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Commissioned by the acclaimed Britten Pears Arts program, Through the Motions was originally meant as an installation with three large, separate, projection screens. The piece features songs in Just Intonation for microtonal guitar and voice by Maddie Ashman and is accompanied by a film piece by Clemente Lohr. The film draws parallels between how we as humans harvest natural resources and exploit or trample them, with what we consider pragmatic and efficient.

Since the Industrial revolution, we have rejected nature’s existing sound principles for equal temperament, the 12-note musical structure we have learnt to accept. Convenient as it is for mass manufacturing instruments and practicality, it reflects the tragic colonialism over non-Western cultures, whose music traditions cannot fit into Western standards. In Maddie Ashman’s music, westernised equal temperament and language are deconstructed, asking what is possible by looking at our ancient foundations, and how we need to more than ever.

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