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The Laws of Nature

andrew@andrewstaniland.com (Andrew Staniland) — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 14:17:34 GMT

Relese of Laws of Nature a huge success!

what the critics are saying

“Staniland is an excellent composer for traditional (acoustic) classical instruments. His genius in electronic music is one of the happiest surprises in recent avant-garde music.”

Frédéric Cardin, PAN M 360

“The 12 tracks on The Laws of Nature are a warm, adventurous sonic ride, one that takes process-based composition and execution to new levels.”

Chris Ingalls POP MATTERS

“The mix of ambient and experimental textures opens up the album’s possibilities. Listening to all 12 sections of Andrew Staniland’s new album, one gets the sense of an artist who is uninterested in boundaries or hurrying a song’s progression for the sake of moving on to the next one. These songs live in their respective moments, and they are moments to be savored.”

Chris Ingalls POP MATTERS

“This record is deeply moving and curiously intriguing, and while difficult to describe, needs to be experienced to even attempt to understand it. The Laws of Nature sounds extraordinary on good headphones, and for those with the proper setup it is mixed for Dolby Atmos. Invest forty-five minutes of your time and embrace this marvel of modern musical exploration. This is essential listening.”

David Reed THE INTELLIGENCER

“Quite a thrilling album concept amalgamating the means of electronic music production and Contemporary Avantgarde Classical composition of now.”

www. nitestylez.de

“the character and interplay of the work as a whole carry a charge that draws the listener toward wonder . . . “

Eric Hill, Musicworks

About the Album

This album is the culmination of years of musical and technological exploration with the JADE digital musical instrument developed at MEARL (Memorial ElectroAcoustic Research Lab). While JADE has three modes of operation (touch mode, ambient mode, and biosensor mode), it’s EEG mode has been the primary focus of this project. Using an EEG sensing headband, JADE sonifies brain waves, creating MIDI and audio data that can be shaped and sculpted into melody, harmony, and rhythm by a composer. Upon receiving a commission from Kittiwake Dance Theatre to create a new work for dance, I proposed to use this EEG technology to create musical material on which to base my composition. We began with improvisation workshops where the dancers would individually wear the EEG headband and experiment with movement while I sonified their brain waves in real time. These explorations were recorded in MIDI and audio, and in turn these recordings were used as the main musical building blocks for the series of six Dancer Portraits. These miniatures are self-contained and unique, preserving the essence of each dancer’s improvisations.

The Laws of Nature further develops the musical material from the dance sessions, however with significantly more compositional curation and planning in terms of structure and musical material. The work unfolds over six interwoven movements. It is a hybrid composition that blends elements of electronic, classical, and cinematic sound. At the end of the composition, we hear the voice of a long time collaborator Jill Battson reading “The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God.” from Euclid's Elements - a reference from my JUNO-Nominated ballet Phi-Caelestis created with the National Arts Centre and Alberta Ballet.

This work was orchestrated with the intention of being experienced in Dolby Atmos surround sound.

Dancers in rehearsal - Kittiwake Dance Theater. Choreography by Martin Vallee. Photos by Andrew Staniland

COVERAGE

Link Tree

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Scoring SKEET

andrew@andrewstaniland.com (Andrew Staniland) — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 15:16:09 GMT

Finding Billy Skinner's Sound

Finding the right tone for Billy Skinner and his black and white cinematic world was key. The music needed to evoke empathy for Billy while complementing the black and white cinematography of Nigel Markham. This was achieved through careful instrumentation and the strategic use of musical motifs. The 'band' for Skeet consists of electric and acoustic guitars, synths, strings, piano, tube amps, and old school FX.

The unifying musical motif is "Billy's Theme," uses a pivoting figure: a low note and a high note rocking back and forth on a middle fulcrum. This motif represents Billy's struggle to balance—he has an equal capacity to both fall back to violence and addiction, and to rise up in hope and love. Though I called it "Billy's Theme," I feel everyone's struggle in this motif as well: Mohamed, as a Syrian refugee making a life in Canada, and Leah and Mae as struggling addicts. This simple but effective motif holds the score together from beginning to end. You can hear this motif in all of the Livingston Variations, and in Billy's Theme.

Amps - real VS sim

For this score, I explored the vast world of modeled amplifiers. Interestingly, Logic's built-in amps and pedals were competitive with many of the high-end expensive options. In the end, Guitar Rig was best for this score—in particular, their model of the Fire Breather. Along with the amp simulations, I tracked everything with my trusty old 15-watt Traynor tube amp (early 2000's build) mic'ed with a classic SM57. In several cues, we used a blend of the real amp and the amp sim, and in a few places, both Nik (writer and director) and I actually preferred the real amp to the simulations. In all cases, we left all of the grit in the sound—map buzz, pick noise, string noise—leaving these real, gritty timbres in the sound really worked with the film.

