Our experience of music is not only inherently spatial but can also be analogous to our experience of the space in which it is played. We often talk about the shape, structure, form, direction and depth of a piece of music in a way which makes us think about music as if it were physically tangible, much like the objects and surfaces which define our physical, spatial environments. Dimensional concepts then have the capacity to become nuclei of musical ideas where distance and direction can become strategies for organising the “architecture” of music.

“Construction 003: Axial/Regional” explores the spatial concepts of distance and direction as both a musical idea and in the spatial organisation of its performance. The musical narrative establishes a timbral spectrum between instruments, from the very similar to the very different, as a method of discussing proximity, or closeness. This spatial narrative is further reinforced, tonally by moving between a range of intervallic structures, from very close together to very far apart. The physical positioning of the musicians with respect to each other and the listening audience echoes these musical relationships, to create a series of sonic axes and regions within the space of the auditorium.