John Eacott

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John Eacott (born 19 December 1961) is a British composer and Principal Lecturer in Music at the University of Westminster.[1]

Life

Eacott's career started in the 1980s with anarchic jazzers Loose Tubes, post-industrial metal bashers Test Dept, Roman Holliday, acid jazz group Vibraphonic, and a diverse array of artists including Damon Albarn, Goldie, Stereo MCs, The The, Georgie Fame, Terry Edwards and the Scapegoats.[2][3][4]

Since the 1990s he has composed works for theatre including the worldwide touring production of Gormenghast[5] and composed for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production of The Taming of the Shrew directed by Lucy Bailey (director) in 2012. Film scores include the Miramax feature Three Steps to Heaven (1995), Escape to Life with Vanessa Redgrave (2000) and worked as arranger with Dave Stewart and Mick Jagger on the soundtrack of Alfie starring Jude Law (2004). His orchestral compositions have been performed and recorded by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Docklands Sinfonietta.

Since the completion of his PhD in 2007, Eacott has focused on making accessible live performances using algorithmic composition as part of his organisation Informal.[6] Flood Tide, which premiered at Trinity Buoy Wharf, Docklands in June 2008, is a musical performance generated by tidal flow.[7][8][9][10] Flood Tide works by submerging a sensor into tidal water, the data from which is transformed by Eacott's custom computer software, into notation read live from computer screens by musicians.[10][11] Flood Tide has been performed ten times since its premiere, most notably at Southbank Centre's See Further-Festival of Science and Arts in 2010[12] and the Mayor's Thames Festival in 2009.[13]

Eacott's work Hour Angle works from a similar system to Flood Tide, yet its notation is generated from the movement of the sun.[14][15] Hour Angle performances include the summer solstice of 2010 at Royal Observatory Greenwich.[16]

Informal have staged algorithmic works by John Eacott at venues including the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Mayor's Thames Festival, Southbank Centre and Royal Observatory Greenwich,[17] and have worked with such organisations as Southbank Centre's vocal group Voicelab, and youth jazz musicians Tomorrow's Warriors.[17]

Eacott's production, It's What You Make It, inaugurated the Soundscapes Theatre, is a 360-degree theatre equipped with 3D surround-sound.[18]

In 1995, Eacott won funding for an Urban Music summer school.[19] In 2001, he lectured at Stetson University.[20] In 2008, he held a workshop about SuperCollider.[21] In 2010, Eacott took part in the Locus Sonus Symposium Sonification in Aix en Provence, France.[22]

Eacott lectures in Contemporary Music at the University of Westminster.[23][24]

Works

As well as Flood Tide and Hour Angle, previous algorithmic / generative works include The Street, an interactive sound environment (2000), Morpheus, a CD Rom of generative electronica (2001),[25][26] and Intelligent Street, in which users alter a public sound environment by sending text messages (2003).[27][28][29]

Algorithmic works

  • Flood Tide - music generated live from tidal flow.[30]
  • Hour Angle - music generated live from the declination and hour angle of the sun.[30]
  • Intelligent Street - a work where users can affect soundscape by sending text messages.[30]
  • Diffusion - a package of generative jingles for radio station Resonance FM.[30]
  • Emotions - nominated for BAFTA in 2002.[30]
  • Morpheus - an album of generative tunes published by mushimushi.[30]

Theatre

Film scores

Television soundtracks

  • 3 Steps to Heaven (1995) [35]
  • In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great BBC2 documentary series (1997)[36][37]

Orchestral compositions

  • recorded by Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Docklands Sinfonietta.

References

  1. ↑ "John Eacott", School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster
  2. ↑ "Roman Holiday", last.fm/music
  3. ↑ "Vibraphonic", NME.com
  4. ↑ John L Walters (12 July 2002). "The devil you know". The Guardian. 
  5. ↑ "Gormenghast". http://www.ukarts.com. Retrieved 9 April 2012. 
  6. ↑ Informal. "Informal". Informal. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  7. ↑ "INFNO: GENERATING SYNTH POP AND ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC ON DEMAND", Nick Collins, University of Sussex, Department of Informatics
  8. ↑ "FLOOD TIDE a sonification of the tide", John Eacott, 3rd November 2008
  9. ↑ "Faculty Members", School of Media, Arts, and Design, University of Westminster
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Informal. "Flood Tide". Informal. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  11. ↑ Pellerin, Ananda. "Interview with John Eacott". Wheel me Out. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  12. ↑ Southbank Centre. "Flood Tide". Southbank Centre. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  13. ↑ Thames Festival. "Flood Tide". Thames Festival. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  14. ↑ Informal. "Hour Angle". Informal. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  15. ↑ "Re: Interpolated Markov model", clemenr@xxxxxxxxxx, 15 Apr 2005
  16. ↑ National Maritime Museum. "Events at the Royal Observatory Greenwich". National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Informal. "Previous performances". Informal. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  18. ↑ Jay Tayner (14 February 1999). "Radiohead revisited". The Guardian. 
  19. ↑ "Urban Music School Set To Go Ahead", tourdates.co.uk, 31/01/2004
  20. ↑ "English digital music composer to speak at Stetson University", Stetson University, October 15th, 2001
  21. ↑ "SuperCollider workshops in July in London, choose your own price to attend", SuperCollider, March 20, 2008
  22. ↑ Locus Sonus. "Sonification Symposium". Locus Sonus. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  23. ↑ Informal. "John Eacott biography". Informal. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  24. ↑ University of Westminster. "Research staff". University of Westminster. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  25. ↑ "Morpheus >> sixteen tracks that remix themselves each time they're played", mushimushi.net
  26. ↑ "Morpheus: emergent music", generativeart.com, John Eacott
  27. ↑ Lörstad, Henrik; D'inverno, Mark; Eacott, John (2004). "The intelligent street: responsive sound environments for social interaction". The Australasian Computing Education Conference 74. Singapore: Association of Computing Machinery. pp. 155–162. doi:10.1145/1067343.1067362. ISBN 1-58113-882-2. 
  28. ↑ "John Eacott", International Festival of Music and Sound, 2005
  29. ↑ "Intelligent Responsive Sound". Current Research. Goldsmiths College, University of London. 
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 Informal. "Interactive works". Informal. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  31. ↑ Zena Alkayat (02.04.07). "A novel take on gothic Gormenghast". The London Evening Standard. 
  32. ↑ Informal. "Eacott works - Theatre". Informal. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  33. ↑ RSC. #theatre "The Taming of the Shrew - Cast and Creatives". RSC. Retrieved 9 April 2012. 
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 Informal. "Eacott works - Film". Informal. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  35. ↑ Informal. "Eacott works - TV". Informal. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 
  36. ↑ "John Eacott", german-films.de
  37. ↑ "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great: Credits", MayaVision International

External links

Loose Tubes
Studio albums
Live albums
  • Loose Tubes: JazzbucheBerlin 87
  • Dancing on Frith Street
  • Säd Afrika
Related articles
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