9.15 am. As I wrote to one of my painting students, yesterday ‘Do first what you cannot face!’ And, so I return to an irksome, albeit finite but nonetheless lengthy, commitment to write assessment reports. (This comes with the promissory that if Johnny works hard this morning, he can play in the studio after lunch.) 11.00 am. Ah! Tea:

By 1.00 pm, I’d completed enough reportage for conscience to permit me to honour the pact that I’d made with myself. 1.45 pm. After lunch, I put my Moog Control Processor through its paces, while filtering a slowed-down recording of one of the engravings:

It’s not as though I’m searching for a particular sound. I’ve no idea what I’m looking (listening) for, really. But I’ll know when I find it. One thing is certain: the colour of the piece will (should) be sombre, dreadful, and clamorous, in keeping with the spirit of the source text. By the close of the afternoon, the sonorities were darkening and getting more edgy. The mental processes and aesthetic decisions involved are the same as those that I deploy in painting. And, the sound field generated by the studio monitors is the audio equivalent of the canvas’ surface.

5.15 pm. Switch off (in many senses)! 6.20 pm. Practise session 1. 7.30 pm. An evening with the family.