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A n d r e w P o p p y

• Introduction

• List of works

• Discography • Selected performances or presentations

• Theatre and dance commissioned scores • Arranger/conductor for studio recordings

• Publications

• Conference papers • Commentary

• Reviews

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INTRODUCTION ANDREW POPPY (1954) is a composer and musician. His early musical life included playing bass guitar in an improvising rock band, playing Bartok and Debussy on the piano and making music concrete with his father’s tape recorder. He eventually went to study music at Kingsway’s College and Goldsmiths College, London University, graduating in 1979 BMus. During the 1970s he developed a strong interest in contemporary American composers Cage, Feldman, Riley, Glass and Reich. He attended a summer school with John Cage and Merc Cunningham and played in an ensemble with Christian Wolff. In the early 1980’s he was an accompanist at the Laban Centre for Dance and pianist and composer with The Lost Jockey, a large ensemble playing pulse based music that became known as Minimalism.

Particularly interested in the creative part recording plays in the music of today Poppy moves between conventionally notated scores and studio work influenced by pop production. He was signed as a contemporary composer and recording artist to Trevor Horn and Paul Morley’s Zang Tumb Tuum Records in 1984. His first CD The Beating of Wings includes performances of 32 Frames for Orchestra and Cadenza for piano and electric piano and was released in 1985. This was followed in 1987 by Alphabed which featured the Firelight music computer, the first Akai samplers and vocal performances from Annette Peacock.

After ZTT Poppy continued to record for independent labels: Recordings, includes 14 Poems and Toccatas for violin and piano performed by Elisabeth Perry and Andrew Ball and premiered by them at the Huddersfield Festival. Ophelia/Ophelia, a chamber opera was selected by ISCM for the world music days in Denmark. Rude Bloom contains two contemporary dance scores (for Siobhan Davies/ Linda Gaudreau). Time at Rest Devouring its Secret an electro acoustic installation premiered at NRLA and Tramway. Recently ZTT Records have released a 3 CD box set containing all Poppy’s recordings for the label during the 80’s and including an unreleased album Under The Son An experimental music theatre, often based on the composer’s own texts has been part of his creative initiative. Songs of the Clay People was a collaboration with Impact Theatre in 1983. There are also three chamber operas The Uranium Miners (ROH Garden Venture) Baby Doll (NTS/Cottesloe) Ophelia Ophelia (ISCM). An oratorio Something In The Air (Levitation And Fall) was commissioned by the Estonian National Male Choir conducted by Kaspars Putnins premiered in Tallinn in January 2006. Since 1989 he has developed a collaborative partnership with visual and theatre artist Julia Bardsley Projects include Avalanche Thoughts a multimedia work premiered in New York .in 2002 and more recently Improvements on Nature was commissioned by the Sacred Festival at Chelsea Theatre London. Concert works include Horn Horn, a double saxophone concerto for John Harle and Simon Haram commissioned by The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Last Light recorded by The Smith Quartet, Revolution No 8: Airport for Joseph Beuys for orchestra and electronic delays. More Matter Less premiered by Noszferatu at the Cheltenham Festival 2003 His unusual body of work constantly explores different musical contexts There are scores for theatre, film & video, contemporary dance and art installation; writing collaborations and arrangement for industrial rock and synth pop artist including Psych TV, Erasure, Claudia Brucken and Bernardo Devlin Recent concert commissions include for Darwin’s Sin Draw a violin concerto for Darragh Morgan and The Crash Ensemble, Hatch for The Smith String Quartet, Playing the Pulse for CoMA ensemble, Periscope for prepared piano for pianist Mary Dullea, Hoarding Flap for harpsichordist Jane Chapman and Definitely Disco commissioned by The London International String Quartet Festival as a competition test piece. BBC Concert Orchestra recently played 32 Frames for orchestra at the QEH in London. Andrew Poppy also performs: solo, with electronics and with his own ensemble of various combinations. Its most recent form, The Sustaining Ensemble have just completed UK tour dates with music from the CD ‘…and the Shuffle of Things’

