Mel (Ian Mellish)

Mel is the electronic composer Ian D Mellish (born November 22, 1952.)

Born in the UK, Mel has lived and worked since 1997 in Austria. Over a period of some 30 years he has written a large body of electronic music, musique concrète, ambient and music for live performers, most of which is released on the Red Wharf label.

Biography

Born in 1952 and brought-up in a London suburb, Mel (Ian D Mellish) initially trained as an artist. Despite early violin studies, his interest in music was only seriously rekindled later, leading to a first class BA in electronic music from the North East London Polytechnic in 1983 and a doctorate in composition from York University in 1989. His music and graphic scores have been widely performed and exhibited throughout Austria, Germany, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Canada and the US.

The visual still plays a large part in his compositions, many of which are inspired by and bear titles taken from the art world, such as the tape pieces "Rauschenberg", "Currents", "Stoned Moon", "Surface Quartet" (all based on Rauschenberg), "Riley", "Clandestine Relative" (Bridget Riley), "Tinguely", "Flying Deep (Pollock mix)", "wHolE" (Warhol), and the environmental pieces "Rothko" and "Olitski". In 1999, inspired by the book Works, Texts to 1974 by artist Tom Phillips, and based on work for a film from 1990, he embarked on a three-year project Details, a set of 67 short pieces based on his own previous works (about 3 or 4 for each year, from 1979 to 1999).

As a reaction to the fact that artworks occupy space and music occupies time, he has been interested in longer works, often with very slow-changing material, more as environmental music, wallpaper or background noise than concert pieces. The durations vary considerably, from the (relatively) short "Life In The Shelter" (47'16"), "waterFall" (1:08'00"), "Drive My Car" (1:08'58"), "Drone" (1:23'20"), "Gradual Juno (Drift)" (1:31'16") and "MAK" (commissioned by the Wiener Musik Galerie) (4:11'36"), to the rather longer multi-tape/CD pieces.

These latter are for simultaneous 'loops', tape or CD, of slightly differing length that phase against each other and therefore never repeat exactly. They are considered to have come to an end when the cycle is completed and the material starts to repeat. "Satellite Wars" (1:59'00"), "Juno Variations" for any two of three loops, "Enomia", "Juno" and "Bamburger" (8 weeks, 1,2 or 3 days, depending on which pair you pick, or just under 508 years. 8 weeks if you try all three), "Rothko" (10 weeks, 4 days, 18:45'49"), "Juno Variation II" (4.36 years, designed to last the duration of the orbit of Juno) and "Olitsky" (1,648,171 years, 7 weeks, 6 days, 10:23'33", from four loops, which last 44'43", 44'39", 44'46" & 44'54" respectively). This last piece has a circular score, with the staves on the background and the note-heads on four moveable transparent sheets. In addition, "Endless Interference" is for overlapping tracks recorded on a 4-track cassette machine on an 'endless' answer machine tape, this does not stop or fade-out (but does repeat after 6'08").

Although he is primarily interested in electronic music there are a number of works for live instruments, including: "Beach" for tape and amplified solo reed instrument (oboe, clarinet and sax to date), piano, percussion & 'junk' percussion with live electronics; "Condensed Beach" for tape and percussion; "Greek Princess" for tape, violin, synth & live electronics, or tape, six violins & live electronics; "Cairn" for solo bagpipes, wind band & tape (for Gordon McPherson); "Son of Cairn" for amplified ensemble (Icebreaker) & tape (available on Icebreaker's "Official Bootleg" album); "Warm Gods" for Icebreaker bassist Pete Wilson's ensemble Subdivo (soprano sax., vibes, guitar & bass); "(Parp) On the Rug" for harp & piano; "Rising '--"' for two or four harps, live electronics & live televisions; "Q3" for Irish harp quartet, TV & electronics; and "Illumination" for viola and tape, for the Dutch ensemble Trio Scordatura. "Live Arc" was commissioned in 1999 by the Wiener Musik Galerie for the Merkin Zimmer Ensemble at the MAK Festival in Vienna.

A number of other pieces are based on existing classical music, such as "Percill Washes Whiter", "Stretch Marks", "Thirteen Gods", "C6H12O6" and "Cold Gods" for tape, "Strungout Boeing" for marimba, vibraphone & piano, and "vile intentions" for the Delta Saxophone Quartet (all part of an ongoing series based on Fantazias and In Nomines for strings by Henry Purcell); "The Art of Mote" for chamber orchestra (a short study based on Mozart); and "Sleepless Buffalo" for tape, based on a Schumann fragment found decorating a clock face, translated into a 20-note-per-octave micro-tuning.

Multimedia works include: "Brush Work" for the animator Clive Walley, which won first prize for experimental film and soundtrack in the 1993 Cinanima Festival in Portugal; work for the video artist Mireille Chan ("Orientation", "Recognition 12" and "Recognition 117" for multi-video installation); the soundtrack for the film "The Fourth Man" by Nick Hoare; and a re-mix of "Telling Fibs" for the film "Die Sprache des Wassers", and "MG Seven", music for the film "Chakrenreisen", both by digital artist Michael Guzei; and "Amnesty for Tom" for the film-maker Tom Hadley.

His music appears on the Red Wharf label, including the following albums: "Details 1&2", "Details 3&4", "all incense and dream catchers", "Floating stones", "Chaos and the Wasp", "Mobile Vermin", "Of Buffalos and Other Gods", "Washing Fluid Art", "The Pop Album", "Sjem (walking through Bedlam)", "Television and the Bomb", "Sex", "Hats and Videotape", "Rothko", "Olitsky" (Double Album), "Peter & Roland" (Double Album with John Godfrey), "Wallpaper Music #5", "Rise and Fall and Dreams from Oblivion"

He has been a member of Icebreaker, as production assistant, since 1989, and his works can be heard as introductory music to most of Icebreaker's concerts.

Since 1997, Mel has lived in a small village in Austria.

Discography

Albums

All published by Red Wharf records

* "Floating Stones" (1998)
* "Chaos & the Wasp" (1998)
* "Mobile Vermin" (1998)
* "Of Buffalos & Other Gods" (1998)
* "Washing Fluid Art" (1999)
* "The Pop Album" (1999)
* "Sjem (Walking Through Bedlam)" (1999)
* "Television & the Bomb" (1999)
* "Sex, Hats & Videotape" (1999)
* "Rothko (excerpt)" (1999)
* "Olitsky (3 excerpts)" (1999)
* "The MAK Project" (1999)
* "Peter & Roland and other noises" (2000) (with John Godfrey)
* "Details 1 & 2" (2000)
* "Details 3 & 4" (2002)
* "All incense and dream catchers”" (2002)
* "Wallpaper Music 5" (2002)
* "Rise & Fall" (2003)
* "Plaving with Henry - 1" (2006)
* "Dreams from Oblivion" (2007)
* "music for flesh & blood, once removed - 1" (2008)

Other recordings

* "Son of Cairn" - Icebreaker, "Official Bootleg" (ICC, 1991)
* "Goldylox "('Secret Hidden Bonus Track Mix') - Icebreaker, "Extraction" (between the lines, 2001)"'

External links

* [http://www.mel.co.at Mel]
* [http://www.red-wharf.com Red Wharf]
* [http://www.icebreaker.org.uk Icebreaker]