Retro Synths, Vintage Delays,

One of my favourite orchestral colours in the SKEET score is the blending of vintage synths with orchestral strings. I found the best results with the humble Retro Synth in Logic, supplemented by the Native Instruments Modular Icons instrument. I also experimented a lot with sending these non-guitar sounds through the amps and pedals, as a way to colour the world through Billy's eyes (or, ears). Vintage FX such as the Roland Space Echo (both for delay and for colour), and Replika bring a lot of warmth to the score. You can really hear the exposed delay as a musical device in the Face Punch cue.

Drum Power

The lead actor, Sean Dalton, is a terrific drummer, and played for many years with The Trews. Sean and I had a chance to hang out in the studio, check out the score-in-progress, and jam. I recorded the session of Sean playing his heart out on my little Ludwig Questlove kit. These samples found their way into the score at the climax of the movie

Working with Nik

A discussion of the score would not be complete without discussing what it was like to work with Nik Sexton, writer, producer, and director of SKEET. People who know Nik will all agree he possesses best friend qualities - a people person if there ever was one. Of all the scores I have done, this one took the longest. We worked in intensive periods for almost 2 years on the score, going through a lot of iterations in the edit, and subsequently, the score. It was a luxury to be able to spend so much time on a project, and in the end, our efforts show—we really nailed the tone perfectly. Once, I did a full film score in 2 weeks. It is a lot nicer to have time. Both Nik and I had a great time collaborating and are very proud of the score.

Pic: Nik and I heading down to TIFF to see Christian Sparkes The King Tide, fall 2024

Check out the score here, for a limited time:

Mythos - suite for guitar

andrew@andrewstaniland.com (Andrew Staniland) — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 19:15:18 GMT

World Premiere video release of MYTHOS

Mythos is a new suite of 7 movements for solo guitar written for long-time collaborator Rob MacDonald. The piece is influenced by the Bach Lute suites and modelled after a baroque suite, however the relationships to the traditional suite are distant, and sometimes in name only. The work is not as much a variation on the lute suites as it is a new work visited by the ghosts of the past, translated through traditional and AI inspired compositional approaches.

Preludium - Begin (Again).

Duration: ca. 3min

Allamende - Lachenmann / Schoenberg / Bach

Duration: ca. 2 min

Chorale - Es gibt wahrscheinlich keinen Gott, aber die Welt ist trotzdem schön Duration: ca. 3 min

Sarabande - Vampires

Duration: ca. 2 min

Intermezzo - Ghosts

Duration: ca. 4 min

Passacaille - what you see is all there is

Duration: ca. 4 min

Preludium - Begin (Again) features the well known rhythmic profile of the fugue BWV 1001 (which itself actually comes from the 1st violin sonata). There are 4 voices which climb at different rates to an apex, which is then turned around, falling down to the lowest note on the guitar. At the end, a ghost of BMV998 is heard softly, in touch harmonics, and incomplete. This theme shows up throughout the suite.

Allemande - Lachenmann / Schoenberg / Bach is a coexistence of variations on quotes from German composers whom I have admired: Helmut Lachenmann, Arnold Schoenberg, and JS Bach:

- The Lachenman quote is the repeated high ostinato, which is homage to the high repetitive writing in Ein Kinderspeil

- Schoenberg quote is his tone row from opus 31

- Bach quote is derived from BMV998

Chorale: Es gibt wahrscheinlich keinen Gott, aber die Welt ist trotzdem schön

This chordal movement’s lowest voice is inspired by BWV998, as well as Rob MacDonald’s own arrangement of Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit . It is in a diatonic and perhaps Renaissance-like sound world, in high contrast to the chromatic sound world of the Allemande. It blends chorale-like harmonies with virtuosic runs, with the middle section in a contrasting rhythmic texture.

Sarabande - Vampire

This is in a sarabande meter, but that’s pretty much where the resemblance to a baroque sarabande ends. Vampire is of course a nod to Tristan Murial’s electric guitar solo of the same name. Motifs from Allemande are presented throughout, as well as a charming C F C chord progression, perhaps a nod to composer Max Richter.