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DETAILED LIST OF WORKS

O R C H E S T R A L

32 Frames for Orchestra 1981 (9mins) 2 fl, 2 cl (b.cl) s.sax, a.sax, b.sax, vibs, xylo, pno, 2 trp, 2 hrn, 2 trmb, tuba, b.gtr., strings 1st public perf. 11/11/06, BBC Concert Orchestra Charles Hazlewood QEH Souh Bank London Revolution number eight: airport for Joseph Beuys 1991-3. (15mins) 2 fl, (pic/a.fl) 2 ob, 2 cl, 2 bsn, 2 trp, 2 hrn, t.trmb, b.trmb, tba., hrp, pno, e.key glock, timp, strings, electronics sampler or tape commissioned and 1st perf Goldsmiths Youth Orchestra. Conductor. Rupert Bond. Goldsmiths 7/92 Horn Horn for two alto saxophones orchestra in 6 movements: 1997 (32mins) 1 That the this bout 2. A solution of preservative (a cadenza) 3 Fast Car Island 4 Steeplejack waltz (a cadenza) 5 Attempt at an ecstatic moment 6 Chewing the corner 2 solo a. sax. 1 pic, 2 fl, 2 ob, c. ang., 2 cl, b cl, 2 bsn, c. bsn, 4 hrn, 3 trp, 2 tbn, b. tbn, tba., timp, 3 perc, harp, piano, strings Commissioned and 1st perf. by Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Philharmonic Hall Liverpool. 3/97 Soloist John Harle and Simon Haram. Conductor Sachio Fujioka

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C H A M B E R

Matters of theory 1981 (6mins) 3 treble voices, fl, a.sax, cl, b.clt, 2 pno, e org, mrba, 2 vln, vla., vc, 1st perf. The Lost Jockey Air Gallery. 6/81 Animal Behaviour and Crude Din 1981 (8mins) 3 treble voices, fl, a. sax, clt, b.clt, 2 pno, e.organ. mrba, 2 vln, vla., vc, 1st perf The Lost Jockey The Africa Centre. 11/81 Elvis Revenged 1982 (15mins) 12 roto toms, marimba, vibraphone, drum machine (1 player) commissioned/1st perf Simon Limbick Air Gallery. 11/82 The Object is a Hungry Wolf 1982 (14mins) 3 treble voices, fl, a.sax, clt, b.clt, 2 pno, e.organ, vibs/mrba 2 vl, vla, vc 1st perf The Lost Jockey City University. 3/82. The Amusement 1985 (7mins) 2 treble voices, pno, 3 e key., trb., a.sax, 2 perc 1st perf Andrew Poppy Ensemble Ambassadors Theatre. 5/85 45 is 1985 (35mins) a. vox t. vox 2, pno, 3 e key., tbn, a sax., 2 perc 1st perf Andrew Poppy Ensemble Ambassadors Theatre. 5/85 Listening In for ensemble and samples 1984-5 (13mins) male voice, 3 trp, 3 key, gtr, 4 perc Madrid Ensemble 1st perf. Madrid 95 Melody Versus the Brittle Funk 3 movements 1989-95 (15mins) trp, t.saxophone, vib/mrba keys, tape 1st perf. Andrew Poppy Ensemble Riverside Studios. 11/89 Ember String Quartet 1990 (25mins) Commissioned/1st perf The Balanescu Quartet Leicester Phoenix Theatre. 5/91 Poems and Toccatas suite of 14 pieces for violin and piano 1991 (40mins)1st perf Elisabeth Perry and Andrew Ball Huddersfield Festival. 11/91

Elevator Luxuria for chamber ensemble 1992 fl, ob, b.clt, bsn, s.sax, b.sax, trm, hrn, trmb, vib/marimba, celesta/key, e pno, pno, 2 vl, vla, vc, d.b Eight Movements for Piano Trio 1994 pno vln vc.(40mins) 1st perf Lurven Belguim 10/94 Sprung and Suspended 1996 (18mins) s.sax, b.sax b.cl, trp, trmb, marmba, vib, pno 2 vl, vla, vc, d. bass commissioned/1st perf Charlie Barber Band Purcell Room. 10/96 Eleven Word Title 1995 (26 mins)b. clt (cl) 2 perc, gtr (b.gtr) commissioned/ 1st perf Roger Heaton Group Lillian Baylis Theatre. 3/95 Snowdronia 1998 (25mins) Pno (e.pno) vc, accord, t.sax 1st perf Andrew Poppy Ensemble Telegraph Hill Festival. 3/98

