The idea behind Osmium 187 is to explore the sound materials of the piece in a manner that emphasises the aspects that are not necessarily present on initial hearing, exploiting the potentially overlooked characteristics and drawing out their hidden qualities through electroacoustic transformation processes. Simple strikes may give rise to new gestures, and scraping agitations might yield new-found resonances.

The sound worlds created through this process of exploration yield changing perspectives on the material, and often a sense of ‘other worldliness.’ The title aims to reflect this, and the isotope it represents is described below:

“Osmium is believed to occur in relatively high concentrations in the Earth’s core some 1,700 miles below the crust. The core is too deep for scientists to observe directly, so the discovery of osmium-laden rocks provides tantalising hints about what lies below.  We know that osmium is found in iron meteorites…we believe that osmium has a strong tendency to go into the core instead of remaining in the surrounding mantle.” (Geological Society, 2003)

The description of this isotope has metaphorical significance to the intentions of the piece – to look inwards, to the internal characteristics and construction of the sound material not perceived in its natural and untransformed state. It is then possible to project outwards from these characteristics to new ideas inspired by these “hints about what lies below” or within. The original source material provides the starting point for further musical extrapolations. It is the relationships between these newly created morphologies that are used and explored during Osmium 187.