Michael Horwood

Michael Horwoods audio work during his academic period at the University of Buffalo comes from one of the most optimistic periods in American 20th century avant-garde music. The mere spill over of interest in composition from the New York City schools brought state of the art facilities and faculty to UB in 1968 Incidentally new professors Lejarin Hiller, Lukas Foss and poet Robert Creeley were key in developing students keenness into radical new music. In early 1968, Michael obtained permission from Creeley to take his two poems The Pattern and Dimensions in a new direction. Creeley's poetry is difficult to set musically. It is frequently dense with complicated meanings, often running together. The Pattern is based solely on Creeley's reading of the poem and the entire piece consists of manipulations of his reading using the standard magnetic tape manipulations of the day: slowing down, speeding up, splicing, backwards playback and overlay. Of particular happenstance is the fugato on the line 'let X equal X, X also equals X' morphing into the word 'sex.' In Dimensions, Creeley's narration occurs over and through the dense texture. His voice blends into a mangled and distorted free improvisation on cello and percussion. Michael Horwood is also known for his releases on Opus One, Sound of Pig, Albany records and previously on Beniffer Editions with Convergence.