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End Synch Sound for chamber ensemble 1998 (15mins) s.sax, a.sax, trp, tbn, mrba/vibs, pno, 2 vl, vla, vc, db commissioned 1st perf Charlie Barber Band. Palace Theatre Newark 10/10/98 Three Early Works Remodelled 1998 Matters of Theory for saxophone quartet Animal Behaviour and Crude Din for chamber group 32 Frames for chamber group sop sax, alto sax (bari sax) vibs (xylo) 2 vl, 2 vc, db, pno 1st perf Graham Fitkin Group 3/99 First Light Last Light Moon Light Bulb 97-99 str quartet/str orch commissioned 1st perf String Factory Why Blink 12 pieces 01-02 4 e.key Win Win Lose for saxophone quartet 02 (14mins) sop, alto, ten, bari sax More Matter Less 02 vlin, alto sax, piano, vibraphone/marimba Commissioned 1st perf Noszferatu Cheltenham festival Weighing the Measure for ensemble of any number 03 (10mins) 1st perf The Sustaining Ensemble Trinity College of Music 29/5/54 Hatch sting quartet 06 Commissioned 1st perf Smith String Quartet Corsham Festival 4/05 How the Hammer Felt 07 (12mins) fl vibs, pno commissioned 1st performed Noszferatu Playing the Pulse for large ensemble any instruments 07 (13mins) Commissioned 1st performed CoMA Warehouse cond Gregory Rose 10/08 Darwin’s Sin Draw for solo violin and chamber ensemble 08 (17mins) Solo vl, fl, ob, tbn, vibs/mrba piano e.gtr vln vla vcl db commissioned/1st performed by Crash Ensemble cond. Alan Pierson vln Darragh Morgan Dublin 11/08

…And The Shuffle of Things: suite of 9 pieces. 08 (60mins) voice 2 key 2 perc 1st perf Sustaining Ensemble Definitely Disco string quartet 09 (6mins) Commissioned Cavatina Trust for the 1st London International String Quartet Festival 1st perf Poznansky Quartet 4/09

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M U S I C T H E A T R E / O P E R A

The Songs of the Claypeople 1984 libretto Poppy (1 hr 15 mins) 1 male 2 female performers, mezzo soprano, tenor, piano, 4 e.keys, tape commissioned 1st perf. Impact Theatre Leeds University. 10/84 The Uranium Miners Radio Orchestra Play Scenes from Salome’s Revenge 1989 libretto Poppy (40 Mins) sop, mzzo sop, b.bar voices, ob, b.sax, tr, trmb, vl, d.bass, hp, pno Commissioned and performed by The Garden Venture at the Royal Opera House. 1st Donmar Warehouse.5/89 Baby Doll 1993 libretto Williams adpted Poppy mezzo sop, ten, b.bari voices, female performer ,vl, cl (b.cl) trb, pno, banjo (e.guitar) Commissioned National Theatre Studio/Leicester Haymarket Theatre. 1st perf Cottesloe Theatre. 5/93 Ophelia/Ophelia 1994 libretto Shakespeare adpted Poppy (50 mins) mezzo sop, cl (b.clt) 2 key w samplers, perc, tape Selected by the I.S.C.M. for performance in the Copenhagen European City of Culture 1996 Improvements on Nature (libretto Poppy/Bardsley) 09 (1hr 15min) 2 performer’s electro-acoustic playback voice/electronics/toy piano/percussion commissioned 1st perf by Sacred Festival Chelsea Theatre 11/09

V O C A L & C H O R A L What to say when (Poppy ) 1997 a suite of 9 pieces (60mins) mezzo, bari voice, a.sax (fl) bari.sax (b.cl) f.hrn, perc, pno (e.pno) accd (or key) vla, vc, db (b.gtr) 1st perf Andrew Poppy Ensemble Goldsmiths College. 11/97 Another Language 12 song (various authors) arr. for voice & piano 00-3 (40min) 1st performed Claudia Brucken Andrew Poppy The Space London 3/02 Pessoa Fragments 2 songs for soprano and piano 03 On Another’s Sorrow (Blake) 03 SATB 03 August Rough 12 songs (Poppy/Devlin) 04-06 (50 mins) male voice pno/key/perc 1st performed Fragil Lisbon Portugal

Something in the Air (Levitation and Fall) an Oratorio 03-05 Pessoa/OHara/Poppy: (50mins) narrator, sop, tenor, bass vox solo, large male choir, perc. electronics commissioned 1st perf Estonian National Male Choir cond Kaspars Putnish Tallin 01/06

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P I A N O / K E Y B O A R D

Cadenza 1980 for pno/e.pno or 2 pnos (15mins) 1st perf Andrew Poppy/Helen Otterway X6 London. 10/80 45 is 1986 pno Movie Momento 1992 pno 1st perf. Andrew Poppy Nottingham Trent University. 10/94 Corrosion of a Thing 1993-6 piano Six Avalanche Thoughts 1998 Pno 1st perf Tania Chen Brooklyn New York 2002 Fruits and Shavings 23 pieces for piano 80-99 1stperf, Andrew Poppy

Two Pieces for Piano: ‘I went down to the cross roads’ ‘you can run you can run’ 02 1st perf Tania Chen, Jacqueline Dupree Building Oxford Swimming with the Stone Book 6 pieces 07 2 keyboards 1st perf composer Hoarding Flap 07 harpsichord commissioned 1st perf Jane Chapman New York 08 Almost the Same Shame 07 pno 1st perf composer Karnart Lisbon 04/08

