Kim Moore / A Song We Destroy to Spin Again
Glasgow-based composer, sound designer and musician Kim Moore presents her astonishing new 23-minute contemporary classical piece A Song We Destroy to Spin Again, performed by the award winning chamber music duo GAIA – violinist Katrina Lee and cellist Alice Allen.
Available as a 48-page artist’s book and printed score (with audio download), featuring a cover painting created for the project by Edinburgh-based artist Vivien McDermid.
When Kim began writing A Song We Destroy to Spin Again during the first lockdown in 2020, she was keen to distil a sense of collective grief and loss into something hopeful for the future. “How can we move from a place of darkness into something new and better?”, she asked herself, as Australian bush fires were burning, protests were taking place for George Floyd in America and coronavirus was spreading.
Known for her dark ambient soundscapes, Kim has worked extensively in theatre and dance, composing for theatre makers including Kieran Hurley, Jenna Watt, Barrowland Ballet and Magnetic North, as well as Edinburgh’s Traverse, the National Theatre of Scotland, Soho Theatre and The Barbican in London. Earlier in her career, she released two albums with her indie pop band Zoey Van Goey on Chemikal Underground before focusing on immersive sound art and experimental electronic projects. Kim has created scores for film and TV and in 2019 she co-founded We Are Witches, where she makes short music films involving young people.
A Song We Destroy to Spin Again came about after Kim was commissioned by Chamber Music Scotland. Kim began by recording string solos that she shared with GAIA’s Katrina Lee and Alice Allen, who both studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. GAIA re-recorded Kim’s melodies and sent them back to her to be sampled and manipulated using Ableton software and analogue tape loops. Kim’s background is electronic production and pop and GAIA’s style is classical, but the collaboration easily found a middle ground, where dissonant melodies, distorted electronic effects and ominous percussion come together.
The piece, which Kim describes as “a journey with six movements”, opens with solemn and foreboding strings. Their slow, plaintive drones are underpinned with metallic reverberation from distant bells. A forlorn melody drifts in, giving way to chinks of light as the tone shifts gradually, making way for subtle glimmers of hope amongst the melancholy.
“I added bells as they have so many meanings,” explains Kim. “Church bells bring people together, but can also be a call to action, an alarm – I like that beneath the bells is this undercurrent of feeling that you need to wake up, or something isn’t right. I wanted them to convey this need for change.”
GAIA met with Kim to make a live recording which is being released on Blackford Hill. “After so long in lockdown it was a reminder of the special magic that comes from being in the same room as music being played live”, Kim says.
“I’ve always loved minimal music. It’s definitely not easy listening,” says Kim. “Listening to minimal contemporary classical music is often not passive at all. It requires concentration but if the piece manages to hold you enough in a space, it can resonate emotionally. It allows your mind to drift and maybe that’s where changes can happen.”
Available as a 48-page artist’s book and printed score (with audio download), featuring a cover painting created for the project by Edinburgh-based artist Vivien McDermid.
About Kim Moore
Kim Moore is a sound artist based in Glasgow. Blending strings with voice, synths and electronics she creates immersive, dark, ambient soundworlds. Kim is currently working as composer assistant to Patrick Jonsson on a new feature film project, and recently finished a short film score for This Endless Sea by Chloe Smith.
Highlights of the last few years have seen Kim collaborating with composer Patrick Jonsson working on additional music for the score Convergence, Courage in a Crisis by award winning documentary maker Orlando von Einsiedel, a new commission for co-founded ensemble Senary, and coproducing an album for Duncan Sutherland (Turning Plates).
In 2019 Kim also co-founded We Are Witches with choreographer Jade Adamson, exploring new dance/music/film work with young people. When not making noise, she can be found working amongst plants or supporting birthing people as a birthworker. kimikomoore.com
About GAIA
GAIA are an award winning violin and cello duo, comprising two of Scotland’s most distinguished chamber musicians - Katrina Lee and Alice Allen. Winners of Chamber Music Scotland highly competitive and prestigious two year residency, GAIA are at the forefront of innovative and pioneering programming with exciting, bold and daring performances that push the boundaries of string duo performance and creative programming. Their impressive and growing collection of bespoke commissions from world renowned composers includes Sally Beamish, Kim Moore and Duncan Strachan (Maxwell Quartet). GAIA celebrate and champion works by under-represented voices within classical music and their commitment to spotlight historical works by uncredited women composers sees them explore current issues of gender inequality within classical music, making them one of today's the most exciting and dynamic duos of our times. www.gaiaduo.com
Kim Moore portrait by Audrey Bizouerne. GAIA portrait by Louise Mather.