Velvet Dreams

Velvet Dreams, arranged for SATB mixed voices choir with piano or ochestra, utilises fragments of the grafitti text written down by Jock Reby along with some extra texts written in a similar style by the composer Matthew Hindson and the contemporary poet Sarah Hindson. During a period of correspondence with the reclusive Australian violist-turned-truck-driver Jock Reby, the composer's attention was directed towards a notepad of graffiti that Reby had transcribed from the toilet walls of an English Language School in Bangkok.

It seems that the students of the school had used the practice of writing on toilet walls as a means of experimenting with their English.

Consequently it contained some quite bizarre interpretations of the English Language.

One piece of writing referred incessantly to "velvet dreams", and their relationship to the writer's missing (romantic) partner.

Despite the often-unclear nature much of the text (what exactly is a "velvet dream"?), it was evident that the author felt very strongly about the subject.