Vinalhaven by Ian Battenfield Headley

Vinalhaven (2012)
This work grew out of 3 days of field recordings taken on the island of Vinalhaven, Maine during May 2011.

Initially, this composition stemmed from a desire to bring elements of popular electronic music into the idiom of acousmatic music. However, that single idea became too narrow for me to enjoy compositionally- especially since the recorded material had a much stronger emotional resonance than the idea I was attempting to impose on them. I began to allow the field recordings to guide the composition, with the synthesized material aiding and shaping the three days of recordings, working as lenses and modifiers of abstraction to create the narrative of the work.

While I encourage the listener to open their mind to whatever images the work creates, I will give this little "poem" on the form of the work, if it helps to prepare your thoughts: 

"like acoustic flotsam,
wet explosions land and sonic elements scatter

the storm, the eye, the sea,

the brief calm

before the barbels of panic and terror take hold again"

The work is dedicated to my teacher and friend Doug Durant.

****MASTERING NOTE****
This work has been mastered in a style closer to a Classical music recording, as opposed to an Electronica work.
Adjust playback volume accordingly.
********************************

Ian Battenfield Headley is a NYC-based composer. His music has been described as, exploring the, ”Beautiful dichotomies between organic recordings and processed sounds,” (Weird Ear Records), and “...strikingly visceral, three-dimensional...” (New Music Box).

Instagram