My first pieces came about when I was commissioned by a dance group to provide the complete soundtracks and act as Musical Director for two shows they were producing. They had certain themes they wanted to portray in their dance, so in some cases I had to incorporate that into the music; for example, Childhood Memories incorporates nursery rhyme tunes, while Indian Birthlines portrays the pregnancy of ethnic women living away from their homelands and is based on Indian scale. They don't all have such serious backgrounds though; Orbits was the upbeat opener for one show, and Septet the jazzy, boppy finale to another. I've tried to say a little bit about each piece in the soundclips section.

The music itself is influenced mostly by the minimalist movement, particularly American composer Steve Reich, as well as the post-minimalist British composer Graham Fitkin (with whom I have had the honour of performing), and pop music including Depeche Mode, Orbital, Kraftwerk and Tears for Fears.

Rhythms are combined and contrasted and generally used as building blocks, and the pieces can be used in various combinations - like a sequence of tableaux - to create full-length soundtracks, or simply as standalone pieces, and because of their construction, can be shortened or extended depending on requirements.

You can download my music, or buy a CD online from the shop page.

If you are interested in using any of my music or would like to commission new work from me, please contact me on the email address below. Thank you.

Malcolm Rycraft
E-mail: mail@rhythmology.co.uk