Intermezzo - Ghosts weaves a counterpoint of 2 Bach fragments, with E’s standing in for Cs sometimes (as a harmonic series substitution) The other harmonics in tremolo sections form a counterpoint. The path of the piece is chosen partly by the performer: It flows on a linear path through 16 measures: A through P. Within each letter, the performer may flow between three variations, in any order. Each rehearsal letter must have at least one measure played, but up to 6 may be played.

Passacaille - what you see is all there is is bookended by a day-dreaming drop-C passage with 2 things happening simultaneously - one is more or less a direct, if frequency interrupted, quote from the lute suite 998, and the other is a progression of open string harmonics following 1st, 2nd and 3rd partials (a relationship found through work). The harmonics are a nod to my first guitar solo work full circle. I don’t think of this as a ‘real’ passacaille but it does have a recurring rhythmic pattern, so maybe it is indeed ‘real’. Someone else can decide. I just like the name, and after all, this piece is all about myth, not fact.

A lateral approach to cross-cultural chamber music creation

Wed, 15 May 2024 14:02:55 GMT

WuXia

for Guzheng and electronics (2024)

co created by Lina Cao and Andrew Staniland

Not your standard commission/creation model

With the encouragement of Brian Current at New Music Concerts, Lina Cao and I began this collaboration with a refreshing angle what eschewed the standard top-down creation model found in traditional chamber music. We began with an exchange to audio ‘postcards’ over a period of several months. Lina went first, sending videos of short improvisations on the guzheng. Andrew responded with electroacoustic audio pieces based on her playing. We gradually built up musical relationship, as well as an extensive audio and video library. As we exchanged these postcards, fragments of stories, legends, and other narrative ideas began to emerge alongside the music. These ideas found their way into our titles, and began to take a narrative role in how we were making and understanding our music. Titles of early pieces included Imaginary Jam Sessions, Dreaming, The Ancient City of Loulan, Drones Overhead , and WuXia .

Lina Cao. pic: Dahlia Katz

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The Multi Tonic Guzheng

The Guzheng is a Chinese plucked zither. It has not seen much inclusion in contemporary classical music. Lina used a multitonic guzheng for this collaboration, which may very well be the first time this amazing instrument has seen the stage not only in Canada, but North America !

Check out one of Lina's favorite players on the multi tonic guzheng here:

a word on the process from Lina:

Wu Xia -- Ice and Fire, Wu, represents the meaning of Kongfu. Xia, represents the meaning of chivalrous expert. When recording engineer Dennis Patterson helped me record the soundtrack, I initially didn't think of giving this music segment a name. However, when I heard my complete recording, I felt as if the bow in my hand was like a sword in the hands of a swordsman, telling a story...

I am very grateful for the invitation from Brian Current, the director of New Music Concerts, which gave me the opportunity to collaborate with Andrew Staniland, this great composer. In the past eight months, after sending Andrew some of my recordings, he always managed to elevate my improvised music to a higher level, like a magician, and gave me more inspiration and innovation. The musical insights Andrew gave me were liberating, unconstrained, allowing me to truly express myself with the guzheng.

a word on the process from Andrew

Wu Xia is shaped out of a multi movement electroacoustic work that is crafted almost entirely of samples of Lina, captured in high resolution by audio engineer Dennis Patterson. This electroacoustic work is composed as an arena for Lina to improvise with in a live setting. No two performances are quite the same, and the electroacoustic work can be configured into a live sampling performance or a arranged as a fixed media track, as you will hear it tonight. We are fusing two distinct but entangled entities: electroacoustic music my me, improvisation and composition by Lina. The result, we hope, is something beyond either of us as individuals.

It has been an inspiring collaboration where process was just as important as the result. I feel it is the beginning of a special musical relationship, and there is a lot more for Lina and I to say together.

Hear the World Premiere Performance

future resonance festival, New Music Concerts. Toronto Ontario,

7 Interesting things about 7 Last Words for the Earth

andrew@andrewstaniland.com (Andrew Staniland) — Tue, 09 May 2023 13:22:58 GMT

7 last words for the earth - a concerto for percussion and women's choir

#1 This project has been three years in the making

I delivered the score just before the pandemic. The planned premiere, like so many others, was put in COVID limbo. As public health restrictions eased, we were able to get the first half recorded in October 2021, followed by the 2nd half in April 2023. A lot has happened and changed in that time, but one thing that has remained is the climate emergenc y.

#2 - Conspiracy, misinformation, secrets and codes

Hot topics of late. The third movement "7 Secrets" explores this in an urgent, secretive and kind of paranoid manner. This movement features a section where the choir becomes a 'live looper' for a percussion solo. Interestingly, type “Seven Secrets” in a search engine, and autocomplete gives some ... suggestions:

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#3 - RAGE!!!

