The Distil Showcase is on Friday 10th April 2015 in Stirling Tolbooth, 8pm. The concert will feature 10 new pieces of music written by composers who have taken part in the Distil Residential. The music will be performed by the fabulous Mr McFall’s Chamber. You can buy a ticket here. Read more about the Showcase […]
I’ve always wanted to write for drums!
I’ve always wanted to write for drums. Unfortunately there never seems to be the time (rightly or probably wrongly) to learn how to do it correctly. What usually happens is when I get to rehearsal I say to the drummer I want this kind of groove (no paper) and then I hope they remember all […]
Writing for drums tutorial
Dave Milligan has put together this writing for drums tutorial to help people write for drums ahead of our first Distil Scratch Band day. Why not write something for our Distil scratch band? Notation for drums and percussion can vary a great deal from arranger to arranger, and from composer to composer. Some writers have […]
Distil Showcase 2014 – The photos!
The Distil Showcase 2014 sounded great but it also LOOKED great! Here are photos from the evening by Mike Guest + some by me – Simon Thoumire. Have a listen https://www.flickr.com/photos/footstompin1/sets/72157644625719512/
An enjoyable day in Tigerstyle’s studio
I had been thinking about how you make a ‘electronic’ dance track for a while. I was speaking to Mike Vass and he said that this is something he would be interested in so I got in touch with Asian DJs Tigerstyle who had taught an electronic Distil a few years back and asked if […]
Distil Scratch Day 2014
On Tuesday 11th March we held our first Distil Scratch Day. It was suggested by composer Brian Irvine at our last Distil Residential that we should get together ahead of the Distil Showcase (Friday 9th May, Stirling Tolbooth) and chat to Mr McFall’s Chamber about the writing possibilities for string quintet. 11 of us met […]
Photos from our 2013 Distil Residential
Well we had another fantastic time at Distil. As usual everything was great at about it! Thanks to Chris Wood, Brian Irvine and Joost Buist for being great and inspiring workshop leaders. Here are some photos from the event taken by Martin Forry. [AFG_gallery id=’4′]
Critical Response
As a follow up to the recent Showcase, Distil has been looking at an initiative called Critical Response Process, a method of giving feedback to artists developed in the US by the choreographer and dancer Liz Lerman. It has being picked up here in the UK by the theatre community in Scotland, through the Federation […]
Jen Austin sketch of Mr McFall’s
Here’s a great sketch of Mr McFall’s Chamber from the pen of Jen Austin. it was drawn at the Distil Showcase in Stirling on 23rd March. You can listen to Jen’s Distil showcase here https://soundcloud.com/handsupfortrad/sets/distil-showcase-2013
DISTIL
Simon Thoumire and I set up Distil in 2002 in response to the fact that there was a growing number of adventurously inclined musicians from the traditional music community who were writing and performing new music, often collaborating with musicians from other disciplines. So Distil was conceived as a space for creative development for professional, […]