'Time As Intimacy' was inspired by the way that time, among other things, has felt wobbly amongst the change and stagnation in Naarm/Melbourne this year. During this period I had wrote a piano part that repeated over and over again, which I often sat down and played without developing it further. I just kept repeating it until I didn’t know how long I’d been playing, and I liked the feeling of being unaware of time passing, for a small moment. I had also been reading the poetry of Ocean Vuong (Night Sky with Exit Wounds), in which he often equates hours and minutes to tender gestures and sensual imagery; ’he lifts her white cotton skirt, revealing another hour’, and ‘the water like air, like hours’.

The idea that time can be a currency with which to love, or a lens with which to view beauty resonated with me. It felt poignant to be viewing time this desirable way, when during lockdown I had been gifted with an abundance of it. For this commission, I wanted to create a piece of music that captured the way that time moves both menacingly and gently, particularly during the moments of dusk where it a darkening sky signifies day’s end. The piece depicts a day that has moved at a bruising slow pace, with each moment bringing the potency, stillness and pain of intimacy.

'Time As Intimacy' was commissioned by Melbourne Music Week x Melbourne Metro Tunnel and was composed by Hannah McKittrick.