E L E C T R O A C O U S T I C / P L A Y B A C K The Passage 1983-4 The Impossible Net 1988 Sometimes it Rains 1986 Listening In, 1984 Kink Konk Presto, Kink Konk Adagio, East Fragment 1984-86 Goodbye Mr`G 1986 T.A.R.D.I.S. 1989-99 (42mins) Installation at Tramway Glasgow 3/01 Running Naked Through the Garment District 3 pieces 02 Drum machining/Double Stitch/Lining for a Desirable Suit Gursky Cage Gursky Berio 2 collages: 07 1. You Are Really Looking 2. Dirty Ear Edit of ‘You are really looking’ for ‘War on the Poor’ (Ultra Red 08) Almost the Same 08 (1hr 15mins) Jelly in 5 parts 09 (60 mins)

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Discography All recordings produced by Andrew Poppy. All ensembles directed by AP

THE BEATING OF WINGS (7/85) ZTT Records CD 4509-94751-2 Distribution Warner UK 32 Frames for Orchestra, The Object is a Hungry Wolf for large ensemble Cadenza Listening In

32 FRAMES FOR ORCHESTRA 12 INCH ZTT 32 Frames for Orchestra, The Impossible Net

THE AMUSEMENT 7&12 INCH ZTT The Amusement ,/ Listening In

ALPHABED (8/87) ZTT Records CD 4509-94752-2 Dist. Warner UK 45 is, Goodbye Mr G, The Amusement

RECORDINGS (9/92) Bitter+Twisted Records CD SPIN992 Dist. Impetus Poems and Toccatas piano Andrew Balll violin Elisabeth Perry Ember: String Quartet performed by Balanescu Quartet\ Movie Momento performed by Andrew Poppy

OPHELIA/OPHELIA (95) Impetus Records CD19426 mezzo Margaret Cameron, b.cl Roger Heaton Keybds AP

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RUDE BLOOM (95) Art Gallery Records CD07.Dist. Wotre Music France Eight Movements for Piano Trio Melody Versus the Brittle Funk

TIME AT REST DEVOURING ITS SECRET (00) Source Research Recordings Dist. World Serpent

BLOOD SUGAR (Bitter + Twisted Records, 2003)

Last Light for string orchestra, Snowdronia for chamber ensemble, Revolution Number Eight: airport for joseph beuys orchestra and electronics, TARDIS electronics

RUNNING NAKED THROUGH THE GARMENT DISTRICT (Bitter + Twisted Records, 2003)

Drum machining/Double Stitch/Lining for a Desirable Suit

ANOTHER LANGUAGE (05) There Music Dist. Mute Records 1)Lipstick Vogue 2) White Noise Maker 3) Drive in Saturday 4) Broken English 5) Nice Dream 6) Running Up That Hill 7) Amsterdam 1897 8) Breakfast 9) Die Nebensonnen 10) Libertango 11) You Do 12) Wooden Heart voice Claudia Brucken piano/guitar Andrew Poppy arrangements by AP

ANDREW POPPY ON ZANG TUUM TUMB (05) ZTT Records Disc one: THE BEATING OF WINGS

The Object is a Hungry Wolf /32 Frames for Amplified Orchestra /Listening In Cadenza for Piano and Electric Piano /Inside the Wolf/The Impossible Net Listening In (re-modelled)

Disc two: ALPHABED (A MYSTERY DANCE)

The Amusement/45 Is/Goodbye Mr G/The Amusement (12 inch) /King Kong Presto/East Fragment/King Kong Adagio

Disc three: UNDER THE SON

The Sequence/The Passage (Parts 1, 2, 3)/Sometimes It Rains

…AND THE SHUFFLE OF THINGS (08) Field Radio Records Dist. Rough Trade/Mute Bank Something Secret/Wet Fold/My Stress Mistress Balcony Scene/ Wave Machine part 2 and 3 The Head of Orpheus Football/ What Else: What then Now My Fathers Submarines/Almost the Same Shame, Perfprmed by Andrew Poppy Sustaining Ensemble Latvian Radio Choir Kaspars Putnish

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Selected performances or presentations

…and the Shuffle of Things Andrew Poppy’s Staining Ensemble Kings Place

Oxford Contemporary Music, Birmingham Conservatoire Nov/Dec09

Hatch The Smith String Quartet NY/ Korea/ Scandinavian Tour 09

Jelly (for Aftermaths) AP Spill Festival of Performance/ April 09 …and the Shuffle of Things AP Chelsea Theatre Nov 08 Almost the Same AP National Review of Live Arts Glasgow Feb 08 Hoarding Flap Jane Chapman NY NY June 08/ Bath Festival 09 Playing the Pulse CoMA ensemble Huddersfield Festival Dec 08 Darwin’s Sin Draw The Crash Ensemble Dublin November Nov 08 32 Fames for Orchestra BBC Concert`Orchestra Festival Hall June 07 Various works for piano Andrew Poppy Düsseldorf Oct 07 Something in the Air Estonian Male Choir & soloists

