A Lithium Fascination: The Heavy Metal Suite

A Lithium Fascination is a sectional chapter within a larger umbrella co-authored chapter The Heavy Metal Suite. In 2023 Professor Philippe Tortell of the Future Minerals Institute and the Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia Canada commissioned a consortium of 8 leading composers from various nations on different continents to each contribute a piece that would make up The Heavy Metal Suite for brass quintet. His vision was to further enhance and empower commentary on mining and sustainability going forward, including to hear from Indigenous composers, and to expand his normal working mode of data-based paper publication to music. This included the commissioning of the piece, performance, presentations by local Indigenous elders, and recording for broadcast by the CBC. It was also accompanied by the publication of the book Heavy Metal: Earth’s Minerals and the Future of Sustainable Societies (Open Book Pub, ed. Tortell). My sectional chapter is an analysis of my approach in the piece inclusive of drawing upon the fields of regionalism in music and significantly making a contribution to the growing body of Indigenous comment on mining industries via art/performance.