Fields, tethered (2026)

Commissioned by The Presteigne Festival 2026

Programme Note:

On one of many morning dog walks, I stopped to take in the sparseness of the open fields intersected by telegraph poles and power lines, thinking what they could represent: our modern necessity to connect across vast distances; a visible reminder of our voices and their projectional limitations in contrast to nature; the idea of the sound they carry being inaudible as it travels (despite its source and destination being presumably deafening in comparison); the physical dividing of land from a birds-eye view; and, in their most basic form, a cold metallic echo of trees - a central trunk with sprawling branches. 

Fields, tethered seeks to embody and explore this crossroads between nature and human innovation through arguably one of the most versatile instruments within the western arsenal, the cello. Its use of spacious melodic lines mixed with the hauntingly beautiful harmonic spectrum reflects this meeting point as well as the conflict and congruity between the two worlds.