C.R. Gillespie Island of Women

Composition for Island Of Women began in 2019, when I was invited to submit scores towards a chamber project affiliated with Toronto's Music Galley, an institutional centre for avante-garde music since the mid-70's. I had begun to get a few ideas down with MIDI instruments when the pandemic came along and swept the project off the table. I then took these modern-classical style demos, expanded upon them, trying to get the most organic sound I could out of largely MIDI-based sampled instruments, along with some gluey synth, electronics, and field recordings. As the pandemic (and particularly in Toronto, lockdowns) continued, my wife and I ended up having our daughter, Frances, and we tried to learn to be parents in a fairly isolated atmosphere. Frances (Frankie) even pops up throughout the album, although in fairly abstract sounds. The album title comes from a trip we took in January 2022 to Mexico's Isla Mujeres, where the three of us spent two quiet weeks, not doing much besides hitting the beach and observing Frankie's two daily naps. A very idyllic period, and I like to think the album shares a bit of the same hazy, balmy vibe. A lot of the field recordings came from this time, as well as the outlines for a few of the tracks, as I brought along a portable OP-1 synth that could record directly onto my handheld recorder. The inspiration for Island Of Women comes largely from 70s-80s Italian Minimalist music, a style of ambient-minimalism that has a bit more of a humanistic/organic quality than the rigid NYC Reich/Glass style; more saxophones, field recordings, and synthesized instruments found throughout. For further context, a few of my favourite artists of this movement include Francesco Messina, Franco Battiato, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Luciano Cilio and Lino Capra Vaccina.