Tallinn/Tartu/Parnu Feb 06 Last Light Zwa Zulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra Durban

South Africa May 05 More Matter Less Noszferatu at Huddersfield Festival Nov 04 Last Light Mostar Chamber Orchestra Bosnia October 03 Poem & Toccatas Darragh Morgan & Mary Dullea

University of Washington Seattle USA August 03 Movie Momento Topology at Brisbane Power House, Australia

August 03 More Matter Less Noszferatu at Cheltenham Festival July 03 Fruits and Shavings Mary Dullea at St Chrispins London June 03 Two pieces for piano Tania Chen at J. Dupres Building Oxford May 03 TARDIS Snow/Snowdronia D-Motion Konferenz Und Festival Fur Interaktive

Medien Neues Theater Helle Germany Dec 02 Avalanche Thoughts Gale Gates 02 Brooklyn New York USA Jan 02 TARDIS Tramway 01 Glasgow April 01 Weighing the Measure The Space London March 01 Alphabed Muscium of Scince and Industry La Villett Paris

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Theatre and dance commissioned scores

Aftermaths 09 (director Julia Bardsley) SPILL festival of performance Infinite Pleasures of the Great Beyond 08 (Simon Vincenzi) Halle Festival Almost the Same 07 (director Julia Bardsley) SACRED Chelsea Theatre Trans-Acts 04 (director Julia Bardsley) NRLA Glasgow Burning Bright 01 (director Alison Peables) V.amp/Tramway Glasgow Construction 94 (choreographer Lynda Gaudreau) De Brune Company/Klapstuk Family Reunion 93 (director Julia Bardsley) Leicester Haymarket Theatre Coriolanus 93 (director Tim Supple) Renaissance/Chichester Festival Theatre Macbeth 92 (director Julia Bardsley) Leicester Haymarket Theatre Therese Requin 92 (director Julia Bardsley) Leicester Haymarket Theatre Drawn Breath 89 (choreographer Siobhan Davies) Riverside Studios One Sided Wall 86 (director Nicky Johnson) Axis Mundi Prods/The Bush Theatre The Price of Meat 85 Impact Theatre /Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff Midday Sun 84 (director Pete Brookes/John Ashford) ICA/Mikery Amsterdam The Dead Moon 84 (choreographer Sally Owen) Netherlands Dans Theatre, On the Beaches 83 (choreographer Sally Owen) Northern Dance Theatre Secret Gardens 82 (directors Tim Albery & Gerry Pilgrim choreographer Ian Spink) ICA/Mikery Theatre Amsterdam

Additional choreographed works Poems and Toccatas choreographer Heidi Latsy 01 St Marks Places New York Cadenza choreographer Heidi Latsy 99 Joyce Theatre New York. Last Light choreographer Heidi Latsy 00 New York The Object is a Hungry Wolf choreographer David Massingham 95 The Place/UK Listening In choreographer David Massingham 90 UK Tour 32 Frames for Orchestra choreographer Michael Popper 88 Place Theatre London Forth Fiesta title music choreographer Michael Clark BBC Scotland 89 Cadenza choreographer Gaby Agis 87 Oxford Gallery

Film and video commissioned scores (tv not listed) Una Giornata lunga Senzo Io 2004 (director Jacopo Benci) BSR Italy Snow 1999 (director Julia Bardsley) Individual Artists, UK Nuvem 1990 (director Anna Luisa Guimaraes) Tropico Films, Portugal Mid-night 1988 (director Vitor Goncalves) Tropic Films, Portugal A Girl in Summer 1986 (director Vitor Goncalves) Tropic Films, Portugal

Arranger/conductor for studio recordings by other artist (82-89) If I Could/Spiralling /My Hear So Blue. for Erasure. Mute Records Twilight of a Champion/August and September/Lung Shadows for TheThe. CBS Records I will give to you for Nitzer Ebb. Mute Records More than the Sun for Black. CBS Records Perfect world for Simon F. Chrysalis Records. The Beatles and the Stones for The House of Love. Sire/WEA records Just Drifting /Terminus /Caress /Guiltless /Message from the Temple / Iron Glove / Finale / Eleusis / Eden 2 / Clouds without Water /The Orchid / Circle for Psychic TV Some Bizarre CBS/WEA Records 10 James Orr Street for Strawberry Switch Blade. WEA Records Leaders in 7th Heaven for Red Box. WEA Records

