BERTIE
The Earth's Tilt
The earth's spin axis is tilted with respect to its orbital plane. This is what causes the seasons. When the earth's axis points towards the sun, it is summer for that hemisphere. When the earth's axis points away, winter can be expected.
Tilt is a song cycle inspired by the four seasons and recorded for specially for Raveningham Sculpture Trail where it can be heard within a beautiful Hazel Bower.
The lyrics are both in the voice of Gaia and the observer, weaving between the perspectives whilst also considering the female cycle mirroring the seasons. Combining different compositional and production techniques Bertie weaves field recordings into the music bringing a sense of optimism and joy whilst cradling a sense of nostalgia and loss to match the eternal turning of the seasons.
I composed the 4 main songs, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter in TILT over a 12 month period, writing each song during it's respective season. At the same time I collected field recordings which I used to create the interconnecting electoacoustic compositions.
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The composition is 36 minutes long and is set on a loop so depending on when you arrive at The Bower you will experience a different part of the cycle. The beauty of an outside music installation is that my compositions combine with the sonic environment, birds singing, sheep bleating, dogs barking.. sometimes it is hard to tell which is my composition and whiat is the real world!
The best place to hear this is in the bower on the sculpture trail. But as I know there are many who won't be able to make it to Rav this summer, or those who only heard a bit of it and want to hear more, so I will have a special limited release of the full track here during the length of the sculpture trail. This will be listen only and there will be no cost but I do ask that if anyone feels like making a donation to ko-fi.com/bertiebow I would be very grateful!
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I have completely fallen in love with this TILT and whilst I recorded it for Raveningham I intend to make an official release in a more traditional album format in 2024 so please join my mailing list for updates about this.