Denis Smalley

Impacts Intérieurs brings together five works by Denis Smalley composed between 1976 and 1992, three for fixed medium and two for instrument and electroacoustic sounds. In his note, written in Norwich in 1992, Smalley ties them together through the relationship between gesture, sound that moves towards goals and drives time forward, and texture, the interior activity that invites the ear to stand still and observe. The disc dates back to 1992; for this 2004 edition the composer remastered every piece.

Valley Flow, commissioned by BEAST and begun at The Banff Centre in 1991, draws its shape from the vistas of the Bow Valley in the Canadian Rockies and won an honorable mention at Prix Ars Electronica 1992. Wind Chimes starts from a set of ceramic chimes found in a New Zealand pottery in 1984, heard in their natural state near the opening and then prised apart through transformation. Darkness After Time’s Colours, from 1976, grows out of the vocal and percussion material of his live work Pneuma and took second prize at Bourges in 1977.

The two mixed works were recorded in 1992. Clarinet Threads, commissioned and premiered by Roger Heaton in 1985, weaves key noises, air sounds and multiphonics through the electroacoustic fabric and received the Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica in 1988. Piano Nets, dedicated to Philip Mead, keeps the piano almost entirely in a chordal style so that its blend with the electronics can be explored in close detail. The booklet includes an essay by Jonty Harrison.

Born in Nelson, New Zealand, in 1946, Denis Smalley studied in Paris in Olivier Messiaen’s class and with the GRM before settling in the UK, where he taught at the University of East Anglia and later headed the music department at City University, London. He developed the notion of spectromorphology and pioneered sound diffusion in the UK from 1976.

CD in jewel case, empreintes DIGITALes IMED 0409, 2004.