ZenSim is a new work that composed for The accordion department of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

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The piece was premiered at PLUG on the 11th May 2022.

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Instrumentation:

Six accordions

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Programme note:

I got the idea for this piece when listening to an interview given by the composer/producer Oneohtrix Point Never (Daniel Lopatin).

 

"I was listening to so many New Age records and they were undeniably bad records, but there was something about them that I was listening to and enjoying, and I was [...] fixated on this idea that you could use the tropes of New Age music to [...] describe [...] something beyond [the] cliché that is New Age music, like chill out and like be in your [...] zen cave amongst nature. [...] But I was like, that’s an interesting idea that people would want to do that or make music that [...] created a simulated zen forest vibe and I was like that’s a terrible idea, we should never do that."

From his interview on the Red Bull Music Academy YouTube Channel.

 

I took the idea that Lopatin describes ‘you could use the tropes of New Age music to describe something beyond a cliché’, and I’ve tried to make a piece of music which sounds cliché with a sterile, corporate, simulated-feel-good vibe, but that is simultaneously impactful and an interesting listening experience, that is full of microdetails and constantly moving.