Works
Shadow
Shadow | for solo bass trombone and electronic sounds - 2000/3
Shadow was originally performed as part of Feast - a multimedia event at Galatos, Auckland in November 2000. The performance featured live & electronic experimental music by Norm Skipp and Paul Booth, live trombone performance from Paul Booth and Tim Sutton, butoh & contemporary dance with choreography/performance by Wilhemeena Gordon and Jackie Gray, video art by Susa Buntrock, tied together by the theatrical direction of Simon Taylor with Paolo Rotundo as an otherworldly orchestrator.
The process of composing Shadow was very much a collaborative one. Tim Sutton and I met and discussed various ideas and sound possibilities. I then wrote some sketches of sound ideas, which we later recorded in the tunnel, which goes under the railway in Auckland Domain. It was a late spring evening, and in typical Auckland fashion it decided to rain. The birds seemed excited also to have a lone trombone in their midst. Some beautiful colours came from the resonance within the tunnel surrounded by birdsong and rain.
Shadow is an exploration of colour, light and shade - the beauty and power of the trombone.
It was realised in the Electronic Music Studios at The Auckland University School of Music.
This piece is written for and dedicated to the one and only Tim Sutton
This excerpt is from a recording made by Radio New Zealand at the (09)03 Contemporary Music Festival in Auckland, 2003 with Tim Sutton on Bass Trombone.
Beyond Skin
Beyond Skin | mixed media contemporary dance work - 2004
Collaboration with dancer/choreographer Kathleen Skipp. Also featured dancer Amber Haines. Originally developed for NextWave festival in Melbourne 2004 with score by composer/sound artist Ryan Ritchie. Redeveloped for Version festival in Auckland 2004 with semi improvised music by myself. This remix developed for Chorlton Arts Festival performance 2010.
Brittle
Brittle | electronic - 1999
Realised at Electronic Music Studios, University of Auckland 1999
Obsidian
Obsidian | for Cor Anglais, Clarinet in A and Bassoon - 2011
Written for Manchester Reed Trio and premiered as part of the Sallow Tree Concert series in Sale on 27th April 2011.
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass often dark in colour varying from dark green to black. Developing ideas further from a miniature for clarinet quartet, Obsidian explores sonority and movement within sound. Using blocks of colour and largely aleatoric sections, the form is largely static drawing the listener in to the subtle changes in timbre. The piece uses a proportional notation, with the score divided into 48 sections of relatively similar duration. This is to give the performer an idea of approximate relative duration, and to allow the performers to listen and feel the appropriate speed and tempo of each sound object. This sense of listening and responding is influenced by work within free improvisation and live electronics.
Creature
Creature | three part button dance theatre collaboration - 2009-11
Creature is a three part butoh dance theatre collaboration with butoh artist Gabrielle New. It was created during 2009-2011 as an extended internet collaboration with each part receiving separate, unique site specific performances in Melbourne and Brisbane.
In September 2011, The Space Between Performance Collective staged a successful season of Creature at Theatreworks in St Kilda.
Flicker
Flicker | electronic contemporary dance collaboration - 1995
collaboration with dancer/choreographer Matt Smith with Matt Smith in 1995. featured as part of Safe In Sound (August 2001)
Sleeper
Sleeper | electronic - 1994
Created in 1994 for a contemporary dance collaboration with dancer/choreographer Kristian Larsen
Of Breath
Of Breath | duo for B flat clarinet with electronic sounds and live processing - 2006
Gretchen Dunsmore - B flat clarinet
Norm Skipp - live electronics
Of Breath is a duo for B flat clarinet with electronic sounds and live processing. It is an experimental work exploring aspects of electronic and instrument performance with particular emphasis on the combination of acoustic and electronic sound worlds to create a sound world of their own. The inherent acoustic characteristics of different clarinet colours are spotlighted, particularly the timbre and nature of notes within the throat area. The clarinet score although notated is free in regards to time and interaction with the pre-composed electronic sounds to allow room for musical conversation in the performing of the piece. The clarinet is recorded and processed in real time and combined with the pre-composed electronic sounds. All sounds are derived from the sound of the B flat clarinet. Gretchen Dunsmore commissioned ‘Of Breath’ with funds made available by Creative New Zealand. Norm and Gretchen premiered ‘Of Breath’ at The University of Sheffield in February 2006.
