The most current information on Lawrence Ball is held here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Ball

Composer/improviser/pianist/festival director Lawrence has a particular interest in deep and meditative music, Indian music collaborations, and computer-generated music. Lawrence lives currently in North London.

His other interests include humour, health and nutrition and many fields beginning from maths and music but extending further. He also has an interest in spirituality and philosophy - tending toward the Eastern rather than the Western - but applying it to contemporary living.

"In my musical creation I am reinforcing directness, expressing something simple yet affecting, using the mind as an instrument rather than as an obsession which often is the case with new music. For me the most effective musical creation comes from a deeply stilling intention. My music is almost all tonal and melody-like (if not with a melody) - it is not an arduous assault course for the newcomer. Music for me is an ocean of exploration, the communication of internal realities through airwaves, using written scores, improvised and semi-improvised, computer-generated as well as orchestral and chamber music.. The states of mind accessed through music inspire me greatly, music having been one means whereby I have and do recover from depletion, and access deeply joyful moods."

His work is largely tonal (in the sense of an identifiable set of notes that are emphasised - rarely changing the key, central note). It is contemporary, in that it has much in it which is formed anew - not directly influenced or inspired from the classical music tradition. It is often associated with meditational or New Age aspects, because of the strong emphasis on its relationship with silence and presence. It is in the minimalist genre, in the sense that it borrows the idea of looping and repetition (since over 30 years) from the musical innovations of Terry Riley and LaMonte Young, and seeks deeper experiences through working with constancy, with sustained sounds and small or zero contrasts.

He has developed techniques to deeply integrate audio and visual images with quantum physicist Michael Tusch, collaborating on this since 1993 with Dave Snowdon who created the software "Visual Harmony" to explore this arena; worked with healer/counsellor Isobel McGilvray in shaping harmonic tonescapes to aid relaxation, and has worked with choreographers/dancers (ex-Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet) Sheila Styles and (ex-Ballet Rambert) Rebecca Ham on several dance projects. Lawrence Ball has written for the pianist Yonty Solomon,for The Smith (string) Quartet, the Electric Symphony Orchestra, the pianist Tim Ravenscroft (2 suites), the female vocal quartet Rosy Voices, and 6 pieces for the violist Robin Ireland (of the Lindsay Quartet). He composed music for the film "The Eye Of The Heart", a portrait of the life and work of the artist Cecil Collins. He has recorded about 2000 piano improvisations as well as performing many live. Ball's creating in acoustic and electronic media, in composed and improvised methods is one of the broadest of any composer. He has performed in Canada, the US, France and Germany as well as in the UK. He has accompanied the international painting group Collective Phenomena who work 'more than one to a canvas' with marathon keyboard improvisations, at John Calder's La Fonderie in Paris and The Blackie in Liverpool, as well as a Planet Tree Festival appearance. Ball is a pioneer in music, having addressed meditative and healing presence and state-of-mind, primarily, for some 30 years. In 1996 he founded the Planet Tree Music Festival, which he also directs. He is also a highly sought after private tutor in mathematics, physics and music theory.

http://www.planettree.org ........... music festival
http://www.lawrenceball.org .........LB site

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