Sleeve spinners (excerpt)
Sleeve spinners
An improvisation for voice, double bass, and loop pedals.
Spiders are at work on your clothes
spinning the sleeves
every hair and freckle covered by
a whitely luminescent film of cloth.
Spiders are at work on your clothes
while I stand
here on the balcony
in the wind.
Spiders are at work on your clothes
spinning the sleeves
when you are dressed
we will go out and find
life in the centre of the city
How long for a spider to spin a shirt?
I will stand here, wrapped
against the wind
until they are done
and you can wrap me up instead.
Artist statement
The composition is anchored by a poem, several melodic fragments, and a harmonic map that moves through different modes in response to the text's emotional arc. These elements form a loose score, and the piece unfolds differently each time it's performed.
The text was generated through a daily writing practice: using a painting as a starting point, I create a mind map, join pairs of words into unexpected combinations, then write automatically to fill the page. The result is edited lightly if at all. The source painting was Minerva Dressing by Lavinia Fontana.
This piece was improvised using two separate loop pedals. The process of capturing looped fragments across the pedals allows for spontaneous and unexpected layering of textures and rhythms during performance.
Recorded live 25 February 2025 in Znojmo, Czech republic.
Credits
Text, composition, improvisation: Erica Bramham
Video, mixing, mastering: Erica Bramham
“Working in a musical world where a fine mist obscures any lines between jazz, folk, improvisation and rock, [Bramham] writes songs that often feel like settings for poetry rather than lyrics”
About Erica Bramham
Erica Bramham is a Melbourne-based composer, vocalist, and double bassist working at the intersection of text, sound, and interdisciplinary performance. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, she has released three albums and an EP since 2016, with work praised by The Age/Sydney Morning Herald and All About Jazz, and was nominated for the 2021 Music Victoria Awards (Best Folk Act).
Her practice begins with text — using poetry as the foundation for melody, rhythm, and sound design. She self-produces her recordings, layering and transforming acoustic instruments through live electronics and field recordings, and performs with voice, double bass, and loop pedals to create continuously evolving sonic environments.
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