The recording above is a studio demo of a performance with 175 East at All Saints' Church, Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand on the 13th of October 2006. The following is the Radio New Zealand Concert recording of the same performance.
Sarah Masters - B flat clarinet
Norm Skipp - live electronics
Performance as part of Fuse at Chorlton Arts Festival 2013
This performance is the first to involve another collaborator in Sarah Masters.
Live performance at St. Werburgh's Church, Chorlton - May 2013
Safe In Sound
Opening
Get up and tell them
Emergence
Sonic Painting
Meditation on Place
Ebon Blackness
Do You Hear?
Splashes of Orange and Red
The Right to Remain Silent
Te Kore (The Void)
Thing with Feathers
Thing with Feathers | butoh dance theatre collaboration with butoh artist Gabrielle New - 2013
Site specific collaboration with Gabrielle New and Kathleen Doyle.
Performed at Colour Box Studio, Melbourne, December 2013
Urge
Urge |for 'cello, double bass and drumkit - 1992 rev.1997
Katherine Hebley - 'cello
Daniel Stabler - double bass
Lenny Sakofsky - drumkit
Ventral Stream
Ventral Stream | microscore for Clarinet Quartet - 2010
In the Two-Streams hypothesis, the ventral stream is associated with object recognition and form representation in visual processing
Ventral Stream is a microscore written for the New Zealand Clarinet Quartet in March 2010.
The New Zealand Clarinet Quartet:
Tui Clark, Debbie Rawson, Hayden Sinclair and Anna McGregor - clarinets
as Plight of the Dischords
Soul's paths
Soul’s Paths |Site specific contemporary dance work - 2016
Site specific contemporary dance work
Trumpet, Violin and percussion with live and preset electronic sound
Performed with Matrafisc Dance and Vonnegut Collective - Manchester, October 2016
...tiny lights...
2015
for Trumpet, Violin, E flat Clarinet and Bass Clarinet with live and preset electronic sound
Commissioned by the Vonnegut Collective for Didsbury Arts Festival 2015
(premiere by Vonnegut Collective with Norman Skipp - Manchester, June 2015)
45 rpm
2014
Soundtrack to short film
(New Zealand premiere - Auckland, September 2014)
Thing with Feathers
2013
butoh dance theatre collaboration with butoh artist Gabrielle New
(Colour Box studio - Melbourne, December 2013)
Obsidian
2011
for Cor Anglais, Clarinet in A and Bassoon
(premiere by Manchester Reed Trio - Manchester, April 2011)
Creature:
2009 - 11
a three part butoh dance theatre collaboration with butoh artist Gabrielle New
The Void 2009
Menagerie of Innocence 2010
Emergence 2010
Ventral Stream
2010
for Clarinet Quartet - Clarinet in E flat, 2 Clarinets in B flat and Bass Clarinet
(premiere by New Zealand Clarinet Quartet - Wellington, NZ, March 2010)
The Right to Remain Silent
2007
Electronic - realised at Centre de Création Musicale Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX), Paris. February - May 2007
(premiere VIII édition Le Festival LICENCES « Brûlures des Langues » - Paris, December 2007)
Of Breath
2006
duo for B flat clarinet with electronic sounds and live processing
(premiere by Gretchen Dunsmore and Norman Skipp at The University of Sheffield - February 2006)
An Aversion to Light [2]
2005
experimental dance film collaboration with dancer/choreographer Kristian Larsen and sound artist/composer leyton
Illusion Palace: Chapter 1
2006
dance/theatre collaboration with Wilhemeena Munroe
(premiere season - Auckland, NZ - March - April 2006)
Beyond Skin
2004
Mixed media dance colloboration with Kathleen Skipp
Version 1
Choreographer/dancer: Kathleen Skipp; Dancer/designer: Amber Haines; Music: Ryan Ritchie; Video Artist: Norm Skipp
