“… which moan for rest and rest can never find…”

— Edwin Arnold, The Deva’s Song, 1879

I was inspired to write this piece whilst on the 2018 Klingler ElectroAcoustic Residency (KEAR) (Ohio, USA). Each day, the endless wind blowing across the Ohio plains found its way through a tiny gap in the studio window, producing a high whistle, that I eventually managed to record. A few months later, in Lisbon (Portugal), I heard the wandering wind again. This time it was soft and low, and as I listened, half in sleep, it turned to song… a moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife!

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We are the Voices of the Wandering Wind was realized in 2018 at the studio of Sydney Conservatorium (Australia), and premiered on October 26, 2018, as part of the festival L’Espace du son at Théâtre Marni in Brussels (Belgium). The piece was commissioned by the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN). Thanks to Damien Ricketson and Daniel Blinkhorn for their generous support and to Adrian Moore and Dale Jonathan Perkins for donating additional materials used in the piece. We are the Voices of the Wandering Wind was substantially recomposed in 2022 at the composer’s studio in Sheffield (England, UK).

Composition

• July – August 2018

Revision

• 2022