Image © Nichola Scrutton
New Worlds is a spoken word / sound composition created with writer Martin O’Connor in Autumn 2022. The piece weaves together recordings from Your Voice in Greenock, Inverclyde, Martin’s poems, field and other recordings.
Read more about the project and listen to New Worlds at: http://www.martinoconnor.info/new-worlds.html
Absolutely thrilled to receive an award from the Creative Scotland Open Fund to produce my Night Vision project in 2023. I’ll be sharing various updates along the way. Sign up for updates at Newsletter
Many thanks to everyone who’s supported the development of Night Vision.
Pleased to share that new release Interzone will come out on Nonclassical in 2023. More details to follow.
Interzone has been produced with a PRS Foundation Open Fund for Music Creators award.
Photo credit: Jim McEwan at Solas Sound Studio
Really delighted to have been selected for a Second Life Award with Zoë Strachan – thank you so much to the Edwin Morgan Trust for such a fantastic opportunity to develop our collaborative practice and make new work! More info to follow…
Read more about the selected projects at: https://edwinmorgantrust.com/the-second-life-awards-2023/
In case it’s of interest, sign up for updates at Newsletter …
COSCA Certificate in Counselling Skills – University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
I’m delighted to be one of 100 artists creating a 22-hour programme for Radio Art Zone’s 100-day programme for Esch 2022 European Capital of Culture. Radio Art Zone is a project by Mobile Radio and Radio ARA.
Dream Stream weaves together field recordings, voice, fragments of text, visualisations, stories, performance and archive materials in a sonic contemplation of inner / outer landscapes. Read more, see the full 22-hour itinerary and listen at https://radioart.zone/monday-22-august
In case it’s of interest, I also have a Mailing List for occasional news updates – Join Mailing List
Many thanks to Knut, Sarah, and all at Radio Art Zone.
Dream Stream was commissioned by Radio Art Zone as part of their 100-day programme inviting 100 artists to create 22-hour long radio works for European Capital of Culture at Esch 2022, Luxembourg. https://radioart.zone
Dream Stream weaves together field recordings, voice, fragments of text, visualisations, stories, performance and archive materials in a sonic contemplation of inner / outer landscapes. The sound of water is a thread across the whole duration. From that constantly shifting ‘surface’, various other sound worlds emerge and recede in a transient dream-like encounter.
In case it’s of interest, I have a Mailing List for occasional news updates – Join Mailing List
Many thanks indeed to Sarah, Knut and all at Radio Art Zone.
Artwork © Nichola Scrutton
I’m thrilled to say that I have been awarded Creative Scotland funding for the Night Vision project over 2022-23.
As part of a general website overhaul, I have temporarily removed background information, credits and plans for Night Vision so I can update all the details.
In the meantime, I’ll be posting news about select performances and a recording, to be released first on Bandcamp in early April and then across all music platforms on 28th April so please do connect / follow for updates. Many thanks.
Many thanks indeed to everyone who has supported Night Vision.
Really great to team up with Alex South for a one-off performance on 28th May 2022 in Artlink Edinburgh’s exhibition Human Threads at Tramway Glasgow. The exhibition is wonderful, accessible and well worth a visit.
Zoë Strachan and I had a two-week residency at Glasgow Project Room in April/May 2022.
In our residency we were engaging in a process of ‘test-pitting’ to develop new work around themes of excavation as a means of opening an aperture onto fragile lines of connection between inner and outer landscapes. We shared some work-in-progress at the end of the residency in a public event that included a performance and a Q+A chat.
In archaeology a test-pit is a trial, a delving in to reveal layers, fragments of artefacts, the potential of a site of enquiry. It enables a snapshot of composition and decomposition, of life cycle and decay in the earth. Grids and tracing map the process.
Zoë and I have an ongoing collaboration making sound art works and experimental radio combining newly written and found text, composed sound, field recordings, found sound, voice and improvisation.
More information and Scottish tour dates for summer 2022 at Company of Wolves website.
Director – Ewan Downie
Associate Director – Brian Ferguson
Set and Costume Designer – Alisa Kalyanova
Lighting Designer – Benny Goodman
Sound Designer – Nichola Scrutton
Cast – Lawrence Boothman, Esme Baylay, Oat Jenner, Belle Jones, Megan Lovat
Technical Stage Manager – Stephen Cunningham
Wardrobe supervisor and Costume-maker – Catherine Barthram
Producer – Corinne Salisbury
Production Manager – Elleanor Taylor
In collaboration with Radiophrenia and the Goethe Institut Glasgow ‘Mobile Radiophrenia’ is a cultural exchange and radio residency that will result in five new live broadcast works. The artist duo Mobile Radio (Sarah Washington & Knut Aufermann) from Ürzig in Germany have been invited over to work with five Glasgow based artists or artist duos on an intensive daily collaboration that culminates in a live radio performance at 5pm each day.
