Six Inventions (2011)

One of an ongoing project of pieces using two-part writing as its compositional premise, they were originally suggested by a much shorter work by the late and much missed composer Gordon Crosse, who became a friend and to whom these pieces are dedicated. I have tended to avoid large-scale works - both is terms of duration and instrumenation, and am uncomfortable with the 'splash and glitter' of so much (especially orchestral) recent music, crotales, the inevitable vibraphone, multi-divided strings, generally over-scored and containing unheard (and unhearable) detail, being much more at ease in small, intimate combinations where every note can be heard and therefore needs to be always the right one!

These pieces were recorded, in exemplary fashion by my colleagues from Lontano, Rowland Sutherland and Andrew Sparling, on Dances with Bears Lorelt LNT138.

– Rob Keeley