Tag: Collaboration

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Sonic Bothy Updates July 2021

New Work

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.

Scottish Awards for New Music

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 Album Fields

Sonic Bothy Ensemble’s debut album Fields is still available at Bandcamp in hard copy and digital formats…

https://sonicbothy.bandcamp.com/album/fields

More Information

For more information on Sonic Bothy Ensemble, and all the charity’s activities, please visit Sonic Bothy’s website.

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Creative Scotland Funding for Development 2021

Night Vision – ensemble research and development 2021

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…

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Drawing Correspondence Pilot Program

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.

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Magnetic North Book – Restless Explorations

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

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Up Closeness with Zoë Strachan

Up Closeness – a collaborative radio artwork

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…

@zoestrachan
@NicholaScrutton

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Rough Breathing Shortlisted

Delighted to be shortlisted with Alex South for the Scottish Awards for New Music ISM Prize for Collaboration for our Rough Breathing collaboration. The Award event is on 14th April 2020 at the V&A in Dundee.

Read the category details at The ISM Prize for Collaboration
See the full shortlist  at Scottish Awards for New Music 2020

Please note, as of April 2020, the Rough Breathing sound clip will be removed from the public realm. Many thanks to BBC Radio 3  for the permission to use the clip for a year from the BBC’s live recording of the event.  A private clip will be available for professional use – please contact me if you are interested to hear it.

Many thanks to Alasdair Campbell, AC Projects, CCA Glasgow and all at Tectonics Glasgow 2019 for supporting Rough Breathing.

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Sonic Bothy Updates March 2020

Sonic Bothy Ensemble at TUSK Festival 2019

Performances

Sonic Bothy Ensemble Platform
SBE at Platform Glasgow (image © Brian Hartley/Sonic Bothy)

Sonic Bothy Ensemble enjoyed wonderful performances at TUSK Festival in October 2019 (photo above © Sonic Bothy) and at Platform Glasgow in December 2019.

Gateshead Jazz Festival – Covid-19 affected

Tectonics Festival – Covid-19 affected

Sonic Bothy Ensemble had two very exciting performances in the pipe-line – one in late March at The Sage, Gateshead for Gateshead Jazz Festival and one in early May at Tectonics, Old Fruitmarket. Unfortunately both were cancelled or postponed due to lockdown.

Meanwhile Sonic Bothy has resumed some rehearsals online. More news about future events will follow as and when available.

Performance Anxiety Research Project

Since September 2019 I have been Lead Artist on the development of Sonic Bothy’s Performance Anxiety Project. At the core of the project was a series of exploratory workshops, co-led with Malcy Duff who works with Bothy Learning Space. The project aims, through direct experience in workshops, consultation and research, to increase awareness and create resources to support musicians with an ALSN in any aspect of performance anxiety and associated issues.

Sonic Bothy Ensemble Album Fields

Sonic Bothy Ensemble’s debut album Fields is still available at Bandcamp in hard copy and digital formats…

More Information

For more information on Sonic Bothy Ensemble, and all the charity’s activities, please visit Sonic Bothy’s website.

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Radio Play | Ian Spink

Radio Play, Unfix Festival

Delighted to be working with Ian Spink, Aya Kobayashi, Skye Reynolds, Selina Boyack and Stella Boyack to develop Radio Play. The immediate focus was a scratch performance for UNFIX Festival 2019. Here’s more info about the event on Sunday 31st March at CCA Glasgow Scratch Night. We re-visited the work for Batch2 Festival In August 2019.

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Rays & Correlations with Zoë Strachan

Rays & Correlations – a collaborative live-to-air broadcast

Zoë Strachan and I created Rays & Correlations  for a live broadcast from the Radiophrenia studio on 15th May 2019.

Rays & Correlations

Programme Note

Inspired by the patterns of cosmic ray interactions in a cloud chamber, we imagine the myriad signals and attempts at communication that might enter a sphere and intersect, cluster, miss or fade away. Rays & Correlations is a voice-focused improvised performance with layers of interactive soundscape.

The listener is invited to find a thread to hold onto amid interweaving sparse and dense streams of words and evocations – and to decide whether the sound space is literal, as inside a kind of radome, or metaphorical – representing any individual consciousness trying to make sense of human connection.

