Tag: performance
Radio Art Zone Book Launch Party London Iklectik
Delighted to be performing at the Radio Art Zone book party at Iklectik in London, which is also broadcasting live on Resonance Extra / Resonance FM.
“an evening of ten-minute performances by 20 prominent radio artists and experimental musicians featuring performances by: Batophone, Caroline Kraabel, Sofia Vaisman Maturana & Itinerant Sounds, Ed Baxter with Steffan Cennydd, Catherine Kontz, Post Electronics, Shortwave Collective – Hannah Kemp-Welch and Georgia Meunster, C John Weaver & Adam Bohman, Tricia & Sebastian, Nichola Scrutton, Xentos Fray Bentos & John Glyn, King Alfaman & Needle Boy.”
The Radio Art Zone book, curated and edited by Sarah Washington, explores the central themes, concepts and techniques of artist-made radio, emerging from over 20 years practice in the field.
Night Vision at SOUND Festival
Details
Date and Time: Thursday 26th October 2023 at 8.30 PM
Venue: The Lemon Tree, 5 West North St, Aberdeen AB24, Scotland
Delighted to be performing Night Vision in the 2023 SOUND Festival. More information and book tickets at:
https://sound-scotland.co.uk/event/night-vision
Duo Robertson/Scrutton at Old Hairdresser’s
Ali Robertson and I will be performing a duo in a stellar line-up as part of Rob Churm’s event at:
The Old Hairdresser’s, Glasgow
On Friday 6th October 2023
More information and tickets at:
Lying Over Under Another Performances
Doors Open Day University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections
11th September 2023 – Zoë and I perform Lying Over Under Another in the Archives and Special Collections at University of Glasgow. Some scrapbooks will be displayed after the performance during a Q&A exploring how they inform the palimpsest that we create in our sound art collaborations. More info and book tickets at: https://glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk/in_person_event/lying-over-under-another-performance-followed-by-qa/
Radiophrenia
2nd September 2023 – We are delighted that Lying Over Under Another had its premiere on Saturday 2nd September as a live-to-air broadcast on Radiiophrenia direct from the Creative Lab in the CCA Glasgow. Big thanks to the Radiophrenia team for making it a smooth and special sail on the airwaves as always!
Lying Over Under Another is supported by the Edwin Morgan Trust through The Second Life Award.
Lying Over Under Another Taster Film
A taster film of what we’ve been up to in the Edwin Morgan Trust archive as part of our Second Life Award project Lying Over Under Another, developing a new sound art/performance piece inspired by Morgan’s scrapbooks. With Zoe Strachan.
Interzone Release on Nonclassical
New album Interzone was released on Nonclassical label on 15th June 2023, and is currently available in CD and digital formats.
https://nicholascrutton.bandcamp.com/album/interzone
The Interzone series of tracks on the album were composed with voice, field recordings and archive materials by Nichola Scrutton in her studio, then mixed and mastered by Jim McEwan of Bark Bark Dog Studios. The second second series of voice tracks were recorded live in Solas Sound Studios by Jim McEwan, and then mixed and mastered by Jim at Bark Bark Dog Studios.
Cover art: Nichola Scrutton
Interzone has been supported by the PRS Foundation Open Fund for Music Creators, Creative Scotland and Nonclassical.
Guest Artist at GLE4M Festival
Delighted to be a guest artist at GLE4M Festival at Queen Margaret Union, University of Glasgow – Ali Robertson joined me for a duo improvisation in the evening event on 25th May 2023.
“GLE4M 2023 returns with two days of concerts and specially-curated listening spaces in and around the Queen Margaret Union, University of Glasgow. The festival is a collaboration between the 4M netlabel and The Dear Green Bothy, which focusses on environmentally-conscious arts practices working at the intersection of technology and sustainability.”
Read more at: https://deargreenbothy.gla.ac.uk/event/gle4m-sustainability-resilience-stability/
Night Vision at GOMA Glasgow
A second performance of Night Vision at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) Glasgow on Sat 20th May at 3 pm.
Read more at the GoMA Blog
Vocal Performers: Alison Peebles, Louise Montgomery, Ian Spink, Nerea Bello, Belle Jones.
Director/conductor: Nichola Scrutton
Live Sound: Stevie Jones
Outside Eye: Nicholas Bone
Producer: Nichola Scrutton
Many thanks to Curator/Producer Katie Bruce, and GOMA
Night Vision is supported by Creative Scotland and Glasgow Life-Glasgow Museums
MAIN IMAGE: pre-performance of Night Vision at GoMA, 20th May 2023 Photo. © Julie Broadfoot
Night Vision at CCA Glasgow
The world premiere of Night Vision was at the CCA Glasgow in the main theatre on Friday 28th April 2023.
Details of the event are listed at:
https://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/night-vision
Night Vision is a contemplative, dynamic, ensemble performance – a vocal sound work that crosses territory between concert, theatre, live art, visual art.
Night Vision live is one of various iterations of the work being produced in 2023. This CCA performance was filmed live, with cinematographer Kirstin McMahon and a roving camera part of the performance.
Vocal Performers: Alison Peebles, Louise Montgomery, Ian Spink, Nerea Bello, Belle Jones.
