Hard Return (2020)

Hard Return was commissioned for Byron ‘Buzz’ Newton and the 2020 National Youth Band of New Zealand.

Referring to the word processing function of pressing Enter or ‘Hard Return’, the title also represents both the nature of the looping pedal used throughout the piece and the context of Buzz's return to perform with the youth band. Buzz's impressive pedal setup is used to extend the harmony of simple musical motifs into larger sororities, allowing him (and the band) to have a foundation from which further musical ideas emerge.