Producer / composer / musician / visual artist

The title of this work comes from a quote in James Joyce’ Ulysses that I found particularly striking. The full quote goes as such:

‘Dead breaths I living breathe, tread dead dust, devour a urinous offal from all dead.’

I had written this little quote down in one of my notebooks, and while I was brainstorming ideas for this work, I stumbled upon the quote again and knew immediately that this would be the title of the piece. With the obvious association of the breath with woodwind instruments, I took the philosophical weight of this phrase and used it as a guide during the creative process. The idea that the breaths themselves are dead, yet they keep a living organism alive can be juxtaposed with that of the individual, ‘dead’ breaths that the wind players use when performing pieces, bringing life and movement into an otherwise dead and empty space with their sounds, and these combined breaths together creating an audio-physical ‘being’ in itself, that of the music.

Looking at the work itself, the beginning and ending start off in a similar way, with fine, soft, delicate breaths to create a sense of emptiness, the silence and infinite space existing before and after life. From this ether the various melodic phrases slowly spring forth, the first signs of musical ‘life’ beginning to flourish, eventually filling the emptiness with sound and movement. The main body of the work is the interaction of these melodic lines together, each fighting for control, but never attaining it for very long. I attempted to give each voice and melody independence, while also having these independent voices interact in unique combinations that never quite repeat themselves, giving room for each instrument to really flourish. The melodic lines of life eventually fade away to nothingness, and we return to where we began, floating in an endless void.