Music
Composing, sound, and the acoustics of unusual objects
Music is where my technical and creative sides meet. I studied Acoustics and Music Technology at the University of Edinburgh, which means I’m one of the few composers who can tell you the modal frequencies of the instrument annoying you.
I compose for theatre and performance: podcast themes, short scoring projects, sketches, and full theatre sound design. My tools of choice are Reaper and MuseScore, and my style leans toward whatever the production needs — which has ranged from folk pastiche to synthesised dread.
My dissertation explored the acoustics of stalactites struck with a rubber mallet: I recorded field samples in caves, built a physical simulation using finite-difference and modal methods, and turned the result into a playable virtual instrument. It remains the most niche thing I have ever made, and I am very fond of it.
Projects in this area
All projects →
Composing
Themes and scores for podcasts, theatre, and other narrative art
Artwork from “Ethics Town” podcast
I compose music for theatre and other performance and narrative art.
Podcasts
Themes for audio fiction podcasts.
Short Scoring Projects
Sketches
Short pieces I made for university assignments but did not develop into a full piece.
Theatre Composing
Theatre Sound Design
Other
I wrote my dissertation on “Ancient Rock Music: the sound stalactites” make when hit by a rubber mallet. The project was inspired by a visit to Luray Caverns, Virginia, home of the “Great Stalacpipe Organ”: an instrument that plays the cave itself.
The work had three parts: a physical simulation of struck stalactites using finite-difference and modal methods (approximating them as cantilever bars of variable diameter, in Matlab), a field trip to record real stalactites, and a virtual instrument built in C++ with JUCE so anyone can play a cave from their Digital Audio Workstation.