An experimental new show is premiering at The Barbican next week on 23 February 2025. ‘Total Immersion: Continents, Computers, and Electronics’ weaves orchestral music with the electronic. Inspired by the celebrated Tarkovsky film, Nostalgia, the avant-garde concert features the BBC Symphony Orchestra with innovative new sound techniques. Twelve strategically placed speakers will create an ephemeral sound loaded with latent violence. Lara Bowman sat down with composer, Steven Daverson, about how the show came together and what inspires him.
Did you always dream of being a composer and what are your early music memories?
A. I always wanted to be a musician. I played the bassoon in the school orchestra, which was only possible because of local government subsidies. I went to the local state school. Most public funding for music has been cut, which is sad. We are missing talent.
My Mum was a secretary and my Dad worked in oil and gas. My parents loved music but weren’t personally musical. As a teenager, Queen was a gateway drug because it was so varied and theatrical. I broke my tape of Michael Jackson playing it on repeat.
When was your talent noticed?
A. I wasn’t a prodigy by any means, but when I was 11 my teacher told my parents I might get into music college. I had an affinity for it, I remember someone explaining that a crochet lasts for one beat. And of course, no one needed to tell me that I instinctually already knew that.
What appealed to you about Tarkovsky and why did you choose Nostalgia to set your music to?
A. Tarkovsky really knew how to use a camera. There’s a sense of magic in the cathedral scene that I chose to set the piece too. You get this exterior scene, within an interior scene. It shouldn’t work but it does and it’s beautiful. None of it makes sense- which reflects the messiness of life. Like any artist not very convinced by God, I still search for magic- there has to be something you can’t explain. You can write about how angry you are about climate change, but most pieces that inspire me don’t have a societal commentary.
Tarkovsky thinks a lot about memory, what is music’s role in memory collective and individual?
A. The music we hear as teenagers sticks with us, it narrates key moments in our lives from weddings to funerals. But it had as much to do with musical structure as anything else. There are points in the piece that echo a previous musical event. That’s where the nostalgia comes in, almost like deja vu. There’s something very human and vulnerable about it.
Is there value in beautiful music for its own sake?
A. There’s a value in beautiful anything, but I think we’ve seen that directly or indirectly for a long time. God knows I’m angry about stuff, wars, Trump and so on but I don’t think writing a string quartet about it, even if it gets broadcast nationally, will change anything. Play and imagination are key, sometimes that gets lost in this age and it’s a composer’s job to get back to that. It’s an artistic pursuit, it has value artistically, and aesthetically.
Your music has been described as ephemeral and with latent violence is this conscious whilst writing?
A. Some of my favourite music is liquid and smokey. You can pull towards a musical crescendo and not give it to the audience, teasing them. Like a boomerang, you tease with a climax and then divert. In Beethoven, this harmony coalesces and when it’s done. My work builds to this but then goes ‘wham’ not ‘bam.’ It is, I guess, latent. Mozart gets put into blocks, that’s not how I hear the world.
What do you draw from when you write, life, art?
A. I draw a lot from visual art and literature. I don’t buy the ‘write what you know’ school of thought. Tolkien’s quite good but he never saw a dragon.
Who are you when you write, do you think about how people will respond to it?
A. I’m someone who is lonely but who doesn’t mind. It’s dreamlike, it’s a role I play in creating the music. I am a bit melancholic which goes into the music. Pensive. I don’t think about the reception, the listener’s response is not my business.
Is there a tension between the electronic element and the classical establishment?
A. No, but I think there’s a struggle to adopt the technology. Orchestras often try to project a sense of history rather than contemporaneity. The BBC isn’t like that which is why I went to them. They have a funding model which allows them to take risks and make a loss on projects with artistic value.
Do you have any affiliation with the Square Mile and the Barbican?
A. I’ve been coming here for nearly 25 years, I love it around here. I specifically asked for The Barbican it’s got a very dry acoustic and the reverb is very electronic, almost dry, compared to the Albert Hall where everything goes boom. It’s an immersive show where tactically placed speakers try to create a snowfall of sounds scattering in the auditorium.
I also love the architecture of The Barbican, it’s amazing. My partner has keys to the little gardens around here. I love wandering around also Roslyn Coffee on Queen Street has the best coffee in London. There are few places in the world where you can accidentally encounter world-class art. I’ve lived in Walthamstow since 2007, it’s home.
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