Technology, jar lids and experimental music

It has been nearly a year since Richard Orton, electronic and experimental musician extraordinaire, passed away. So on Thursday 20^th February, his life and works were commemorated at DMU, with featured speakers and performers performing both his and their own experimental pieces.

But what is experimental music? When I did my music GCSE, I never really understood it. We were taught that it was basically composers using sounds rather than notes, reading from a score made up of pictures and symbols. To me at the time, it just sounded like noise.

Yesterday’s event, “A life in Music: Richard Orton in Memoriam” showed me otherwise. I knew it wasn’t going to be regular music in the strictest sense when I saw the performers’ main instrument: jam jar lids that, when tapped or clicked in a certain way near an open mouth, actually make an impressive percussion sound.

But there was more than that. A simple mix of the above percussion, vocalisations similar to those used in beatboxing made for a highly original performance with scratched or looped electronic sounds coming and going in waves.

To finish with, speakers Archer Endrich, Andrew Bentley and DMU’s John Richards performed Orton’s classic music theatre work “Mug Grunt”. At first glance, it was just plain weird. Three men synchronically grunting and moving mugs? But it’s unique rhythms and the sheer expression and complexity behind the whole event showed me one thing: Music is more than just notes. 

Grace Liu

An inspiration for the wannabe writer

When I was advised to watch third year De Montfort Creative Writing students give us a preview of their work, I expected to see for myself the level of talent and imagination I should be aiming for over the next couple of years.

And I was not disappointed. For a start, the range of subjects covered was impressive enough. From completely frank depictions of how girls and boys’ lives work, to the diary of a mayfly to a book of foreign words with no English translation, the ideas were endless. And clearly, so was the creativity.

I mentioned previously what I’d been expecting. In actual fact, I expected nothing more than that. No, I didn’t mean it would be nothing more than students showing what I should be aiming for. Because the diversity of subject matter and style showed me one thing: that there isn’t one standard to be aiming for. And that’s the main thing I have taken away with me from this event.

Grace Liu

Uniquely Creative: The works of Laurence Sterne

Is Laurence Sterne one of the greatest writers ever? asks the event summary in the Cultural Exchanges programme. Or is it all Cock and Bull? Well, as an author he took creativity to a new level, and one thing’s for sure: his approach to his writing was definitely unique.

At De Montfort University today, at 2-3pm in Clephan building, Patrick Wildgust, Curator of the Laurence Sterne Trust, gave a detailed overview of Sternes life and, in particular, his most famous masterpiece Tristram Shandy.

From exploring Sterne’s alternate identities to giving an account of his burial, Mr Wildgust’s summary of Sterne’s life was detailed, clear and packed with enthusiasm. He even showed samples of Sterne’s artwork, most notably his “marbled” page and his inky black depiction of the concept of death. Sterne valued imagination very highly – and what better way to show this?

So whatever his position in the writing world, there is no doubt that Laurence Sterne left an interesting legacy in the world of creativity. And no doubt that today, that legacy was shown in the finest light.


Grace Liu