Being a composer in a modern sense of the term has gone way past a singular artist sitting down (or standing up) next to their main composing instrument and music staff paper, writing down the notes. The creative process is, these days, enriched by so many other tools available to music creators that enable them to go beyond what was possible in previous centuries, decades, even days. At the same time, the composing process doesn’t limit itself to what is considered classical music as such, but moves into other musical genres, as far as the imagination of the author can take them.
Take the example we have here – Claire Dickson and her third album Balance. A Metropolis Ensemble commissioned composer, Dickson is working mainly as a vocalist and producer, utilising microphones, pedals, synthesisers, field recordings, acoustic instruments, and draws from lineages of improvisation, extended vocal technique, sampling, and deep listening.
Reading this on paper (or your screen), it might seem like a lot and overly complex. Yet the seven vocal-driven compositions here neither sound too much, nor too complicated to intake or comprehend, though the process of composing and presenting them was indeed complex.
Yet Dickson was able to make her music here sound both natural and easy to digest, presenting us intriguing vocal ideas wrapped in subtle instrumental and electronic elements that play the exact parts they were intended to. And yes, Dickson is able to achieve the balance between post-modern classical and avant-pop she seems to be striving for.
