Sound and Music’s In Motion programme brings together a diverse group of composers, each with a unique voice and vision. This Q&A series offers a glimpse into their creative worlds.

Here, we speak to In Motion 2025 composer Harry Burgess.

Are there any particular themes, ideas or questions that you find yourself returning to in your work?

I think earlier in my career I wrote about queerness in its direct thematic intersection or contention with essentially biographical components of my life, namely the strictures and potential of faith and gender. I think I’ve moved from it as a subject matter to more of a lens or sensibility for whatever I write. Though ecological threads are pretty vivid to me right now. I’m terrified and I think my writing about the earth is both a kind of toothless penance and a desperate declaration of love

Purely compositionally, I feel like my question is always: how can I amp up the specificity and the beauty in lockstep together? I think as a listener I am often in conflict, wanting something beautiful and wanting something obtuse or ugly, to indulge something or to obstruct it. It can be paralysing at times when finishing a piece, but I often find a rich seam in committing to the oscillation of those desires, in both macro and micro terms throughout a project. I think I feel a piece is done if it somehow contributes to that oscillation and it still feels expressive or emotionally communicative rather than distracting.

What’s your relationship with improvisation, and how does it shape your work?

Improvisation has been a key part of my work with and outside of Adult Jazz. Often by playing together, endless variations of particular passages on voice notes until something has either taken shape or there’s an agreement to wing it with a particular sensibility. Recording is also a key part of that process: zooming in on small idiosyncrasies in a performance and trying to use them as seeds for longer passages or capturing a half-planned moment between players and building ideas around that.

I’ve found that if I can make myself cognitively pretty blank and play for a couple of hours uninterrupted- just involved in the doing – then I often come up with ideas that stick, and that weather more analytical thinking that might occur after the fact. I’m excited to try and incorporate that element of chance into writing for ensembles. I’m not sure what form that will take yet – maybe rules, systems with some kind of contingencies, maybe games. It will be nice to learn to wield the precision of the score and then poke some holes in it.

Who or what are your dream collaborators—past, present, or future?

I mean – Björk came to see us back in the day and wrote about it in an article. We were too shy and dumbfounded to actually respond properly. I, of course, love her music – and particularly her arrangement The varied character she can create with strings is pretty remarkable. Across her work there’s a lot of generosity and beauty but also incredibly stark and bold brush strokes. I think lots of what I love has that. It would be incredible to sing with her, something classic, something folky and strange. Or to arrange some horns together. One can dream.

Recently heard some archival stuff by Sussan Deyhim which was amazing and playful – I’m pretty new to her work to be honest but I’m attracted to collaborations with uncertain outcomes. I would love to sing over something frenetic from Carl Stone or Rian Treanor. From the past- I would love to have written some ditties with Ivor Cutler. I mean he’s hilarious but there’s some utterly stunning stuff in there too.

What are you looking forward to most about In Motion?

I’m looking forward to taking a step into a new context – composing for others. I have always wanted to write for orchestral ensembles so I’m excited to explore an approach that fuses the by-ear, by chance, improvisational approach I am familiar with, and a slightly more trad score-based approach which I am resolutely not familiar with and find quite intimidating! I’ve often had ideas I’d like to pursue in that space but there’s a blocker in terms of communicating them because I can’t read music. I’m excited to find a way of working that can bridge that gap a little.

Making a move into new territory, outside of the context of working in a band, is daunting – so I’m really grateful for the support and a bit of hand holding as I press on into unfamiliar ground. I’m also excited to meet the other composers and build broader connections – being in a band can feel a bit insular at times.