LAWRENCE CASSERLEY

Composer, Performer, Conductor, Improviser, Computer Musician

Lawrence Casserley , composer, conductor, percussionist/vocalist and electroacoustic musician, has more than a quarter century of experience as a composer, performer and improviser of electroacoustic music, with a particular emphasis on live performance. His first live electroacoustic works were composed and performed in 1969 and he has continued to use electroacoustic means in performance, often combined with light, theatre, mime and/or video.

In 1972, in collaboration with the artist Eddie Franklin-White, he founded the mixed-media group Hydra, which combined electroacoustic and instrumental sound with light, smoke, lasers, projections, etc in an innovative series of performances over several years. Hydra performances involved extensive collaboration with other musicians, visual artists, writers, poets and technicians.

In 1984 Casserley collaborated with composer and flautist Simon Desorgher in founding London's Nettlefold Festival. This festival has spawned the performing groups Tube Sculpture, featuring the World's largest set of panpipes, and Electroacoustic Cabaret, a new approach to the presentation of contemporary music that has attracted wide attention. Since 1989 the festival has taken place entirely within the Colourscape inflatable sculpture, another new concept which has spawned the Music in Colourscape ensemble, who perform at other festivals. The festival is now known as the Colourscape Music Festival and has attracted support from Foundation for Sport and the Arts and the National Lottery. Such is the success of this unique festival that similar events are now being planned for other locations.

Casserley has performed and broadcast with groups ranging from the London Sinfonietta and the BBC Symphony Orchestra to the Electroacoustic Cabaret and Music in Colourscape, and he has been in charge of the electronics for the UK premieres of Stockhausen's "Mixtur" and "Trans".

He was on the staff of the Royal College of Music, London, where he became Professor in Charge of Studios and Adviser for Electroacoustic Music, for more than twenty-five years. In 1995 he took early retirement from the RCM and is now pursuing other projects.

While at the RCM Casserley collaborated frequently with the 20th Century Ensemble and John Lambert's Experimental Music Group. He also ran workshops in improvisation with live electronics for instrumentalists and composers.

He has considerable knowledge of the technology of electroacoustic music, having worked on both analogue and digital design projects; for a number of years he worked on the design of digital signal processing systems for live performance. Now he is focusing his work on the innovative IRCAM Signal Processing Workstation; in March 1992 he obtained one of the first Workstations to be delivered and has performed extensively with the ISPW.

It will be clear from the above that a predominant theme of Casserley's work has been collaboration, both with other musicians and with artists from other disciplines, and this is one of the defining aspects of his career. He has worked frequently with other composers to help them realise their electroacoustic ideas, eg John Lambert's Sea Change sequence and Edwin Roxburgh's Saturn. He has worked collaboratively with students - as a conductor, as a workshop director, and as a performance animateur. He has worked with musicians and other artists in a variety of collaborative environments. As an improviser he has worked with Melvyn Poore, Barry Guy, Evan Parker, Alan Tomlinson, Hugh Davies, Vanessa Mackness, Philipp Wachsmann and many others.

His varied talents range from playing one-man-band for London Flutes' celebrated rendition of the 1812 Overture, through conducting, controlling electronics in orchestral concerts, to playing the motorbike in Simon Desorgher's "The Infernal Clanking of the Chains and Cogs of Beelzebub". He revels in the opportunity to perform in different spaces and different environments, from numerous television studios to a Peruvian beach, from art galleries to gardens, from churches to pubs, from the Queen Elizabeth Hall to the River Thames, to Colourscape.

Whether on stage, playing or conducting, performing the role of the Minotaur in Colourscape, at the mixing console or controlling the ISPW, performing his own or others' works, or improvising, Casserley brings his varied and versatile musician's experience to the job.

Since 1989 Casserley has lived in Buckinghamshire, where he has established a special working environment for the preparation of electroacoustic performances. In Autumn, 1995 he improved facilities in his studio with the introduction of the new Yamaha O2R digital mixing console. This will provide up to eight digital channels to and from the ISPW, creating a highly integrated digital performance environment. The studio is also equipped with a high quality multi-channel speaker system. This facility is available to composers wishing to develop electroacoustic performances.

In January, 1996 he visited the STEIM studios in Amsterdam to research the possibilities of incorporating the SensorLab system into his work. As a result, he returned to STEIM early in 1997 to work on a larger project with Evan Parker and Barry Guy. In October, 1996 he performed in Bonn with Bärbel Nolden as part of the 50 Jahre Nordrhein-Westfalen Landesjubilaum.

Since 1987 he has established a reputation for his signal processing work in improvised music. in particular his CDs and concert work with Evan Parker in a number of different contexts including duos, trios, quartets and larger ensembles. In October, 2000 he toured Japan with Parker, Paul Lytton and Joel Ryan.

Since 2000 he has also been making light/sound installations in colaboration with Colourscape artist Peter Jones.

Personal and Academic History