dialogue you have with the technology is music.