Raymond Cobley

I have long been interested in New Music & Sound Design but for much of my life had neither means nor opportunity for significant involvement. It was the advent of digital technology, which coincided with extra available time afforded by semi-retirement, that enabled me to study & impelled me to create. I had ideas which demanded to be given form in sound.

I am self-taught in the sense that I have not followed an academic course. On the other hand, I have learned from numerous online resources, of which I have been able to select those which specifically suit my purposes. Some years ago I embarked on more intensive studies & eventually there came a time when I felt confident enough to start producing my own attempts & publishing them.

The resulting work embraces various genres, including Musique Concrete & Sound Collage. Latterly, I have been engaged with Pure Data (pd), which enables live creation & recording. I do not claim that the work derived from this method is superior but, since I am fascinated by structures & processes, I find a greater satisfaction in overcoming the challenges presented by the construction of the programmes & in the eventual immediacy of the experience.

I have listened to innumerable works by modernist & contemporary artists &, although I have not saught to emulate or imitate, there is no doubt that I have been influenced by what I have heard, if only by a process of osmosis. I must acknowledge a specific debt to the musical philosophy of John Cage, especially in his development of techniques of indeterminacy or chance operations.