photographic scores

scores for listening

- an on-going series of open scores, using photographic images and texts.

I began working with images and words as scores in my teens, soundtracking photographs or using them as prompts for intuitive performances. Over the years this also developed in the scores for listening series.

this page includes details of some of the scores and where they have been used, performed or published....along with the curated over borders pdf's, collecting scores by myself, Pheobe riley Law and others.

scores | over borders #2

curated by Jez riley French and Pheobe riley Law

Following on from the first collection, for over borders #2 artists / composers were asked to send scores that, somehow, can use the act of walking as a way to question the objectification of environments and the role of 'stepping back' from a human centric view of place. Our thanks to all those who responded with their work.

It is now available as a free PDF here

Pheobe riley Law
Jez riley French
Nathalie Brum
Isobel Anderson
Catherine Clover
Vivienne Corringham
Francesca Simmons
Veronica Daniela Cerrotta
Eliza Lauren
Geraldine Vanspauwen
Tuomas Ollikainen
Vivian Wang
Cheryl Leonard
Felicity Mangan
Sharon Phelan
Eliza Bożek / moltamole

over borders

This publication began as an idea to share some of our own scores* connected to the concept or effects of borders, which we then expanded to include work by others in our creative communities. Artists / composers were asked to send scores (photographic scores,text scores, graphic scores) that, in some way, referenced border; social, political, virtual, perceptual, environmental or between species. Our thanks to all those who responded with their work.

* a smaller selection of these are included

It is now available as a free PDF available here & via the Walking Festival of Sound website here

including work by;

Pheobe riley Law
Jez riley French
Line Elkjær
Gabrielle Harnois-Blouin
Isabella Stevenson
Signe Liden
Espen Sommer Eide
Manfred Werder
Helen Frosi
Stephen Chase
Manja Ristić
Tomoko Hojo
Yifeat Ziv
lo wie
Carole Finer
Eleanor Cully
Iris Garrelfs
Annie Goh
Asha Sheshadri
Lucie Stepankova
Catherine Kontz

by Pheobe riley Law & myself

score for listening - entice new normality

included in the book 'Walking From Scores'

alongside scores by;
Peter Ablinger, Milan Adamčiak, G. Douglas Barrett, Elena Biserna, Blank Noise, George Brecht, Cornelius Cardew, Stephen Chase, Giuseppe Chiari, Seth Cluett, Philip Corner, Viv Corringham, Bill Dietz, Amy Dignam, David Dunn, Haytham El-Wardany, Esther Ferrer, Simone Forti, Francesco Gagliardi, Jérôme Giller, Oliver Ginger, Anna & Lawrence Halprin, David Helbich, Dick Higgins, Christopher Hobbs, Jérôme Joy, katrinem, Debbie Kent, Bengt af Klintberg, James Klopfleisch, Milan Knížák, Alison Knowles, Takehisa Kosugi, Jirí Kovanda, Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti,
Bob Lens, Ligia Lewis, Alvin Lucier, Walter Marchetti, Larry Miller, iLAND/Jennifer Monson, Max Neuhaus, Alisa Oleva, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Open City &
Emma Cocker, Nam June Paik, Michael Parsons, Ben Patterson, Cesare Pietroiusti, Mathias Poisson, Anna Raimondo, Paul Sharits, Mieko Shiomi, Mark So, Standards, Nicolas Tardy, Davide Tidoni, Ultra-red, Isolde Venrooy, Carole Weber, Manfred Werder, Franziska Windisch, Ben Vautier, La Monte Young.

nb. this score has been part of the GMEA, France score event in June / July 2020
+ at Standard, Milan 2020
+ Q-02, Brussels, 2019/2020
+ CIVA, Brussels, July 2021

gmea event;
http://www.gmea.net/evenement/walking-from-scores…

scores by Peter Ablinger, Doug Barrett, Elena Biserna, Blank Noise, George Brecht, Cornelius Cardew, Stephen Chase, Giuseppe Chiari, Seth Cluett, Philip Corner, Bill Dietz, David Dunn, Haytham El-Wardany, Esther Ferrer, Simone Forti, Francesco Gagliardi, Jerome Giller, Oliver Ginger, Anna Halprin, David Helbich, Dick Higgins, Christopher Hobbs, Jerome Joy, James Klopfleisch, Milan Knizak, Alison Knowles, Takehisa Kosugi, Bob Lens, Ligia Lewis, Alvin Lucier, Walter Marchetti, Larry Miller, Tim Mitchell, Max Neuhaus, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Open City [Andrew Brown, Katie Doubleday and Simone Kenyon] & Emma Cocker, Nam June Paik, Michael Parsons, Ben Patterson, Pheobe riley Law & Jez Riley French, Paul Sharits, Hugh Shrapnel, Mark So, Standards, Nicolas Tardy, Davide Tidoni, Ultra-red, Wolf Vostell, Manfred Werder, Ben Vautier, La Monte Young.

