“Curiosity … the care one takes for what exists and could exist; an acute sense of the real … a readiness to find our surroundings strange and singular” (Michael Foucault)

I compose for the same reason I listen: curiosity. I am most curious about the personal, the secret, the mysterious. In the noisy world of public utterances, I am more attentive to private sounds. Curiosity is the heightened sense of consciousness I acquire when I stumble upon an inconspicuous otherworld, it is the striking sensation of sympathy towards a situation of strangeness. I know such sensations when I experience them as a listener and I search for such sensations when I compose.

Music is one possible medium to observe others and by which to capture a window into one’s self: a fleeting experience of attentiveness, a moment to pause and listen. Ideally, I pursue composition as an act of play by which I hope to transform myself. Although such experiences are innately private, I acknowledge that music acquires its meaning via its interaction with others, and I invite the scrutiny of others. I write music not so much with the view to an audience, but with the view to participants. I would like to see my works as though they were a collection of personal artefacts through which others are welcome to rummage should they be so curious as to do so. The following website provides a portal to these artefacts. (Damien Ricketson)