Director/conductor: Nichola Scrutton
Cinematographer: Kirstin McMahon
Outside Eye: Nicholas Bone
Producer: Nichola Scrutton
Many thanks to all at the CCA.
Many thanks to Creative Scotland, and to everyone who has supported Night Vision.
Lying Over Under Another with Zoë Strachan
Lying Over Under Another is a collaborative sound performance with Zoë Strachan.
We were absolutely delighted to have been selected for a Second Life Award by the Edwin Morgan Trust to research, develop and produce the work through 2023. https://edwinmorgantrust.com/2022/10/14/nichola-scrutton-and-zoe-strachan-lying-over-under-another/
Responding to the visual richness of Edwin Morgan’s scrapbooks, held in Archives and Special Collections, we reimagine the scrapbooking and research process through sound and gesture. This improvised performance combines recorded and live sound with spoken word to re-present the diverse materials Morgan collected as bodies (entities) in relation to each other; offering new connections that may be physical, emotional, psychical. Elements of verbal disintegration and moments of absurdity and humour echo Morgan’s own poetic practice and its rootedness in the city of Glasgow.
Supported by the Edwin Morgan Trust through The Second Life Award.
Night Vision 2023 – Creative Scotland Open Fund
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, and I have a mailing list ..Join Mailing List
Many thanks to everyone who’s supported Night Vision.
Second Life Award – Edwin Morgan Trust
Lying Over Under Another – a collaboration with Zoë Strachan
Really delighted to have been selected for The Second Life Awards 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, I also have a Mailing List for occasional news updates – Join Mailing List
Night Vision
2022-23 – Phase 2
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.
Duo with Alex South – Human Threads
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.
Test-Pitting with Zoë Strachan
Test-Pitting – a collaborative residency
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.
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.
We shared some work-in-progress at the end of the residency in an event that included an informal performance and Q+A chat.
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.
Radiophrenia and Mobile Radio Collaboration
Mobile Radio residency – Glasgow Calling Scale
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.
Salt Cellar with Zoë Strachan
Salt Cellar – a collaborative radio art work
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.
Programme Note
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 with Aya Kobayashi at French Street Studio
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.
Giant Tank Pot Luck at Tusk TV
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.
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 Claire and 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.
Dear Prudence re-imagined | Anne Colvin
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.
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.
Rough Breathing Shortlisted
I am excited 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.
Stolen Voices at CCA
Necessary Notes: A Vocal Response – solo performance as part of the Stolen Voices album launch on 8th February 2020.
Review
“Nichola Scrutton is, as ever, an absolute wonder- her voice can disarm, charm and bewitch….She takes the listener into otherwordly realms, an uncertain space between sleep and consciousness.” (The Tempohouse)
Read the full review by Lorna Irvine.
The album launch was part of a creative research project by Rebecca Collins and Johanna Linsley – more here. The event forms part of ‘The Sonic Study Series: Act I Sonic Practice’ and is a pop-up event for the Festival of Creative Learning 2020, University of Edinburgh. Many thanks to Rebecca and Johanna for the invitation. More info about the event at CCA Stolen Voices.
Sonic Bothy Updates March 2020
Performances
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, along with Creative Director Claire Docherty (Project Manager) and Malcy Duff who works with Bothy Learning Space (Support Artist). At the core of the project was a series of exploratory workshops, co-led with Malcy. 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. The project has been detailed in an extensive research report, written up at the end of the practical work.
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.
Sonic Bothy Updates Oct 2019
Review – Sonic Bothy Ensemble: Immediate Buzz Shift, CCA, Glasgow
“Part of the wonder of Sonic Bothy is that each night is individual as a finger print. So it is with Immediate Buzz Shift.” (The Tempohouse)
Read the SBE CCA Review…
Performances
Sonic Bothy Ensemble are next performing at TUSK Festival at The Sage in Gateshead, which is very exciting! We’ll be in Hall 2 at 7:10pm on Sunday 13th October 2019.
In June 2019 we had a fantastic time performing at the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery…Also in June we also had a wonderful time recording some new work in the studio at Gorbals Sound, Glasgow.
Sonic Bothy Ensemble Debut Album
Sonic Bothy Ensemble’s debut album Fields 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.
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.
Radio Play at Batch 2 Festival
Radio Play A and new work-in-progress Radio Play B performances at Batch Festival in the Borders on Sunday 18th August 2019.
With Ian Spink, Skye Reynolds, Selina Boyack, Rebecca Moore and Stella. Huge thanks to Claire Pencak for hosting. Visit Batch Festival on Facebook for more information.
Residency at Q-O2 in Brussels
I was delighted to be selected for a residency at Q-O2 in Brussels for two weeks May/June 2019. See more info at Q-O2. Part of my priority was to reflect on Night Vision – a new work-in-progress originally developed at Rough Mix Residency with Magnetic North Theatre Company. While I was there I also made some recordings, explored some visual artwork as an extension of the Night Vision text and, and gave an improvised performance with cellist Arnold Noid Haberl as part of a public sharing at the Q-O2 space.
Many thanks indeed to all at Q-O2!
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.
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.