Soundscape by Claire Hazelton and Dean Wood
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Centred around the 1976 record, 'Tony Savage and Dominic Play the Organ' (recorded live at the Lido), Claire Hazelton and Dean Wood create a theatrical soundscape incorporating classical music, laptop, radio and culinary equipment (for a La Monte Young inspired interlude). Looking back to the Savage's lively Cliftonville, the piece fluctuates between the melancholy of the lost Cliftonville of now and the energy of the Cliftonville of then. Using the dream-like sounds of the Japanese Suspension Glockenspiel and other bowed percussion, the musicians transport the space into a suspended reality and time. Only in the middle of the piece where the performers engage in a day to day activity not often seen as performance, do they completely exist in one time and space, with the Savage record only a reminder of a past Cliftonville.
Biography
Claire Hazelton and Dean Wood first met at school in Ramsgate and, both studying music, they often performed together in classical settings. They continued to perform together sporadically during university (Claire: Kings College London - Music, Dean: Nottingham University - Music); at this time they experimented more with sounds and theatricality, focussing often on site-specific soundscapes and musique concrete. The pair now both live in London where Claire works as a writer and journalist, writing for the Times Literary Supplement, The Observer and The F-Word, and where Dean is studying for his masters in music performance at Trinity College of Music. Separately, Claire and Dean have performed in venues including The Royal Festival Hall, Greenman Festival, The ICA and The RCA amongst others.
Their early work was often created and composed in Margate, and ended up becoming about Margate also. As partially improvised pieces of music, Claire and Dean's collaborative works would change over time and gradually adapt and morph depending on surroundings and situations.
