Distance/Time - Stuart Russell

Distance/Time came about from speaking to a keen amateur 800 metres runner. I took this project on because I knew nothing about athletics and the research required challenged me to find out more. I was particularly interested in the athlete's experience in competing – could I draw parallels with performing music? As I found out, there were parallels, indeed, and at the core were beat, rhythm, structure and mental focus. The piece begins with a heartbeat, gradually joined by other percussive sounds; meanwhile, we hear snippets going on around, of the introductions, spectators, etc. The race starts and the beat accelerates from standing still – then settles to a powerful evolving rhythm before exploding in the last quarter as the winning line approaches, with fanfares, excited spectators then winding down, gradually to standstill. The sounds are entirely electronic, and sampled from several live events.

No recordings of this piece currently available.