(premiere season - Short Circuit programme, Nextwave 2004 Melbourne, Australia – May 2004)
Version 2
Choreographer/dancer: Kathleen Skipp; Video Artist / Composer: Norm Skipp
(premiere perfomance - Version Festival - Auckland, NZ - December 2004)
Epithalamion
2003
Real-time processing performance of ee Cummings poem
Collaboration with actor Michael Hurst
(Performance created for (09) 03 Contemporary Music Festival, Auckland, NZ – October 2003)
Shadow 2001/3
Solo bass trombone with electroacoustic sound
Collaboration with bass trombonist Tim Sutton. Initially devloped for 'Feast'
Premiere concert performance by Tim Sutton – bass trombone - (09) 03 Contemporary Music Festival, Auckland, NZ – October 2003)
Tinge
2003
Mixed media dance work
Collaboration with choreographer/multimedia artist Wilhemeena Munroe
(performance as part of Soliton 3, Auckland, NZ – April 2003)
Safe In Sound 2001:
Opening
Get up and tell them
Emergence
Sonic Painting
Meditation on Place
Ebon Blackness
Do You Hear?
Te Kore (The Void) 2001
Feast 2000:
State
The Eel Catcher
Shadow
Mon Petit Chou 2000
Brittle 1999
Asylum 1999
Haze
1997/8
for cello, double bass, B flat clarinet, bass clarinet, bass trombone and percussion
Premiere concert performance by 175 East - Katherine Hebley - cello, Daniel Stabler - double bass, Gretchen Dunsmore - b flat clarinet, Andrew Uren - bass clarinet, Tim Sutton – bass trombone, Lenny Sakofsky - percussion - Hopetoun Alpha, Auckland, NZ – 11 May 1999
Urge
1992/7
for cello, double bass and percussion
Premiere concert performance by 175 East - Katherine Hebley - cello, Daniel Stabler - double bass, Lenny Sakofsky - percussion - Artspace, Auckland, NZ – 19 October 1997
The Returning 1995
Untitled 1995
Flicker 1995
Untitled 1994
Untitled 1994
Tu Fa Malosi 1994
Decoys 1994
Slight (originally 'For Whom the Bell Tolls') 1994
Untitled (reworking of Threni) 1994
Sleeper 1994
Wired 1994
Nerve 1993
Mass 1993
Much Ado About Nothing 1993
Threni 1992
Just 1992
Urge 1992
Threshold 1992
Screaming 1992
Numb 1991
Silence 1991
Wasteland 1991
Stract 1990
Behind Those Eyes That Smile 1990
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, Forever...? 1990
Tinge
Tinge (tinj) (2003)
Norm Skipp/Wilhemeena Monroe
Music/Edit/Co-director – Norm Skipp
Choreographer/Co-director – Willhemeena Monroe
‘Cello – Rod Skipp
1. To imbue with a faint trace of colour; tint;
2. To impart a slight characteristic quality of some other element to;
3. To leave a trace, stain, impression, cast, shade, taste.To colour with an illusion of self. Alluding to something – to refer to allusion. Identity of self tinged with other.
This collaboration with choreographer Wilhemeena Monroe was originally produced as part of Soliton at the Regent Theatre, Auckland, New Zealand in April 2003 to accompany a live performance with 15 female dancers. The video element was projected onto four screens with a mixture of live video feeds.
An Aversion to Light [2]
Experimental film collaboration across contemporary dance, video art and sonic art. Initiated by Kristian Larsen, An Aversion to Light [2] began as an innocent attempt to compose arbitrary dance footage in a way that somehow made sense. From improvised free shots, captured on a borrowed camera in a single room, Kristian and Norm Skipp worked these into shape over an extended dialogue. Kristianʼs long time friend, Leyton (Epsilon Blue, Rotor+), then developed the soundtrack. Although worked on in isolation by each artist, there is a common aesthetic thread that is amplified through this piece.