u/matthewwilcock

Every time a train arrives at a station a note is triggered.

I’m taking the data of every arrival time of every train from the London Underground network, I then assign a note to each line which creates the piece. 12 lines, 12 notes. Eb pentatonic with a Db and E in there for a bit of flavour.

The data is the realtime arrival predictions from TFL captured live then for this version of the piece, the data is ‘playing’ back at 4x speed.

In theory, i can create many, many pieces from this method as I can record new data at any point and create a piece. Realtime, sped up, whatever sounds interesting. I’ve also been working on many other train and underground networks from cities around the world.

It’s generative composition, using the patterns of the system to build the composition. The instruments are piano, glockenspiel, dulcitone, rhodes and synth. I convert the data of each line to midi data then import it into Ableton.

The 300 SL. One of the six Automotive Cycles I made for Mercedes.

As the line moves across the car, it uses the car’s form, lines, and materials to form a graphic score. Using the same process I create for the Painting Cycles. Deriving the musical score from an object.

A journey through 140 Years of Mercedes-Benz innovation, celebrating the timeless relationship between engineering, emotion and sound.

Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupé (W 198, 1955)

For those curious, these were made in partnership with Mercedes-Benz.

093 Solar System Cycle I

I’ve been meaning to try this idea for a while. Surely someone has done a version of this, i mean, the idea is literally as old as time?

I had been playing around doing my own visualisations but then I was reminded of Vera Rubin and was taking a look at their website. A while back, I did some music for the announcement of the telescope, a mini full circle moment.

They have a wonderful visualisation of the solar system there so screen recording it added the pink line and there you go, another Cycle.

As the planets and objects cross the line I play a chord or note. One per planet or object. I’m probably going to revisit this and do a much longer version. Imagine it being debuted at The Proms or something with an ensemble playing it live to the visualisation. Could be interesting.

Stay tuned for the longer version.

This is a part of my Cycle series which has been exhibited in galleries around the world and select Cycles are being released as albums.

093 Tennis Cycle I (Wimbledon, Fonika vs. Auger-Aliassime)

Using the rhythm of the tennis ball as it crosses the pink line to drive the rhythm of the piece. Love how the cadence elongates over the point. The music of tennis.

Have been meaning to try a Tennis clip for a while but, thought this week was the perfect time to try it as Wimbledon is currently on. What a rally.

I have a canon version based on this clip coming soon too.

The rhythm of football, the music of football, the music of Leo Messi.

I’ve been wanting to try this for ages but I was always looking for an exact clip but, I then started to think about it in the same way I thought about my Fred Astaire piece. It’s basically dance, so think about it like that instead. Football is dance and movement.

I follow football and the world cup has so many wonderful stories, dramas and moments. There’s not much else like it on the global stage. It’s just football, it’s just sport but, that’s part of the beauty of it. We can and should put a ‘just’ in front of almost everything. They mean equally everything and nothing to us.

Let me know if there are any other football moments that would be interesting to extract the rhythms from?

Finding patterns in nature then I’ll build my favourites into full pieces.

Making music out of the Motorway.

This is an extended 3min+ version of the Cycle which you can now listen to wherever you like to listen to music. It was interesting extending this piece as it’s built on looping footage vs. one long shot like the Motorway Cycle XI piece. So it had more of a hook but, it still didn’t have an easy to follow meter or tempo.

Train Cycle V (Cycle 089)

For those not familiar with this process. The main electricity poles are the main chord progression rhythm. The small railway boxes and poles are higher register piano. The arpeggio synth is the railway track. The woodwind and strings doing the boundaries in the fields and the bridge and the larger foliage.

I took a train from Paris to Milan recently and shot a lot of train footage. This is some footage that’s somewhere in-between Turn and Milano if i remember correctly. There was lots of low lying farm land with a lot of water. I’m looking forward to doing more train cycles, they’re one of my favourite ones to do at the moment.

Single back wheel