The Cockpit Ensemble

The Cockpit Ensemble was made up of singers from the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone, London. This minute shows them responding to a graphic score designed by Peter Collis called ‘Sounds moving in different directions: in combination’. The score was intended for voices and focussed on how performers sang, rather than what. Notations for long, held sounds, rapid repeated sounds, trills and tremolo formed the majority the notation.

There are many fruitful avenues of conversation and experimentation sprouting off from this minute. One such avenue is to contextualise this minute within the ancient choral tradition of chanting and the more modern artists who utilise vocal experiments in their music, such as Holly Herndon and Björk.Utilising drawing as a musical activity can also be a powerful starting point for experiments linking different art forms.