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Publications

Introducing a Glass of Water to the Sea: Placing the Work of Glyn Perrin (National Review of Live Art Catalogue 01) 6 Happy Ideas or Killing the Vision Kid Coil - Journal of the Moving Image. Ed. Giles Lane (Proboscis, 1998) A Zeitgeist Thing: The Music Supervisor and Modern Soundtracks Variety: International Film Guide 98. Ed. Peter Cowie (Andre Deutsch 1998)

Conference presentations HARMOLODICS: thoughts this way and that Introduction to the School of Harmolodics. Part of Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown, South Bank Centre London 14-20 June 2009 The Presence of Performance in the Age of Electronic Transmission 20/4/97 Cosmopolis. A symposium exploring the cultural and social transition from post industrial to digital city. Part of Video Positive’s Escaping Gravity programmed by Manchester Telematics and Telework Partnership in association with the Foundation for Arts and Creative Technology.

Online radio programmes/Commentary Online radio prgrammme/interview Redbullacadamyradio Oneline radio programme/Interview radiofrance Nuno Galopin Entre does mundos (Diario de Noticias 06) Ian Peel :Screenplay to Accompany the Music of Andrew Poppy ( ZTT 04) Giovanni Antognozzi & Paolo Coteni La Musica Minimalista: Storie e Altre Storie (Textus, 00) Lawrence Crane Counterpoints (BMIC, 1999) Bruno Letort Musiques Plurielles (Editions Balland, 1998) Brian Morton Contemporary Composers (St James, 1990) Marc Issue Poppy Art (Blitz December 1986)

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PRESS

"The finest products of the minimalist mentality - Reich's ‘Music for 18 Musicians’, Riley’s exquisitely impure undertakings, Glenn Branca's tumultuous The Ascension - rise above the cold consideration of mechanics and draws the listener into the realms of ecstasy. Cadenza is the track in question, a mesmerising feature for two pianos that rise and dip like a tea clipper in a high wind. The effect is breath-taking; it’s superb enough to make me look forward with optimism to future releases.

LYNDEN BARBER 1981 : MELODY MAKER “The Amusement is The obvious successor to The Art of Noise in this modern composers forceful dynamic production. A captivating and impressive piece."

DAVE HENDERSON : MUSIC WEEK "The best things I heard (at the Huddersfield Festival) were a miniature by James MacMillian and Andrew Poppy's inventively spare and varied Poems and Toccatas”

NICHOLAS KENYON : OBSERVER "Noise of industrial labour is submerged in Andrew Poppy's music as tremendous gathering melange of piano then brass and synthesiser, finally electric guitar in great slabs of impersonal, repetitive throbbing sound. A scenario of mixed gestures, solo melancholy and frantic deshabillement.... The Songs of the Clay People remembered by a child, are lost, fleeting renascent in a grey metropolis of granite rooms.... where excitement is provided by music which really did strike me as being of exceptional merit"

MICHAEL COVENEY FINANCIAL TIMES "A ritual for three performers, offstage voices and musique concrete. The effect is one of animated hallucination on which Balthus and Francis Bacon might have collaborated: arrogant ascetic, utterly sincere.

JOHN PETER : SUNDAY TIMES ‘Uranium Miner s’ "impressively full of emotional shrapnel."

PAUL DRIVER : SUNDAY TIMES "His music is consistently trenchant and telling".

MEIRION BOWEN : GUARDIAN

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"The ideal composer to turn Tennessee Williams screen play Baby Doll into an opera would be an American Janacek and Andrew Poppy comes near to it in the best moments: strong on atmosphere (a lot of sultry Southern blue notes) and punchily abbreviated in its story-telling."

MICHAEL JOHN WHITE : THE INDEPENDENT "A gift for creating atmosphere the scores virtue lies in the deceptively languid way it can build up an insidious tension."

MARTIN HOYLE : THE TIMES

" A gripping and unusual evening....not a moment of it is dull and several sequences are startling.

GERALD KAUFMAN : THE SUNDAY EXPRESS " Poppy was never solely concerned with pure minimalism and he has now developed a style of enviable flexibility, fusing a range of so called 'serious' and 'popular' sources and allowing each to emerge as appropriate.

