Magic Stones - Robert Jarvis's sound installation for the Millennium Court Arts Centre in Portadown, Northern Ireland, has been selected as one of three finalists for this year's British Composer Awards in the New Media category. The awards will be presented at London's Hayward Gallery on 24th November and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Monday 27 November at 7.30pm.
Inspired by the south east corner of Lough Neagh and its surrounding countryside, the Magic Stones installation takes its title from a listening game played by young visitors to the Portmore Nature Reserve who would be invited to take a 'magic stone', grasp it, and with their eyes closed see what they could hear. Jarvis's atmospheric score is composed from recordings taken from around the lough together with sections of an interview with local resident, Eddie Franklin. The layered sounds tell their own story of a countryside on the verge of change - an area being taken over by the 'progress' of our time. Magic Stones invites the listener to pause and to reconsider this relationship.
The composition can be heard on Robert's latest CD, released on the Motile label, together with other compositions inspired by time and place, including Disappear - winning work in the New Media category of last year's British Composer Awards.
CD information at: http://www.chameleonlectra.co.uk/MagicStones.html Discussion(Eyewitness reports, descriptions, discussion):