Having a moment to express rage was cathartic for everyone. Interestingly, after each ferocious ' chaos chord ' , we all erupted in gregarious laughter - it was a real and much-needed release.

#4 Rob Power.

Rob Power is extraordinary. Everything he touches sounds musical and magical, be it a gong, one of his homemade instruments, or even a thermos. New Paragraph

#5 Also Rob Power.

Rob invented a new instrument just for this piece, for a reoccurring pattern that I originally suggested gongs and vibes for. It does not have a name yet, but it sounds gorgeous: New Paragraph

# 6 Hope

Despite the main title this piece is actually about Hope. '7 last words for the earth' is of course in line with so many other "last words" pieces, which are generally religious in nature. This work is a secular take on that idea, and is focussed on the very real climate catastrophe.

The Hope movement is based on a set of prayer bowls assembled by Rob Power. The tuning of these instruments is of course under no obligation to make sense to tempered tuning, and the choir gets to sing in a special intonation that is not quite tempered, and a little bit microtonal.

Fun fact that Lady Cove's music director Kellie Walsh's mothers name was Hope :)

#7 - Lady Cove Rocks

This piece calls for all kinds of crazy textural, off-the-beaten-path singing, and Lady Cove was down for it all. Coached by new music expert Michael Zaugg and conductor Kellie Walsh, they were unstoppable, expressing a dazzling array of power and emotion. 7 Last Words fo r the Earth will drop at a secret time on a secret label, all to be revealed soon.

Fun fact: Michael Zaugg's choir warmups are better than many new pieces...just sayin'.

All photos by Andrew Staniland

7 Last Words for the Earth is a concerto for percussion and women's choir, commissioned by Lady Cove

Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Score available from composer

Jubilant Entanglements: concerto for Guzheng, Strings, and Percussion

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 20:36:34 GMT

Composing a work for Guzheng

Writing a work for a mixed cultural ensemble comes with opportunities and challenges. The Guzheng is a Chinese instrument with an incredible history over 2000 years old. It has 21 strings, and is generally pentatonic in nature (at least on the right side of the instrument - the wrong side is a microtonal wonderland explored in movement 3 - see video below). The string orchestra comes from a Western classical tradition only a few hundred years old, and has an enormous chromatic range. Percussion has different origins again, being both perhaps the most ancient and diverse instrument group. Percussion instruments can and do come from anywhere: marimbas from Central America, gongs from Indonesia, and drums from Africa. Put all this together with Jing Xia, a master improvisor and Guzheng player at the helm, and you have all the ingredients necessary to create something fascinating.

I approached this work differently - I wanted to collaborate, respect the instruments and their players (especially the guzheng, which I know comparatively little), and approach the work not only as a composer, but also as an improvisor and guitarist.

While the score is notated conventionally, improvisation plays an important In the conception, composition, and performance of the work. The piece began with an improv session - Jing on Guzheng, and me on guitar and electronics. I used the recorded session (linked above) as a reference for the various motifs, themes, and the general sound-world of the concerto. It was an inspiring and liberating process, as I find that improvisation comes with an inherent joy, lightness and spontaneity that can sometimes elude a more ‘serious’ composition process. There are sections of the work where Jing’s part is improvised, much like jazz solo in a big band chart, though quite different in sound. More unusually, the orchestra and conductor are also given a chance to improvise. In one case there is a little game (titled ‘jeux’) where the conductor can call upon a library of riffs, essentially composing the orchestral part in real time. The electronic effects via the guitar pedal board I used in the original session will also be used in concert , but on the guzheng instead of the guitar. That’s right - a 2000 year old Chinese instrument through a guitar pedal board.

image of pedal board used on the improvisation, and in concert

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As I composed the piece, Jing and I were in frequent correspondence on Facebook. We riffed on all kinds of ideas as to what the piece could be about, and what we were thinking and hearing while listening back to our improvisations. We spoke of weaving, patterns, strings, processes, string theory, quantum entanglement, the seasons and how there is really no moment when fall becomes winter or spring becomes summer - yet they somehow arrive (even here in Newfoundland!). These ideas eventually coalesced into a 4 movement piece we decided to call Jubilant Entanglements . The movements are I jubilance, II pattern / process, III nightshade, IV postlude.