'moments # 2' (photographic score) will be performed by an ensemble as part of the Onassis Foundation Open Day 2020 - 'Musical Ecologies', Greece 16/2/2020

Thanks to Valia Christopoulou for programming one of my scores alongside works by;

Annea Lockwood, Alison Knowles, Hildegard Westerkamp, Maggi Payne, Katerina Jedaki, Kaija Saariaho, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Toru Takemitsu, Jennifer Walshe, Pauline Oliveros, Judith Hamann, Michael Pisaro, John Cage, Luc Ferrari, John Luther Adams, Alvin Lucier, Sarah Hennies, Messiaen, Ligeti, Anne LeBaron, Berio, Doina Rotaru, James Tenney, Christian Marclay, Max Neuhaus, Bill Fontana etc.

'scores for listening' is a term coined by myself some years ago for works, mostly using text and photographic images, that act as cues for listening experiences. Although the term have since been used by other artists on a personal level I feel there is a strong connection between its original use and the scores created within it.

the scores, dating back over 2 decades mostly, explore the intuitive link between photographic images, situation, text and the compositional process, either performative or the act of listening.

below you can see a selection, the latest book (with 350 minutes of downloadable realisations), news and 2 downloadable pdf collections

first edition (150 copies)

saddle stitched A5 photobook with download code to 350+ minutes of sound documenting realisations (listening and performed)

+ initial copies come with a separate limited edition booklet for 'score for listening # 80' prepared for two performances by Nordic Affect in Iceland (at Mengi 2016 & Harpa 2017)

'Jez riley French’s photographic scores series is a compelling intervention in this sea of images. They invite the viewer to see them as conduits, representations, translations or spurs for sound – and this remediation has the effect of reversing some of the effects of our image- saturated culture. Where time in the age of the digital photograph is produced by gliding from one image to the next, French’s photos attempt to bring temporality into the experience of viewing. The images manufacture an experience of time through the visual evocation of sound and soundscapes....By introducing the experience of duration into our consumption of images, via the mediation of phonography, they invite us to attend seriously to our mediated environment and consider our contribution to it'

- Haworth (Source Journal of Photography - spring 2016'

- - -

the Icelandic ensemble, Nordic Affect have commissioned me for a new photographic score & the result is 'score for listening # 80 - four variations.

Nordic Affect premiered their unique realisation of the complete score at Mengi, Reykjavik on October 26th,2016 & will perform it again on Jan 27th 2017 at Reykjavik's Dark Music Days Festival.

Halla from the ensemble also included elements of the text based score from myself & Pheobe riley Law in her installation at Nordic Music Days, Reykjavik recently & also at Transistor, Malmo, Sweden H e (a) r Soundscape connected to ecology, acoustics and embodiment; drawing on encounters and what happens in the connection. Performers are Carina Ehrenholm, Angela Rawlings, Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir and Liv Kaastrup Vesterskov. Text score extracted from writings and digital works by Angela Rawlings (In Memory: Jökull*, Jöklar) as well as by Pauline Oliveros, R. Murray Schafer, David Suzuki, Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir, Jez Riley French, Phoebe Riley French, Bernhard Leitner, Heidi Fast and Roni Horn. H e (a) r was directed and composed by Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir and mixed by Kent Olofsson at Inter Arts Center in Malmö, Sweden.

recording of 'waiting / compact (score for listening # 78) realisation by Philip Thomas and Matthew Bourne recorded at Bank Street Arts, Sheffield 30th June 2016

the new issue of Source Photographic review is a fascinating survey of the links between sound and photography including a feature on my work with photographic scores designed as 'scores for listening' 

'Jez riley French's photographic scores series is a compelling intervention in this sea of images. They invite the viewer to see them as conduits, representations, translations or spurs for sound - and this remediation has the effect of reversing some of the effects of our image-saturated culture. Where time in the age of the digital photograph is produced by gliding from one image to the next, French's photos attempt to bring temporality into the experience of viewing. The images manufacture an experience of time through the visual evocation of sound and soundscapes' - Christopher Haworth (Source - spring 2016)

http://bit.ly/sonicphot

have managed to get hold of an image from 'score for listening to this forest' from some years ago. the quality isn't great but two of the speakers are just about in view.

on arrival at the site, in yorkshire, I was shown the feedback from the previous commissioned piece for the forest. amongst the few positive comments were lots of negative ones objecting to the use of sound in a 'natural' environment. I decided to change what I had created for the location. my piece was installed and ran for the allotted week. afterwards the feedback cards were viewed and again showed a high level of similar complaints....comments included mention of the volume of the piece being too high, that the sound was obviously disturbing the nature, that the work showed a lack of empathy for the natural world and that I had imposed my sounds onto the forest.

however the new piece had been that nothing was in fact playing through the speakers

we have become a visual species. the sight of a speaker controls our perception of the sound around us. in fact what happened was that those experiencing the piece simply listened, and in so doing revealed an intensity of sound that they perhaps normally ignore or filter out.

march 2016:

I've been commissioned by Fresh Yorkshire Aires, alongside Katie English and Nigel Morgan, to create a new photographic score. The FYA project has been put together to focus on the wealth of cretivity in Yorkshire. The four commissioned scores will be performed by Matthew Bourne and Philip Thomas in Leeds (June 18th) and Sheffield (June 30th). There will also be a limited edition book and prints of the scores.

The project has been part funded by Leeds College of Music and there's also a crowdfunding campaign to help cover costs involved in the performances, recording and publications, in return for various rewards including signed prints, tickets to the performance, the limited edition score book and tuition sessions. Details can be found at: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/fresh-yorkshire-aires

bethlehem wires iceland.mp3

jez riley french