Plain Moving Landfill – Thomas Meadowcroft

Thomas Meadowcroft, an Australian musician based in Berlin, created this piece for Cristian Dierstein in 2003. It is inspired by the various layers of a landfill – piles of fresh garbage to rolling country plains – that are often simultaneously visible when visiting a site.

Using a home-built melodica harmonium activated by camping foot pumps, suspended bells, an upturned concert bass drum activated by a hidden fan, and various objects played on a snare drum, this piece requires I balance like an organist to play multiple overlapping notated-cells simultaneously. The electronics are prerecorded: 8 channels of rumbling, screeching, or droning sounds diffused onto non-standard or cheap speakers spread throughout the space.

This recording was made during Electric Spring, 21 February 2018, Phipps Recital Hall, University of Huddersfield on the Huddersfield Immersive Sound System (HISS).