poly on cello

Poly on Cello is a solo live electronics programme for cello, Ableton and real-time automation. Acoustic cello playing gives rise, live, to polyphonic layers of sound, polyrhythmic grooves and electronic spaces: fragments of the performance are recorded, looped, altered, reassembled and transformed into an ever-changing soundscape. At the heart of the piece lies the tension between repetition and improvisation, constancy and change. The cello is not accompanied, but multiplied – at times intimate and fragile, at others rhythmic, dense and physical. Classical playing techniques, jazz energy, electronic textures and spontaneous decisions intertwine to form a concert format that creates an entire world of sound from a single instrument.

Poly on Cello is music that straddles the worlds of concert, club and experimentation: a daring, personal live set that pushes the boundaries of the cello and treats the moment as compositional material.