KEITH POTTER: THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

“Fulfilling all the Liverpool Philharmonics requirements of new music, Andrew Poppy’s Horn Horn was consistently entertaining as a study in the comparability of two alto saxophonist. Harnessed together much of the time , John Harle and Simon Haram were each allowed the occasional opportunity to emerge on a comparatively thoughtful solo line from their joint virtuoso endeavours. They usefully offset the heavy industrial activity in the orchestra which, between the deceptive opening and closing bars characterises the score as a whole. An admirably high-energy all-or-nothing performance

GERALD LARNER: THE TIMES Time At Rest Devouring Its Secret “is a 35 minute single movement work of "basically one texture" inspired by Riley's ‘In C’, Reich's ‘Drummin’g and Feldman's ‘For Samuel Beckett’ The light and lean grandeur of the orchestration recalls Takemitsu: an unpredictable drip-drop pizzicato of deep double bass and high pitched violin or harp, mingling with tintinnabulous percussives. Overheard, clouds of strings and electronics drift and repeat in a kind of bittersweet,

melancholy ecstasy that plays some fascinating psychoacoustic games with time/space and stasis/movement. Bewitching, beautifully crafted and highly addictive.”

CHRIS BLACKFORD THE WIRE Poppy first hit the scene as a composer of fierce electronic soundtracks for Impact, the seminal 80's theatre company. Later, a stint as the first classical act signed to Trevor Horn's ZTT label won him an underground pop audience. He never gained the exposure of a Nyman or a Reich, though, which is a pity, because this is a first rank composer, bursting with ideas. TARDIS is a large scale piece, in which an endlessly growing melody is toyed with, split into multiples, played against itself in a random canon, and hung in the air to spin gently like a child's mobile. Time and space are suspended, as chiming, plunking and silk-smooth harmonies seem to progress forever upwards. The Doctor himself could be proud of this post post-modern, ambient, slightly kitsch, minimal machine music.

RICHARD WOLFSON THE DAILY TELEGRAPH Avalanche Thoughts suggest Andrew Poppy and Julia Bardsley, are those dangerous cognitive moments that beckon disaster. Before the audience enters the performance space, we are met with an exhibition of exquisite objects combining the motifs of books and shoes enveloped in an understated sound installation. The video full of blues and whites, is deeply elemental, suggestive of gently blinding snow or a threat of drowning. The accompanying soundtrack is similarly beautiful. Shifting like the tide, the piece finally opens up to piano music by turns melodic and discordant, becoming entwined with secular incantations, intonations of passion and of danger. In spite of the "thoughts" of its title, this is essentially a sensory experience. But none the less a beautiful one.

FIONA SHEPARD MARK BROWN THE SCOTSMAN . “arriving at a distinctive and melodic approach he demonstrates an uncanny talent for spreading short melodic motifs over long distances without causing the mind to wander, using subtle development and barely detectable changes in orchestration. Several composers have adopted his approach since, among them Michael Torke and Michael Gordon, but it's doubtful any of them have made a recording quite like the seminal Cadenza an almost transcendental piece of music. What will surprise is the year of genesis of these pieces. Poppy joined the ZTT label some twenty years ago, hence this commemorative collection On Zang

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Tuub Tumb. The other parallel to draw with Poppy is Cabaret Voltaire, for some of the music takes on an experimental form, fractured rhythms thrown around for dissection. Nowhere is this more evident than Kink King Adagio…. an intriguing listen.

BEN HOOGWOOD MUSIC OMH Despite his reputation as a minimalist, Andrew Poppy gives you plenty of bang for your buck on his ZTT works. If you're into contemporary composition, the bargain of the week has to be Andrew Poppy on Zang Tuum Tumb (ZTT 3CD, £15.99), which collects Poppy's 1980s albums The Beating of Wings and Alphabed together with a third, unreleased album and various odds and ends. You get plenty of notes for your money, too: despite Poppy's reputation as a minimalist, his best pieces are gloriously abundant in cascading cycles of notes and noises, with satisfying, circular chord sequences, using very big ensembles and big-sounding virtual ensembles with keyboards and samplers. Poppy studied music at Goldsmith's, where he co-founded Regular Music. Later, he was a key member of the Lost Jockey. By signing to Trevor Horn's ZTT label, Poppy made some interesting lateral moves. For one thing, it meant that his music was beautifully recorded, using the state- of-the-art studios. It also promoted Poppy's oeuvre to a style-conscious, Face-reading audience, complete with detailed art direction, enigmatic notes and Anton Corbijn portraits. This re-alignment cut both ways, and may have distanced Poppy from the serious recognition now handed out to his less clued-up contemporaries. Yet what you hear in Poppy's music, particularly in key works such as 32 Frames for Orchestra and Cadenza for Piano and Electric Piano, is a keen ear for the large-scale, compositional use of timbre - the qualities that drew him to the cutting edge technology of ZTT's studio-based culture. It's even there in his theme tune for The Tube, which always sounded huge compared to electro-TV music. What Poppy brought to ZTT - a label that didn't need much prompting to take itself seriously - was some genuinely good and serious work. His music's purpose is often revealed more effectively through the multi-tracked recording process. Younger composers may take this for granted, working out their masterpieces on PCs, but Poppy got there first

JOHN L WALTERS JULY 05 GUARDIAN Composer Andrew Poppy is good with large forces, and with small, intense ensembles such as piano solos and duos… Wave Machine renew the "tough minimalism" of Poppy's ZTT heyday. The radio-friendly track is Balcony

Scene/Doppelgänger, which makes ingenious use of a Schubert sample from Fischer-Dieskau and Brendel. But Poppy is wasted on electro. Give this man a big orchestral commission, now!

