Phil Thomson is a Vancouver-based composer of experimental electronic music. His music has been released on labels around the world, broadcast on CBC, and heard in concert in Canada, the US and abroad. He has written music for dance by several choreographers, most notably Sara Coffin. His writings have been published online and by Cambridge University Press.
He composed the music for Sara Coffin’s evening-length work taking your experience for mine.
Working with choreographer James Gnam, he composed the music for Gnam’s endORPHIN, performed by the plastic orchid factory.
In residence at the Ross Creek Arts Centre, he produced the music for How Much Is Too Much? by SINS, choreographed by Sara Coffin. He has also produced music for Coffin’s bOdYbOUnd and an untitled dance by Jennifer Clarke.
He was commissioned by Vancouver New Music to present a piece in their festival of music by John Cage.
Phil completed his MFA at SFU in 2005. His graduating project, Machine Languages, was presented at Video In (now VIVO).
Phil has also written music for acoustic instruments. These works have been heard at the Sonic Boom Festival in Vancouver and elsewhere.
Phil is always on the lookout for opportunities to collaborate with other artists in any media. If you are interested, please drop him a line!
“This 1977 tape is one of the earliest examples of purely digital realtime audio synthesis. It manages to achieve an analog synth sounding quality, but is entirely digital synthesis and signal processing. The interactive software I wrote and am playing in this video recycles my keyboard input into an accompaniment to my continued playing, which is why I called it a ‘concerto generator’. I use part of one of the keyboards for control data entry, and the small switches upper right to access pre-entered numerical patterns. The sliders are mainly pre-Yamaha FM synthesis parameter controls, for the number and amplitude and frequency of the FM pair modulators and carriers…” Laurie Speigel
Contantine Katsiris, producer and curator extraorinaire, (aka Scant Intone) just forwarded me this quite flattering review of an upcoming release on Panospria.
Here it is in poetically awkward English, via Google Translate, and here is the French original.
Among my preferred highlights of the review include the terms “groove épileptique” (“epileptic groove”), “beats en liberté” (lit. “beats in freedom”) and “programmations fugaces” (“flighty programming”). The last is certainly my favourite.
On May 3, 2013 VIVO Media Arts will be hosting an evening of experimental electronic music produced by VETO member Wynne Palmer. Featuring pieces from her new album, German vocalist/thereminist Trautonia Capra will be joined by the Vancouver Experimental Theremin Orchestra, local electronic quartet Spectrum Interview, Vancouver electronic composer phonal (that’s me!) and local sound/video feedback artist Merlyn Chipman in an evening of atmospheric vocals, rhythmic pulses, drone and noise compositions.
The works I will be presenting were created in SuperCollider; one of the works is brand new and has never been heard before (except through the floor by my neighbours).
I have recently switched to Linux (specifically CRUX) for audio production. I have been a Mac user for many years, but increasingly find myself troubled by the growing tyranny that Apple exerts over their platform. That, plus the unreliability of Apple hardware, prompted a shift to a platform where I can have a greater degree of freedom and control, while also learning lots about programming and the internals of an operating system. I have started using SuperCollider in earnest, and am interested in trying out Common Music in combination with Csound. I have managed to put together a few pieces in SuperCollider and look forward to many more.
In using these tools, I feel good to be part of an software movement with such an interesting and storied history of technical innovation, and enjoy using a system which is so simple, elegant and powerful.
Phil Thomson, Composer