@zoestrachan
@NicholaScrutton

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Tectonics The Guardian

190507 Tectonics Review Guardian Tectonics Review The Guardian ****

7th May 2019

…”Downstairs in the Old Fruitmarket, Scottish vocalist Nichola Scrutton breathed deeply into a mic, the sounds mirrored by clarinettist Alex South across the room. In between, the audience were caught in a dexterous layering of breath that felt like the wash and roll of the sea.”…

Read the full Tectonics review online…

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Rough Breathing at Tectonics Festival

Tectonics Festival
Setting up at the Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow

Excited to be performing  some of our Rough Breathing project this weekend at Tectonics Festival in Glasgow with Alex South. We’ll be in the Old Fruitmarket at 4pm on Sunday 5th May 2019. Read more about line up at Tectonics Glasgow 2019 announcement and more info…Also at Festival info and the Tectonics Facebook event …

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Sonic Bothy Updates April 2019

Sonic Bothy Ensemble Performances

The next performance is at CCA, Glasgow on 26th April 2019. More details at Sonic Bothy’s Facebook page.

Article in The List magazine

Sonic Bothy article The List

Read the article at the link below…

https://www.list.co.uk/article/107892-sonic-bothy-aims-to-explore-glasgows-new-and-experimental-music-scene-as-a-source-of-dialogue-and-inspiration/

Review of SBE Album at Scots Whae Hae

Sonic Bothy album review Scots Whae Hae

Here’s a link to the review online – scroll down the page to find Sonic Bothy’s album write up…

Scots Whae Hae New Musical Success

More Information

For more information on Sonic Bothy Ensemble, and all the charity’s activities, please visit Sonic Bothy’s website.

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Co-commission – Outspoken Arts

Love Street – The Musical

Love Street Paisley ExpressMartin O’Connor and I collaborated once again  on a co-commission from Outspoken Arts Scotland. We were invited to develop a proposal for a  new theatre production in Paisley called Love Street – The Musical. We spent two months  out and about visiting organisations and gathering stories from people in Paisley who have memories and connections to Love Street.

Love Street research
Research at Paisley Heritage Centre

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Sonic Bothy Ensemble Album Launch

Sonic Bothy inclusive new music ensemble I work with launched its debut album Fields with a performance at Mono in Glasgow on 28th February 2019.  The album was recorded near the end of 2017 at Riverside Studios. Read more at Lost Art Agency and at Glasgow City Music Tours…The album is available at Bandcamp.

More Information

For more information on Sonic Bothy Ensemble, and all the charity’s activities, please visit Sonic Bothy’s website.

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Rough Breathing – The Herald

181124 Keith Bruce Rough Breathing

Near the end of our CCA/AC Projects Residency we held an informal event in the Creative Lab. We shared a performance of work-in-progress and had a wonderful Q and A/discussion.

Many thanks indeed to Keith Bruce for including Rough Breathing in this nice piece about CCA Glasgow and the Counterflow Festival 2019.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/17241164.keith-bruce-glasgow-continues-to-host-ground-breaking-music/

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Sonic Bothy Updates 2018

Performance

Sonic Bothy Ensemble and Bothy Learning Space joined forces for some intensive rehearsals and a big performance, Diagonal Joy, in the Recital Room at City Halls in November 2018.

Nomination

Sonic Bothy ISME 2016 at RCS photo © SBEveryone’s excited that Sonic Bothy Ensemble has been nominated for a Scottish Award For New Music.

More Information

For more information on Sonic Bothy Ensemble, and all the charity’s activities, please visit Sonic Bothy’s website.

 

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Rough Breathing CCA/AC Projects Residency

CCA:AC Projects1Delighted to have been selected for a month-long CCA/AC Projects Residency with clarinettist Alex South in the Creative Lab at CCA Glasgow – read more at the CCA website.

During our residency Alex South and I explored different elements through the Rough Breathing context – live electronics, audiovisual, and psychoacoustic and sonic relationships between voice and clarinet in addition to breathing practices informed by Pranayama.

Nichola and Alex recording CCASession with Wendy 181117

 

 

 

 

 

 

We posted some blogs at AC Projects Counterflows and shared some work-in-progress at an informal gathering at CCA near the end of the residency. Huge thanks to Alasdair Campbell/AC Projects, Creative Scotland, Alex Misick, Kenny Christie and all at CCA Glasgow, and our guests in the lab, sound designer William Aikman, filmmaker Wendy Kirkup and dance artists Joan Clevillé and Solène Weinachter.

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Rough Breathing at Sharmanka

Sharmanka Scrutton:South

Many thanks to John Cavanagh for inviting us to perform on 1st July 2018 at Sharmanka Gallery amongst the wonderful, atmospheric kinetic sculptures.

Alex South and I further explored our Rough Breathing collaboration for voice and clarinets.

