Originally composed for solo guitar in 2008, Echo Chamber is a piece which I revisited in 2012, with the intention of making this current arrangement for Altus flautist Philippe Barnes, to whom the piece is dedicated.

Having toured and recorded with Philippe for some years, I was keen to write for him something which tended to both his love of traditional music, and his passion for fresher, unexplored sounds. The title is borrowed from an old Jungle tune, and alludes to the very tight cannoning and echoing of melodies and rhythms which are heard throughout the piece.

Structurally, Echo Chamber bears a ternary form, with the first and last thirds exploring the main motif through rapidly shifting keys and textures. The central section returns to an idea only lightly touched on in the opening bars of the piece, and it is this dream-like wash of shadows and illusion which opens like a portal out of the fast, very definite rhythms of the previous section. Inevitably, the dream fades, and we are coaxed back to the charging pulse of the first motif, which drags us once again through the changing colours of it's restless, visceral world.