I’m delighted to be performing on Thursday 17th Feb – the performances have been devised within the following framework:
Mobile Radio residency – Glasgow Calling Scale live with Nichola Scrutton – 17 February 2022 5:00 pm – 5:30 pm
‘Glasgow Calling Scale: a verbal response series in five parts’
There are five grades starting with the most musical:
Mon 14th Feb – No verbal response
Eothen Stearn, Lady Neptune, Knut Aufermann, Sarah Washington.
Tues 15th Feb – Incomprehensible sounds
Elina Bry, Knut Aufermann, Sarah Washington.
Weds 16th Feb – Inappropriate words
Cindy Islam, Knut Aufermann, Sarah Washington.
Thurs 17th Feb – Confused
Nichola Scrutton, Knut Aufermann, Sarah Washington.
Fri 18th Feb – Oriented
Rebecca Wilcox, Hannah Ellul, Knut Aufermann, Sarah Washington.
In another strand of research that emerged during Night Vision R&D in 2021, I curated a series of micro-commissions. I created a series of abstract images, photographing fragments of drawings. Those images served as a prompt, a connecting point, a spring board for dialogue.
Under the umbrella title, Memory Dream Encounter, I invited composers/artists Ruth Wiesenfeld, Elisabetta Senesi, Dafna Naphtali, Julia Drouhin and Claire Docherty to create miniature sound compositions in response to the prompts. On 31st August 2021, the six composers met in a virtual gathering to listen together, and discuss the creative process.
Radiophrenia 2022
Subsequently I edited the works into a programme that was broadcast on Radiophrenia at 9pm on 13th February 2022.
The programme in order was:
Claire Docherty – Pulse dream fragment For Una MacGlone (bass) & Emma Roche (flute) (3’23)
Dafna Naphtali- Striations (3′)
Elisabetta Senesi – Under the Surface (3’50)
Julia Drouhin – Mer4 (3’50)
Nichola Scrutton – Gestures (3’44)
Ruth Wiesenfeld – the wool from which the ribbons were made (3’54)
The micro-commissons were supported by Creative Scotland.
Zoë Strachan and I first performed Salt Cellar as a live-to-air broadcast on Radiophrenia, 11th February 2022, in the Creative Lab at the CCA Glasgow.
What is a prompt? It’s an inciting, a bringing forth, an augury, an urge, a bringing to light. In this live to broadcast performance, Nichola Scrutton and Zoë Strachan employ a cootie catcher (also known as a salt cellar) to provoke a series of discreet but interlinked improvisations based on texts, photographs and physical objects. Thus they seek to enact an archaeology of embodied memory within the palimpsest of a time-limited performance space.
Zoë and I collaborate to make sound art/experimental radio combining newly written and found text, composed sound, field recordings, found sound, voice and improvisation.
Duo collaboration with Aya Kobayashi on a performance as part of Willie Sutherland’s exhibition Christmas Day Down a Goldmine in December 2021. Big thanks to Willie, Yvonne and everyone.
Two of my sketchbook drawings have joined the Berlin-based Fleeting Archive at Towards Sound. Many thanks to Ruth Wiesenfeld.
More information: http://www.towardssound.org/
Devising and delivering a series of voice workshops with Wendy Kirkup as part of her 2021 research and development towards a new film looking at 16mm film and improvised voice.
Performers/participants: Wendy, Catherine, Laura, Nicole and Emmie. The film footage was captured by Alex Hetherington, and Stevie Jones recorded the sound. See more of Wendy’s work at Wendy’s Instagram.
Group photo © Alex Hetherington. Film photo © Nichola Scrutton
I’m really thrilled to share news of a PRS Foundation Open Fund for Music Creators Award to record an album for release on Nonclassical. More info to follow. Sign up for updates at Newsletter…
The recently formed hyphæ drawing collective are having a group show in Folkestone. The details are:
Dates: 9 – 14 September 2021
Opening hours: 11 – 17 h daily
Touchbase Gallery, 15 Tontine Street, Folkestone CT20 1JT
You are warmly invited to an afternoon of refreshments with the artists of hyphæ drawing collective to celebrate our exhibition, Letting it settle.
Saturday 11 September, 2021, between 14 –17h at the above address.
