Nick Wales Composer

Biography

Nick Wales’ visceral and immersive music is a hybrid between classical forms, electronic and popular music. Nick has collaborated on ten works with Sydney Dance Company and The Shell, A Ghost, The Host & The Lyrebird is his second collaboration with Marina Mascarell. Nick’s recent commissions include the Netflix feature film score True Spirit directed by Sarah Spillane, Le Diable bat sa femme et marie sa fille with Marina Mascarell for Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, cathedral for Bundanon Trust, Zampatti for MAAS and collaborations with visual artists Lauren Brincat, Mel O’Callaghan and Hayden Fowler. Nick has worked with choreographer Shaun Parker on a number of works including the Helpmann nominated score for AM I, Happy as Larry and the outdoor works Spill and Trolleys. Nick continues to compose and collaborate with his wide and varied group of collaborators including Bree van Reyk, Rrawun Maymuru, Veronique Serret, Stereogamous, Sophie Hutchings and Sarah Blasko.

While Wales’ contemporary dance scores are both challenging and abstract, his pop sensibilities are undeniable. Traversing all genres as a founding member of ARIA nominated classical-fusion band CODA, he has also collaborated with Sarah Blasko for a number of years, the pair co-composing Sydney Dance Company’s score Emergence for Rafael Bonachela. Emergence was released as a soundtrack in 2015.

Note

The music for The Shell, A Ghost, The Host & The Lyrebird has been influenced by a number of factors; traditional instruments (pianos, strings), the natural world (mostly Australian with some New Zealand guests) and the digitisation and rupture of these elements. As a team of collaborators, we have been interested in a potential evolution, from the present reality towards a cyber reality. Should this new reality be positive? Could it be? Could the duality between the natural world and the digital world coexist in harmony? Is there a positivity and hope in this potential evolutionary path?

The score is programmatic and helps to illustrate our ideas though its journeyfrom more traditional sounds, the natural environment and finally a cathartic deconstruction towards a beautiful and hopeful valley resonating a post renaissance, natural and cyber reality. I have been interested in a performance practice where the musicians and I play as if we are a part of various ecosystems. We have been mimicking the patterns and sounds of both digital and natural environments, like a Lyrebird.

I have made the score with some of my longtime collaborators, Bree van Reyk, Veronique Serret and Jason Noble, and I thank them for their generosity in helping me to realise the music. Thanks also to my sound engineering team, the SIF 309 orchestra team, the Bundanon Trust and at Ukaria Cultural Centre where elements of the score were developed.

Written and Produced by Nick Wales

Percussion Bree ven Reyk

Clarinets Jason Noble

Violin Veronique Serret

Baroque Harp Victor Valdez

String Orchestra Bulgarian Symphony - SIF 309

Conductor Deyan Pavlov

Orchestral Producer Vladimir Dimitrov

Pianos, Viola, Percussion, Nick Wales

Electronics

Recorded at Electric Ave Sydney, Ukaria Cultural Centre, Bundanon Trust, Doli Media Studio Sofia Bulgaria.

Mixed by Bob Scott at Dodgy Sound

Engineered by Phil Punch, Jem Hoppe, Bob Scott and Nick Wales

The score incorporates samples from: Jess Green - Electric Guitar, Alyx Dennison - voice, Bob Scott - live sound processing. Freesound samples: promete, digifishmusic, cmusounddesign, dobroide, tapepusher, dobroide, joao_janz, scooter86, pyzaist, benboncan, alienistcog, wim

Note

It’s a thrill to have a set design that dancers can manipulate. It becomes an extension of their bodies, another choreographic element. Lighting an ever changing set design is quite a challenge. Will that fabric be in that position when this light brushes across it ever again? This presents challenges and also great discovery. Enjoy.