Landfall

Landfall – an arrival on land of a sea or air journey.

‘Landfall’ maps a trajectory from celestial soundscape to earthy landing. Arvo Pärt’s technique of tintinnabulation provides the initial inspiration for the work. His contrast of the ‘pure’ triadic voice and straying stepwise movement represents humanity’s to and fro with the divine. This is extended to the gradually distorting sound world, in which timbre, pitch and rhythm depart from the lofty beginning to land within a muddied terrain.

This work was written for percussionist Justin DeHart, and was awarded the winning University of Canterbury Douglas Lilburn Composition Prize in 2017. The piece has been recorded and published by Rattle Records on Justin's album Landfall: New Zealand Percussion No 1.