Please let us know if you intend to come along, so that we don’t run out of tea…RSVP
Read more about hyphæ drawing collective at our website, where you can also contact us and sign up for our newsletter.
| One of ten artist who formed the hyphæ drawing collective. The collective met online during the lockdown of early 2021, through the inaugural Drawing Correspondence development programme (Feb 2021). Read more about hyphæ drawing collective at our website, where you can also contact us and sign up for our newsletter. We are also on social media a Instagram @hyphaedrawing |
I was delighted to be invited into a duo with Manuel Padding for Giant Tank’s Pot Luck, which was aired on TUSK TV on 6th August 2021. Big thanks to Manuel, and to Ali and Collette for hosting – connect to Giant Tank on their FB page – Giant Tank Facebook
Our duo track is available as part of TUSK Editions #5 – download the album at TUSK Festival’s TUSK Editions Bandcamp.
I am delighted to have produced some new drawings for the cover of tape / digital album River . Pathway . Static – at Colliding Lines. Release date is Monday 19th July 2021. More info and link for tape purchase at Colliding Lines (which includes a digital version). The digital version is also available at Colliding Lines Bandcamp
Colliding Lines are also broadcasting on Resonance Extra – info and listening links at #18 Nettles and Chalklines.
Sonic Bothy Ensemble produced a new digital work Verbaaaaatum for Tectonics Festival 2021. The festival was online for a month and hosted a fantastic array of digital and streamed music/sound performances. View the archive of the 2021 Tectonics Festival online at Tectonics Glasgow 2021
Hats off to all at Sonic Bothy for how everything has continued to grow and develop since the first lockdown hit in March 2020. In spite of the challenges, we’ve being actively involved in staying creatively connected to participants/musicians and producing new work, and it’s a joy.
Exciting that Sonic Bothy was shortlisted for The RCS Award for Education/Community Project at New Music Scotland. The awards were announced in an online event in July 2021 – congratulations to the winners. Read more about the category and shortlisted projects here…The RCS Award for Education/Community Project
Sonic Bothy Ensemble’s debut album Fields is still available at Bandcamp in hard copy and digital formats…
https://sonicbothy.bandcamp.com/album/fields
For more information on Sonic Bothy Ensemble, and all the charity’s activities, please visit Sonic Bothy’s website.
Thrilled to have the opportunity to develop Phase 1 of Night Vision with support from the Creative Scotland Open Fund. This funding supports me to work with an ensemble to develop my sound and performance ideas. Thanks to all who have supported this work so far. Sign up for updates at Newsletter…
I was thrilled to be one of ten artists selected for the pilot of the Drawing Correspondence Program. The Program was developed and facilitated by artists / educators Anita Taylor, Chloe Briggs and Tania Kovats. In addition, we were fortunate to have guest artists to share and discuss practice.
The intensive six-week development period had an umbrella theme of Grow. Regular self-directed drawing practice was focused through an exciting range of activities and investigations, live online drawing classes, one-to-one and group discussion, sharing and presentations.
We produced a publication at the end of the Program – 10 Letters and 10 Drawings – initially published on Issuu, with a physical publication to follow. Link to Issuu publication
A huge thanks to all on the journey.
I am delighted to be collaborating as a vocalist with artist Anne Colvin on her moving image artwork/experience Dear Prudence re-imagined. More information about the work is available at Dear Prudence re-imagined.
Lovely to receive this book Restless Explorations in the post – Magnetic North celebrating 21 years. Congratulations! The book contains details of all their work & commissions by artists they have collaborated with.
I was delighted to be invited to make a contribution. I feel very fortunate to have had Rough Mix Residency support for my first shared exploration of the Night Vision materials in 2019.
The commissioned image is called On Route and re-presents ideas from that development.
Limited Edition copies are available at the Magnetic North website
I am very pleased to say that I finished my Seasonal Yoga Academy 300hr Yoga RYT Teacher Training in November 2020. This award combines with my 200hr training (2017) to complete the 500hr advanced training.
Many thanks indeed to all at the Seasonal Yoga Academy, particularly Marit, Claire, Julie and Sue. And huge thanks to my 300hr peers who shared the journey!
Zoë Strachan and I continue our exploration of performing live experimental radio artwork. Up Closeness is a dialogue between two green urban spaces, a close look at the local. An attempt to find small connections amid the dislocation from everyday life. Field recordings and voice sounds are combined with found and composed text to animate distinct temporal spaces. Live improvisation and embedded writing practice enact a mimetic re-inhabiting of space.
We first performed Up Closeness as a live broadcast at Radiophrenia Glasgow on 20th November 2020 in CCA Glasgow., in the hour before lockdown. Here’s a clip…