Craig Vear

Vear works with found sounds, making compositions using computers that allow the individual sounds to be free. His open works are inspired by John Cage, Gavin Bryars and Christophe Charles and use chance elements within performance to determine the final outcome of the composition.

These compositions generally concentrate on a time and location, journeying along channels of memory and imagination expressing the continuity and fluidity of thought. Here the confluence of the vivid see-hearing ‚dimension‘ evoked by sound, the intrinsic creative listening act and the theatre of seeing through other peoples eyes creates an aural landscape; a sense of place that the mind projects back onto sound it hears. The result is each individual see-hears something that only exists in their mind.

In 1997 he co-founded the pop group Cousteau, which made 300,000 sales worldwide and gained a gold disc; as part of the duo ev2 he have been working with improvisation since 1992. During 2003-4 he held the Arts Council England Fellowship with the British Antarctic Survey, which resulted in a large-scale composition created from field recordings. In 2006 Play: Antarctica was commissioned about these experiences.

Singing Ringing Buoy, an installation at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, was shortlisted for the 2005 PRS New Music Award. During 2007-8 he held a Leverhulme Fellowship as artist in residence with the University of Hull, and is currently on a three year research project funded by the University of Salford, exploring the interrelationship between composition, digital technology and intermedia/ interdisciplinary performance.

www.ev2.co.uk/vear
www.myspace.com/craigvear

Gruenrekorder:

Craig Vear: “Antarctica: Musical Images from the Frozen Continent” (GrD 23/12)
Craig Vear: “Aud Ralph Roas’le”  (Gr 075/10)

Craig Vear: “Antarctica” (GrDl 089/11)