Sam Salem

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Solo works

Waves of crashing blackness (2024), 32′for solo piano, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Way Up & The Way Down (2023), 38′for solo percussion, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Bury Me Deep (2022), 30′for solo trombone, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
THIS IS FINE (2021), 7′for solo cello & fixed audiovisual media
The Raft Breaks (2019), 20′for solo violin, amplified objects, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media

Chamber works

Everyone No-one (2026), 60′for violin, cello, trombone, bass clarinet, ondes martenot, percussion, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Museum of the Lowest Place (2026), 30′for voice, electric guitar, violin, double bass, prepared piano, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Of Darkness 1 (2024), 9′for voice / flute, electric guitar, cello, percussion & fixed audiovisual media
Shadows pass the morning ‘gins to break, The Starry floor, the watry shore (2022), 28′for amplified quartet, 12 orchestral musicians & fixed visual media
Midlands (2019), 48′for voice, electric guitar, keyboards, string trio, bass clarinet, amplified objects, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Tower (2019), 15′for electric guitar, cello, percussion, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Lovers (2017), 9′for string quintet, 2 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Great Inundation (2017), 14′for 3 object operators, cello, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Untitled Valley of Fear (2016), 12′for 3 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Not one can pass away (2015), 11′for 2 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media

Acousmatic works (selected)

Himlen Var (2015), 11′12-channel acousmatic
Too late, too far (2014), 7′stereo acousmatic
The Fall (2014), 30′stereo acousmatic
Dérive (2013), 15′stereo acousmatic
The Sun Warms The Memory (2011), 12′stereo acousmatic
Everyone No-one (2026), 60′for violin, cello, trombone, bass clarinet, ondes martenot, percussion, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Museum of the Lowest Place (2026), 30′for voice, electric guitar, violin, double bass, prepared piano, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Waves of crashing blackness (2024), 32′for solo piano, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Of Darkness 1 (2024), 9′for voice / flute, electric guitar, cello, percussion & fixed audiovisual media
The Way Up & The Way Down (2023), 38′for solo percussion, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Bury Me Deep (2022), 30′for solo trombone, electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Shadows pass the morning ‘gins to break, The Starry floor, the watry shore (2022), 28′for amplified quartet, 12 orchestral musicians & fixed visual media
THIS IS FINE (2021), 7′for solo cello & fixed audiovisual media
Midlands (2019), 48′for voice, electric guitar, keyboards, string trio, bass clarinet, amplified objects, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Raft Breaks (2019), 20′for solo violin, amplified objects, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Tower (2019), 15′for electric guitar, cello, percussion, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Lovers (2017), 9′for string quintet, 2 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
The Great Inundation (2017), 14′for 3 object operators, cello, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Untitled Valley of Fear (2016), 12′for 3 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Not one can pass away (2015), 11′for 2 object operators, performative electronics & fixed audiovisual media
Himlen Var (2015), 11′12-channel acousmatic
Too late, too far (2014), 7′stereo acousmatic
The Fall (2014), 30′stereo acousmatic
Dérive (2013), 15′stereo acousmatic
The Sun Warms The Memory (2011), 12′stereo acousmatic

Releases

London Triptych (2021)dFolds · digital & cassette
The New Unusual (2021)dFolds · digital
© Sam Salem 2026

Dérive


2013 · c. 15′
stereo acousmatic



Programme note

Dérive was commissioned by La Muse En Circuit as the prize in the Concours Luc Ferrari.

Dérive is a stereo acousmatic work, started at the studios of La Muse En Circuit and finished in the composer's own studio. The piece was premiered at the Archipel Festival, Geneva, March 22nd 2013.

I crisscrossed the city of Paris in search of sounds... My itinerary was built from walks, all having as their point of departure the official centre of Paris, the point 48.8534°N 2.3488°E on the square in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

I don't wish to explain too much about this piece: instead, I prefer for the listener to be led through the work by their ear and imagination, much as I was led around the streets of Paris. Dérive seeks to explore the connections between environments... But Dérive is not only a documentary work: above all, it is poetic and mythological, a reading of the city at the present time, an exploration of the sounds, spaces, histories and cultures that shape Paris.

I walked over 100 kilometers in order to gather the materials for Dérive. I walked the full length of both banks of the Seine within the boundary of Boulevard Périphérique, recording the sounds of boats, gulls, the constant fluctuations of the river, it's voice rushing and changing, reverberating in tunnels and under bridges, merging with the sounds of traffic in the open air. I recorded the tombs of the Panthéon, the streets of Montmartre, the ambience and beautifully melancholic songs of Sacré-Couer, Notre Dame and its surrounding areas; the creaking floorboards of the house of Gustave Moreau, the city sounds from the top of the Eiffel Tower, the tunnels of the Metro, dozens of street performers, office workers playing ping-pong during lunch breaks, children playing in Place des Vosges and...

At the conclusion of this work, it seems to me that Paris is a city of flow and friction, of movement and interruption. But perhaps more than this, it is a place of saturation and juxtaposition. I could walk 100 kilometers more, following the flow and haltering rhythms of the city, in silent reverie.

Performances

22 March 2013, Archipel Festival, Geneva
Broadcast: Deutschlandradio Kultur, 26 April 2013
3 May 2013, Roca Gallery, London
Broadcast: L’Atelier de Création, Radio France Culture, 7 May 2013
14 May 2013, Extension Festival, Paris
Broadcast: Radio 6 Netherlands, 15 June 2013
15 July 2013, SEAM, Weimar
2 November 2013, New Music North West Festival, Manchester
23 November 2013, Lamour, Stockholm
14 March 2014, International Festival of Artistic Innovation, Leeds
25 March 2014, Sonicueb, London
26 April 2014, Festival Mixtur, Barcelona
10 May 2014, University of Leeds
20 July 2014, Invisible Places, Viseu
Broadcast: WDR3 Open Sounds, 6 February 2016


Acknowledgements

Commissioned by La Muse En Circuit, Paris.