Joe Bates - Lain Lines

Workshop performance video

Paper is made by drying fibrous pulp on a screen. In traditional papermaking, this screen is made of a fine mesh, which leaves faint lines visible on the finished paper. These lines are called 'lain lines' and 'chain lines'. This piece is a process piece, in which the instrumental lines tauten and then relax.

Composer: Joe Bates

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Biography

Joe Bates is a composer and curator making music at the edge of genres. His first musical love was for the orchestral classics of the Twentieth Century; he spent his teenage years aping Bartók (he even has a Bartók tattoo). At university, he became involved in drag, pop, and a mixed-genre music night, Filthy Lucre. Joe’s music is born in the collision of these influences, embracing both orchestral music and synth-heavy electronics. He writes for himself, as a solo electronic performer, and for others, using classical notation. His music is inspired by composers from Kaija Saariaho to Giacinto Scelsi, songwriters like Fiona Apple and D’Angelo, writers like Ursula Le Guin and Derek Parfait, and artists like Hilma Af Klint and Abu Al-Hasan. His music blends the riffs and harmonies of rock with structures and instrumentation drawn from contemporary classical music. It combines intense riffs, drifting synth sounds and notes outside of the traditional Western scale. To get an overview of Joe’s music, you could start with his EP, Flim Flam, or his work for solo double bass, Sparrow. From there, you could check out his works for small ensemble, like A Noise So Loud or Us Alone.

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