Supersonic Festival 22-23 October

Posted on October 19, 2011 by admin

SOUNDkitchen are taking part in this year’s Supersonic Festival and will be resident in the Zellig building over the festival (22-23 October). Working in collaboration with BEAST, we’re setting up a site-specific sound sculpture which will host performances and installations throughout the weekend. I’ll be performing live with Julien Guillamat on Saturday and Past Links will be featured in Sunday’s BEAST performance. I’m also looking forward to working on a collaboration with Imperfect Cinema. Over the weekend I’ll be working with SOUNDkitchen’s Iain Armstrong to create a soundtrack for a 25 minute Imperfect Cinema film from field recordings made at the festival. The Zellig building will be open to the public so no wristbands needed. For programme information click here

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SOUNDkitchen, 12th April 2011

Posted on April 13, 2011 by admin

This month I will be performing at SOUNDkitchen with friend and colleague Els Viaene. We will be presenting a live improvisation exploring our shared sound worlds of electroacoustic, ambient electronic and phonography. Also performing on the night are Nic Bullen, Anvil and Stirrup, Atki2 and Two Left Ears.

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SOUNDkitchen present… Balkan Fusion

Posted on March 15, 2011 by admin

SOUNDkitchen returns to the Hare and Hounds this Thursday to present an unusual fusion of laptop performers, live electroacoustics and Eastern European flavours. Performers include Kurdish musicians Fouad Ibrahim and Zirak Hamad, BiLE (Birmingham Laptop Ensemble), Garfield Benjamin, Costis Kontos and Seb Merrick (Balkan Fever London).

More info available here

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STONEsoup [made in Birmingham]

Posted on March 2, 2011 by admin

This Friday SOUNDkitchen presents STONEsoup in collaboration with BEAST (Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre).

14 artists have contributed up to 5 minutes of material which I have reworked into an hour long piece to be diffused over the BEAST sound system. The only prerequisite was that all the sounds were originally recorded in Birmingham.

The work presents a sonic portrait of Birmingham, blending field recordings from Peter Cusack, Martin Clarke and Julien Guillamat with specially composed pieces by Mark Harris, Iain Armstrong, Chris Tarren, Shelly Knotts and others.

STONEsoup takes the listener through a unique aural journey of the city, framed with archive video footage of the city from Ross Millar.

The complete list of contributors are Iain Armstrong / Peter Batchelor / Bobby Bird / Nic Bullen / Martin Clarke / Peter Cusack / Cormac Faulkner / Julien Guillamat / Mark Harris / Shelly Knotts / Francisco Lopez  / Annie Mahtani / Ross Millar / Chris Tarren

STONEsoup is performed on Friday 4th March, 9pm @ mac as part of BEAST’s Espaces series.

Tickets are available at £5 (£3.50 concessions £2 students) and can be booked here.

Places are limited so advance booking recommended.

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Norfolk Sea

Posted on January 23, 2011 by admin

In December 2010 I went to Norfolk on a wildlife sound recording course with Chris Watson. We spent a cold and windy Sunday morning on the beach recording the sea and seals. The sea was overwhelmingly powerful on this morning. This recording was made very close to the water with a spaced pair of dpa 4060 microphones.

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SOUNDkitchen

Posted on January 18, 2011 by admin

In the autumn of 2010 I began working on SOUNDkitchen, an idea developed to help promote composers like myself working in Birmingham, to get more opportunities to play their work and perform in and around the town. After speaking with friends and fellow composers I received enough positive feedback to spur me on. Everyone agreed that there was a gap in the market that needed filling.

I spent some months gathering my ideas and recruiting people to become involved with the project and we have reached a stage now where SOUNDkitchen is all systems go. There is an excellent team of six composers working hard to bring to Birmingham an exciting programme of electroacoustic, electronic and experimental music which follow SOUNDkitchen’s aim to promote composers and artists working in the field of sound.

SOUNDkitchen will run a pilot series over the coming months and launch our first night at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath on Thursday 17th February. Acts will include emerging artists associated with Birmingham alongside more established musicians including Simon Whetham, Martin Clarke and artists from modulate.

More details about this and future events can be found at soundkitchenuk.org

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2010 Summary

Posted on January 17, 2011 by admin

2010 was a busy year kicking off with my installation Lago de Mamori, which was shown at the Custard Factory in Birmingham. I completed two new tape pieces, both of which continued the Amazonian theme and were created from some of the recordings I made in November 2009.

In April I joined friend and colleague Els Viaene in San Sebastian, Spain to perform together and give presentations on our work at Artleku’s AudioLab.

Over the first few months of the year, my major project was as the composer for 5 Soldiers, Rosie Kay Dance Company. 5 soldiers is a dance theatre work looking at how the human body is essential to, and used in, warfare. It premiered in Birmingham in April before touring nationally.

Past Links was performed at ICMC 2010 in New York City in June and new work, Round Midnight was performed at Nuit Bleue, France as part of Francisco Lopez’s set on July 10th.

August saw a trip to Berlin with BEAST at the Inventionen Festival where I premiered Cricrió, a new work commisioned by an unknown donor at The University of Birmingham. In the autumn I reworked the piece into 8-channels for a further performance in Birmingham in October.

In December I joined wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson on one of his courses in the depths of Norfolk. It was great to work with such an inspiring person and meet some new like minded people from very different backgrounds.

The end of the year was spent focusing on new organisation SOUNDkitchen. More info coming soon.

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New website

Posted on January 17, 2011 by admin

This website is currently under construction. Please bear with me and check back soon!

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