One of the great adventures of the past few months, has been even more intense collaborations with composers, many of who, I have never met. Here are the first three of Coreen Morsink’s Lockdown Sketches (and, if you listen carefully the end, a wisp of the emerging ‘Tower of Winds’). Lovely microtonal melody, conceived for the 1570 Brescian violin with a low A (nb. Felix Hernandez-Jones – I am remembering to say!). Partially inspired by some of my drawings

The composer writes: The Lockdown Sketches for violin express my thoughts during lockdown from COVID-19 in Greece and my feelings after our release on May 4th. During the time of lockdown I was enjoying the artwork and violin playing of Peter Sheppard Skaerved and one ink drawing in particular seemed to sum up my mood. Door of the Wind captures the movement of the wind with intense layers of lines which seem to fly towards a beacon of light. When lockdown ended I felt like I could write music again and I tentatively asked Peter if he would be willing to collaborate on a new piece and he said yes much to my astonishment and delight. The piece that is still evolving has a base in ancient Greek music but also tries to bring out the beauty of the violin with a ringing quality which Peter captures so magically on a Brescian violin of 1570 (as he does on all the violins he plays!) After reflecting on light and water the piece moves back to the air with reference to the Tower of Winds in Athens, Greece.