Solo releases
Saplings Records are proud to release Prelude to a Requiem by Flo Wilson (they/she). This is a 20 minute composition written to offer space during times of loss and adversity. It was originally commissioned by multi-disciplinary artist Rainbow Chan for Verge Gallery (Sydney, Australia) in 2018 as a quadraphonic audio-visual work. The composition in all iterations and formats is an offering to their community, a designated space for listeners to sit with their grief for as long as they need. As such it examines the extent of care we receive during traumatic times from our communities.
“In my experience having grown up in New Zealand (specifically as a Pākeha/ New Zealand European), there are not many ways people speak openly with each other about grief, unless they have experienced grief themselves.”
- Flo Wilson.
Helped by a Creative New Zealand grant, Saplings and Flo re-casted Prelude to a Requiem using the worldizing technique pioneered by Orson Welles. To this end, microphones were placed in a food forest in Ōtautahi (Christchurch). Prelude to a Requiem was then played through the Eyes Down Soundsystem into the forest while binaural microphones captured this moment. That recording and the original composition have been mixed for this release. The food forest is a restorative ecosystem, and inspired the feeling of a physical parallel to Flo’s composition.
As well as a restorative space, Prelude to a Requiem is a journal of Flo's experiences in coping and processing anticipatory grief. At the end of 2017, their life was significantly and suddenly affected when a loved one was given three months to live. As Flo moved cities to be closer to this person, they took field recordings of their environment as a kind of diary, eventually working them into the composition. Keen ears may listen for interaction between these original field recordings and birdsong in the food forest.
credits
released May 17, 2022
Prelude to a Requiem - composed, mixed, mastered by Flo Wilson
Prelude to a Requiem (Radio Edit) - composed, mixed, mastered by Flo Wilson
Prelude to a Requiem at Sumner Food Forest - engineered, mixed, mastered by Oliver Peryman and Flo Wilson
Artwork by Oliver Peryman
Please) Keep Breathing occupies a zone between ambient abstraction and more traditional musicality. The tracks blend electronics and field recordings from Flo’s "everyday sound world" into exciting new forms, simultaneously keeping a diary of a real world events from deeply personal experiences, and translating them to a rhythmic tapestry. '(Please) Keep Breathing' was written with the intention of exploring the relationship between the human body and modern mechanics. It sought to blur the lines of where the body left off and the machine began. As the writing progressed, it started to become a response to hearing Flo’s then-partner choke in their sleep without waking. It also became about that quiet process of checking your phone is charged, you know where the emergency medicine is in case of an emergency. It's the half-awake state you enter when you're on high alert if someone you love is not safe.
credits
released November 6, 2017
Performed, recorded and mixed by Flo Wilson
Mastered by Yosi Horikawa
Album art by Josephine Jelicich
Music For Dance, was conceived, written and performed as a collaboration with the New Zealand School of Dance's Choreographic Season. Thanks to Katie Rudd, Tor Colombus and the New Zealand School of Dance.
These pieces are dedicated to my siblings, Bella and Rain.
credits
released May 29, 2014
All tracks performed, produced, mixed and mastered by Flo Wilson.
Additional credits:
Photo: Stephen A'Court