Biography

Millie Watson is a soundscape composer and pianist from Canberra. She recently completed her Honours in Composition at the ANU School of Music where her research looked to utilise found sound as a compositional tool whilst maintaining the sound’s relationship to its environment and subsequent web of meaning. Inspired by the likes of Hildegard Westerkamp, her music finds its form in the organic structures of field recordings, which are then extrapolated on through improvised prepared piano. She has performed at festivals such as SoundOut (2017) and continues to play regularly in Canberra as both a solo act and with various ensembles.

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Composer website: https://soundcloud.com/millie-watson

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Featured Works

Pools of Fir, for Prepared piano, double bass, bus engine.

‘Pools of Fir’ was written with the intent of creating a feeling of physical space through sound. The title is taken from the poem ‘Oread’ by H.D. in which she portrays a pine forest as something liquid and shifting. The idea of transmutation is thus at the core of this work as trees turn to ocean and sound becomes space.

Featured in Stillness Waves, September 2018