When I dreamt of rain
recorder(s) and tape loops
2024
duration: 5'
When I dreamt of rain was written for Luca Imperiale.
This piece was premiered on the 8th of March 2024, at the Royal College of Music, London in the 2024 Consort 21 concert, performed by Luca Imperiale (recorder) and Thomas Shorthouse (tapes).
Written for the RCM Consort 21 project, 2024, When I dreamt of rain centres around the theme of childhood nostalgia, painting a picture of a peaceful dream, interrupted by the appearance of fire, before returning to calm again when rain finally falls.
The melodic lines in the piece dart around, and mimic the natural recordings found in the tapes, alongside the more synth-based loops directly recorded onto the tapes using a direct-in cassette recorder.
I chose to use cassettes and tape loops for this piece particularly for their dream-like character. The warbly, saturated sound world created by tape is exactly the atmosphere I wanted to create in this piece to circle around the recorder, which represents the dreamer/audience, and their journey through this world.
© 2025 Thomas Shorthouse