JOHN L WALTERS DEC 08 THE GUARDIAN Echo & Decay, Spit & Crackle Recent Listening April 2009 "...and the shuffle of things" Andrew Poppy's new CD starts with a spit and crackle of velocity that slowly moves toward a triumphant, almost pomp-like, classical-sounding burst of sound. This is immediately hijacked by a voice which self-consciously undermines all our expectations by talking about the music it is interrupting. Except of course, it isn't, because the spoken part is intrinsic to the score. Just when we come to terms with that idea a bell-like note rings and the music fades away as the voice continues its existential pondering. It's a fantastic introduction to this 'cabinet of sonic curioisities' (as the sleeve notes puts it) and these kinds of musical and verbal conundrums and subversions continue throughout another 9 tracks. Much as I like a lot of Poppy's music, for me, it's a return to the kind of work I most like of his, which has previously appeared on his ZTT LP Alphabed and to a lesser extent the more difficult Ophelia Ophelia. Poppy is a master of hybridization: classical and contemporary classical music, orchestrated rock, chamber music, synthesizer rock, art rock, show music, avant-garde music and post-rock along with performance poetry and declamatory oration are all present in the mix here. But why attach labels to what is in essence new and inspirational music? Whether or not this CD is merely things shuffled, a kind of musical sleight of hand, or not, is irrelevant. Poppy has made all these things anew, and I recommend the CD to anyone interested in where music might be found in the 21st Century and remain approachable, varied, dynamic and entertaining.

RUPERT LOYDELL 09 STRIDE MAGAZINE

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Mention Andrew Poppy, and people will most likely recall a couple of relatively high profile albums released on ZTT in the mid 1980’s, charting the British face of what was once called ‘Systems music’. In fact, Poppy’s work has continued to develop in many and varied directions since then. Laurence Crane fills in the blanks.

Over the last two decades Andrew Poppy has steadily assembled a fascinating and unusual body of work which encompasses concert music, opera and scores for contemporary dance, theatre, film and television. Despite a certain amount of commercial success in the 1980’s Poppy’s work remains largely neglected by musical organisations in this country. At a time when many younger composers seem to achieve recognition by producing music which is safe and superficial this neglect of a genuine original is, to say the least, slightly scandalous.

Andrew Poppy is undoubtedly an original composer but paradoxically it’s extremely difficult to pinpoint that originality in terms of a definition of his musical style. This is principally because defining musical characteristics differ from work to work; each piece deliberately inhabits its own self-contained world, setting out with determination to explore strictly defined musical parameters and also non-musical and conceptual preoccupations. Poppy expertly fuses tonal and non-tonal harmonic worlds in such a way that the listener actually forgets about

the polarity between them. Despite this diversity it’s clear that one composer is at work; one with a keen sense of structure and proportion.

This diversity is well illustrated by pieces on two of the five CD’s that Poppy has recorded. ‘The Beating of Wings’ was one of two CD’s released on the pop label ZTT during the mid 1980’s when pop musicians had become interested in what classical composers of a minimalist persuasion were doing; Poppy had excellent credentials in this respect as a founder member of the systems music big band The Lost Jockey. The four pieces on The Beating of Wings show an assured handling of facets of a post-minimal world, from 32 Frames for Orchestra, a majestic chaconne based on a simple progression of four chords, to Listening In , an hypnotic and muscular piece created in the recording studio. By further contrast Poems and Toccatas on his CD Recordings (released on the composers’ own Bitter and Twisted label in 1992) is a sequence of short pieces for violin and piano. The harmonic language is more angular and taut and the pieces are beautifully crafted.

More recent work, so far unrecorded , includes Horn Horn , a double saxophone concerto in six movements, written in 1996 for John Harle and Simon Haram and the extraordinary Revolution no. 8: Airport for Joseph Beuys for orchestra, a desolate soundscape utilising tape delay which, for this writer at least, is possibly Andrew Poppy’s finest achievement to date.

LAURENCE CRANE 1999 SOUNDINGS