Stereo electronic music. Duration: 13″

Russian Roulette is a follow-up piece to my 2012 work Internal Shades. The work focuses around recorded acoustic guitar sounds, and explores a rhythmical motif that was described by my housemate in Belfast as sounding like ‘someone trying to play a game of Russian roulette, anxiously and obsessively flicking the chamber in order to put off the inevitable’. Outside of this tense backdrop, harmonies appear relaxed . Simple minor arpeggios and chords dominate the piece, with chunkier, gritter sonic textures bulking the piece out through the middle. The piece aims to present a more ‘accessible’ electroacoustic music by using a harmonic language more akin to commercial electronic music. The piece progresses from the roulette-rhythms toward a more conventional plucked pattern at the end, revealing the initial source for all prior materials. Russian Roulette was composed in January 2013 in the studios of SARC, Belfast.

N.B. At no point am I encouraging anyone listening to the work to consider actually playing Russian Roulette. That is widely considered an unwise decision.