Maddie Ashman
Maddie Ashman writes music which can be categorised as contemporary classical, ambient or microtonal, for voice, microtonal guitar, microtonal piano, and cello, often working with just intonation - in other words, pure tuning.
We caught up with her ahead of her, and collaborator FAUZIA’s, new show, Ethers, at King’s Place to talk inspiration, and working with Soundscape.
Can you tell us about Ethers, and what we can expect tonight?
The description that we’ve given to the show is that it’s a specially commissioned spatialised live show which transcends the boundaries of classical and electronic music. It’s a multisensory and intimate performance, exploring the unified experience of letting go and shedding limiting beliefs. It’s a brand new piece of work, and it’s been really fun to write together.
What are your musical inspirations?
Our inspirations lean to Meredith Monk and Pauline Oliveros. The rehearsal space at the World Heart Beat facilities is amazing; it was so special for us to have the time to play with sounds and speakers and it really opened up possibilities that we wouldn’t have thought of before.
What story do you want to tell with your music?
We’re arranged the musical elements so that it’s different for each movement. Our show’s in four different movements; the first represents earth, the second movement represents fire, the third air and the fourth water.
Our show’s in-the-round and we wanted to create different feelings with the sound. So, some moments there’s this sense of pressure from both inside the stage and out with the audience in the middle. For that we have the objects really big and pressing inwards while we’re pressing out. But there are also some moments where it feels light and there are objects floating around the space, never stationary but constantly moving in circles and floating around.
In what ways do you feel Soundscape enhanced your performance?
It's been a really interesting experience because you’re playing with so much space in a way that you don’t when you just mix in stereo, so I think it’s been really eye-opening for both of us and our practices. The system has definitely enhanced our performance; it just adds a whole other dimension which is really exciting, and it’s been really fun working with the d&b team as well - they’ve been really inspiring and helpful.
When we wrote the music for the show, we tried to keep the concepts and structures quite open so when we brought the live, really, really talented musicians in – Samuel D Loveless, Cecilia Morgan, Hani Elias, and Michelle Kromin – they could bring their musical ideas to the music as well. It’s been really fun workshopping it together as a group and especially in the space with all the speakers - I think it’s been really inspiring for all of us.