It is hard to know where improvisation ends and composition begins. For me they are different expressions of the same musical imagination. It has been a joy to write this piece as it brings my voice as a guitarist, improvisor, electronic musician, and composer together in a novel way. Thanks to Jing Xia - Jing was a huge part of this piece from start to finish, and I could not have even begun without her collaboration. Thanks to Marc David, Hugh Donnan and the NSO for believing in this project. And finally thanks to my dear friends in the PhoeNX Ensemble who have taught me so much about working with cross-cultural ensembles.

Andrew Staniland. January 2023, St John’s.

Hear the 'wrong side' of the Guzheng - sampled in Kontakt / Logic Pro X ph

Meet Jing Xia

Buy tickets here! Premiere January 22 2023

Ramadan 20 vs COVID 19

Wed, 05 May 2021 14:39:36 GMT

RAMADAN 20 VS COVID 19

This podcast tells a candid and touching story about making music during the pandemic, and the creation of a new song cycle "Ramadan 20 VS COVID 19" from the perspective of poet Jessica Care Moore, composer Andrew Staniland, and pianist Erika Switzer. Hosted by Martha Guth, co-director of Sparks&Wiry Cries.

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See the World Premiere Performance on Youtube

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Inventions for Trumpets

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 12:03:01 GMT

A new piece for trumpets written during the early pandemic

Inventions for Trumpets is a series of 5 movements: Sirens, Butterflies, The Secret Death Toll of American Drones, Ghosts, and Rip. The piece can be played as an acoustic duo for 2 trumpets, and as an electronic version where the 2nd trumpet part is reimagined for the electroacoustic medium.

Sirens is a study on siren-like glissandos and siren sounds on both the trumpet and in the electronics, and the internal feeling of alarm and fear that accompanied the early days of the pandemic.

Butterflies – this explores flutter technique on the trumpet, while the electronics explore closely recorded insects and other freely associated sounds, as well as rustling piano sounds reminiscent of previous work electroacoustic work Orion Constellation Theory.

The title The Secret Death Toll of American Drones comes from a NYTimes article of the same name that crossed my newsfeed. It is a virtuoso etude for piccolo trumpet intended to evoke a quasi-military style. The work begins in a call and response between high trumpet and low trumpet, or trumpet and electronics, then moves to unison statement by the end. The electronics and acoustic versions both use a drone pedal to anchor the virtuoso lines, while the electronics use freely associated sounds inspired by the title of the movement

Ghosts is a quiet and slow exploration timbre and colour that focuses on air sounds, valve noise, and breath. The electronics feature an import voice from the past, a ghost as it were, from my early days as an electroacoustic composer.

Rip is a playful virtuoso duo that is based around rips, which are quick and exciting runs up an overtone series. This movement does not have a prepared electroacoustic part, rather, the trumpeter is invited to record the 2nd trumpet part and play the first part along with it.

The piece was written in the lockdown period of the COVID 19 pandemic, between March and August 2020. It was written for Alan Klaus with financial support from the SOCAN foundation.

Premiere coming online in November 2020 at the Newfound Music Festival. Details coming soon!

loren-kielly-15

The Laws of Nature

Relese of Laws of Nature a huge success!

what the critics are saying

About the Album

Dancers in rehearsal - Kittiwake Dance Theater. Choreography by Martin Vallee. Photos by Andrew Staniland

COVERAGE

Link Tree

Scoring SKEET

Finding Billy Skinner's Sound

Amps - real VS sim

Retro Synths, Vintage Delays,

Drum Power

Working with Nik

Check out the score here, for a limited time:

Mythos - suite for guitar

World Premiere video release of MYTHOS

A lateral approach to cross-cultural chamber music creation

WuXia

for Guzheng and electronics (2024)

co created by Lina Cao and Andrew Staniland

Not your standard commission/creation model

Lina Cao. pic: Dahlia Katz

The Multi Tonic Guzheng

a word on the process from Lina:

a word on the process from Andrew

Hear the World Premiere Performance

future resonance festival, New Music Concerts. Toronto Ontario,

7 Interesting things about 7 Last Words for the Earth

7 last words for the earth - a concerto for percussion and women's choir

#1 This project has been three years in the making

#2 - Conspiracy, misinformation, secrets and codes

Jubilant Entanglements: concerto for Guzheng, Strings, and Percussion

Composing a work for Guzheng

image of pedal board used on the improvisation, and in concert

Hear the 'wrong side' of the Guzheng - sampled in Kontakt / Logic Pro X ph

Meet Jing Xia

Ramadan 20 vs COVID 19

RAMADAN 20 VS COVID 19

Inventions for Trumpets

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