photo by Philip Clarke

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Killing Time – Tinnemans’ wild and wonderful explorations in composing for stochastic musical timing has brought her to work with prepared knitting needles.

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‘Killing Time’ for ensemble, field recordings, performing knitters and a custom-made digital audio interface, was commissioned by the MATA Festival in New York.

A composition full of contrast, using digital technologies in combination with ancient craft and embedding natural primitive sounds of Pembrokeshire in the heart of hyper urbanised New York – read on

After the MATA premiere, ‘Killing Time’ has been performed in the UK at Sheffield Doc Fest, in St. David’s Cathedral, the Norwegian Church in Cardiff and in Millennium Centre, Cardiff. It also caught the attention of Vogue Knitting New York and has been staged on the catwalk during the Vogue Knitting Live! NYC ’16 Gala Dinner. Bernhard Fasenfest made a little video summary of the event.

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Article in The Woolmark Company official blog

In a unique marriage of wool and music, the Vogue Knitting Live! NYC gala dinner will be made all the more special with an extraordinary performance piece, Killing Time – A Knitted Soundscape. The brainchild of Dutch-born and Wales-based composer Jobina Tinnemans, the innovative piece is a soundscape created by performing knitters, each using custom-developed knitting needles which each trigger tiny snippets of sound, together creating a rich musical performance.

Living in West Wales, with vast natural scenery, Tinnemans conceived of the idea to create the sorts of sounds she hears on her daily walks – flocks of sea birds, rustling grass, squeaking gorse branches – in the context of a live performance. “It occurred to me that knitting needles are two pieces of metal which make contact in a rhythmic, yet random way, much like the rhythms of nature,” she explains. “I made knitting needles that are electronically attached to my computer. Whenever a pair of needles touches, it’s like pressing a key on a keyboard, and a unique sound will emerge.”

It’s certainly not the most common approach to musical performance, but Tinnemans says that there is a natural connection between the disparate art forms. “In a poetic sense, sheep, crafts and wool are the centre of my community and landscape [in Wales], so what better way to feature it in my work? “I hope to make people feel welcome by having anyone that can knit feature in my work, and it has been a very sharing and warm experience.” For the performers, too, it offers a new way of looking at their work. “I’d never experienced anything like this before, it’s so tactile,” said one knitter. “I felt I could channel my emotion into knitting, and I really like being a musician in this performance.”