Here’s a link to the Sharmanka event. https://www.facebook.com/events/181727232538481/

 

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Beton 7 Festival in Athens

Demosthenes

Q+A

Gallery Screening

Festival Opening

We were delighted to be invited to share work for the opening night of  Beton 7 Festival in Athens on 4th June 2018. The event included an introduction by curator Demosthenes Agrafiotis, my solo performance When Night Comes, screening of Wendy Kirkup’s two films Touches Bloquees and film from a score, and a Q + A session in conversation with Simon Murray.

Festival dates: 5th – 17th June 2018. Festival theme: “Visions-V_Ideas, Performances”…

“Visions-V_ideas, Performances” celebrates 5 years since its launch at BETON7. In April 2014, it was stated that the set of actions of the festival aimed at exploring the interface between performance and video in the specific frame of the Votanikos neighbourhood – the site of BETON7, Center for the Arts.

When Night Comes 4

A review may be necessary, not in the sense of a conclusion but an assessment for future adjustments. According to a terminology, performance is at the crossroad of the living arts (arts vivants), which rely on the human body as the main tool, in order to found its artistic idiosyncrasy or specificity (dance for example) and the visual arts, where physical elements allow to shape primarily spatial structures (e.g. sculpture). At this crossroad, the video is entering, which is the field, the opportunity to create a new version of what is happening at the aforementioned crossroad from aesthetic and social point of view.”

Many thanks indeed to Rania and Demosthenes for their invitation, welcome and warm hospitality.

 

 

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Static Flux at Hidden Door Festival

Zoë Strachan and I performed Static Flux at the Hidden Door Festival in Edinburgh on 29th May 2018.

Programme Note

Static Flux is a sonic seance! In this spoken word/sound piece Zoë and I are exploring narrative and time through chance encounters with remnants, fragments and the ephemera of past lives. The performance was originally created for a live studio broadcast for Radiophrenia in 2017.

@zoestrachan
@NicholaScrutton

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The Mark of the Beast review

***** (The Herald)

Read the review online

Presented by Martin O’Connor and Platform
Written and Performed by Martin O’Connor
With Nichola Scrutton and the North East Recovery Community
Platform, Easterhouse 13th-15th April
The Scottish Storytelling Centre 19th April

Creative Team:
Martin O’Connor – Writer and Performer
Nichola Scrutton – Composition/Sound Design
Fergus Dunnet – Set Design
Hana Allen – Stage Management
Davie Green – Lighting Design
Alan McKendrick – Directing Support
Eoin Carey – Image and Production Photography

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Corner Corner Volta Flip | Kate Briggs

Corner Corner Volta Flip 2

I was delighted to collaborate on the audio form for Kate Briggs written piece Corner Corner Volta Flip, which was part of ‘How Forms Live’ at the Mitchell Library for Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art. The work was set up as a headphone installation in the Poet’s Corner.

Read more about Corner Corner Volta Flip

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The Mark of the Beast | Martin O’Connor

Mark of the Beast 1

The Mark of the Beast – a collaboration as composer/sound artist with writer/theatre-maker Martin O’Connor that explores lived experience of alcohol and addiction in Glasgow.

Between November 2015 and March 2016, Martin and I worked with the North East Recovery Community to create materials for a sound installation Good Days Bad Days.  I composed a ‘soundtrack’ from the many voices/stories of participant’s experiences that was projected as an immersive installation at Platform Glasgow. The work was commissioned by GEAC Platform-to-Health and GRAND (Getting Real About Alcohol n Drugs).

The installation was research and development for Martin’s live solo show The Mark of the Beast , for which I re-composed the Good Days Bad Days material in 2018.

***** The Herald (Platform Glasgow)
**** The Wee Review (Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh)

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Rough Breathing | Alex South

Through the Rough Breathing project I have been collaborating with clarinettist Alex South to investigate the role and use of breath as an improvising tool in live performance. Our collaborative exploration to date has focused on a) the psychoacoustic and sonic relationships between voice and clarinet, and b) breath and bodily breathing processes as potential material and/or structural devices within free improvisation. One line of inquiry, for example, centres on how the breath might sculpt the dynamic flow of sound-making in performance.

With early exploratory performances at The Glad Cafe and Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre (many thanks John Cavanagh), the work was further supported and developed through a CCA/AC Projects Residency in the Creative Lab at CCA 2018  and Tectonics Festival 2019.

In 2020, Rough Breathing was shortlisted for the Scottish Awards for New Music Ism Prize for Collaboration.

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Sonic Bothy Inclusive New Music

I am delighted to have been working with Sonic Bothy  Ensemble since January 2014. Sonic Bothy was founded by creative director Claire Docherty, and explores, composes and performs experimental and contemporary music.

I post occasional updates – read more in News or click on the Sonic Bothy tag.

For more information on Sonic Bothy Ensemble, and all the charity’s activities, please visit Sonic Bothy’s website