Too late, too far

Sam Salem (b. 1982) is a Manchester-based composer who works primarily in the acousmatic and audio/video fields.

He is primarily interested in the sounds of urban environments. Many of his compositions focus on the sounds of specific places, yet his music has nothing to do with ambient. Instead, Salem explores the sonic environment, trying to reveal the hidden musicality in ambient sounds. In this sense, his works go beyond simple soundscapes.

What we hear here, Too late, too far is from 2014. Author's notes:

Too late, too far is part of a larger work entitled The Fall, composed between 2012 and 2014. The compositional process began during a residency at STEIM in December 2011: Amsterdam was the source from which I collected the materials for this piece.

I think now of the unwitting owners of actions contained herein: the cyclists and joggers of Vondelpark, the man on a bridge who offered a bike for a cigarette, the swans calling across the Red Light District, the choir of Sint-Nicolassbasiliek, and the countless others, long since dispersed but not forgotten: shouting, singing, laughing, swearing, clapping. I think also of the creaks and rhythms of rocking boats, of passing trams, the ubiquitous bells and horns, the rain, wind and lapping water, and the 5am fireworks on New Year’s Day. I consider these materials as fragments of sound, but also, now, as fragments of time. Sometimes their shimmering light is obscured, sometimes it is revealed.

This work, “peopled by bad dreams” (and the occasional good one), balances somewhere between loss and hope: after more than two years of work, this is its final character.

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