Daryl Runswick writes:
This piece was originally written for Electric Phoenix in 1984: it is actually the second movement of I Sing The Body Electric. The person who first thought of performing it separately from the rest of that work was Terry Edwards, and Phoenix gave the premiere of Dance of Stillness (Terry's title) in Liverpool's Catholic Cathedral in 1990. In that form it was performed by the group's four singers, the men overtone-singing and processing their voices in real time through a ring modulator and a long delay, the women improvising melodies on Philip Pacey's text.
It didn't occur to me that Dance of Stillness might go well
In Droves until the show had been up, running and on
the road for a couple of years. Anyway I wasn't sure that the signal
processing (analogue back in the day) was available to me on a
modern laptop. I was delighted to discover it was. I found,
operating a small USB control panel, I could do both the
signal-processed drone and the melodic improvisation in real time,
switching from treated to dry sound and back again as needed. The
addition of an instrumental solo was a late idea which transformed
the piece from a quietly lyrical 'slow movement' into a much more
intense affair.
Daryl Runswick: Self-portrait 2011