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Songs for a Stranger

Songs for a Stranger - SolitudeSongs for a Stranger is a collection or cycle of five electroacoustic works that draws metaphorical inspiration from the many senses of the word ‘stranger’.

Everyone feels like a stranger sometimes – when travelling somewhere new; returning home; confronting solitude. Some feel estranged in close intimacy; others find connection through anonymity.

Songs for a Stranger movements:

i  A Fragile Memory (4’40)
ii  Blowing In (5′)
iii  Solitude (4’26)
iv  I Said You Said (5′)
v  In the Midst (4’39)

The piece was premiered in the intimate ‘dark space’ at The Arches LIVE! Festival in September 2011, performed and diffused over a 4-channel speaker system. I invited Swiss vocalist Céline Hänni to rehearse and perform the work for Arches Live. Sound diffusion: Graeme Truslove. Many thanks indeed to all at The Arches.

Songs for a Stranger was further supported by a Creative Scotland Quality Arts Production Award.

 

 

 

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SoundAround at Perth Concert Hall

SoundAroundSoundAround was a mental health music/sound workshop and performance project co-facilitated with Erin Scrutton.

Over 10 weekly sessions we created a range of musical materials using voice, drumming, percussion and recorded sounds to create a final live interactive performance for the ‘Come Awa’ In’ opening weekend of Perth Concert Hall in Scotland.

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Songs for a Stranger Reviews

**** Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman 23/0911, Arches Live!, Glasgow

……And down at the rough end of the basement, in a bare tunnel of a room, there’s composer Nichola Scrutton’s Songs For A Stranger, a 25-minute piece that moves beyond the limits of language into five segments of abstract electronic sound, accompanied by the increasingly fierce and brilliant vocal improvisations of Scrutton and her performing partner, Celine Hanni. There’s a central moment of meditation – titled Solitude – that recalls the deep resonances of Tibetan chant; then a final, shattering visit to what sounds like a dying rainforest, as a fierce richness of animal sound gives way to crackling cataclysm, and the soft, low sigh of a final breath….

*** Mary Brennan, The Herald (“…as a live performance, full of vertiginous vocal techniques, it was always impressive…”)

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HumDrum

Sister duo Nichola Scrutton and Erin Scrutton as And Then She Said in association with Plan B Collective created HumDrum pop-up singing and drumming events to celebrate 100 years of International Women’s Day. Subsequent events included the West End Festival and the Royal Highland Show.

Watch a short film about HumDrum.

Check out some press photos  of the HumDrum event at the Royal Concert Hall steps in Glasgow to celebrate 100 years of International Women’s Day at Universal News.

Big thanks to our sponsors above, and a huge thanks to all involved!

Events included: International Women’s Day 100 year celebration, Concert Hall, Glasgow, Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery for the West End Festival, and the Royal Highland Show.

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The Dwelling Series

The Dwelling Series - Nichola Scrutton

The Dwelling Series (2010) is a triptych of vocal works. Multiple concepts arising from the notion of the title Dwelling gave rise to an interactive process of improvising and recording with MAXMSP, through which I sought to explore a sense of ‘inhabiting’ the work. As inspiration for generating improvised material under this complex umbrella concept of ‘dwelling’ I used three general metaphors to articulate events or states: dust (nature), cycle (flow/journey) and echo (memory).

The compositional process consisted of creating successive  vocal improvisations, which were merged together, fully intact, after each improvisation was captured. Manipulation of the captured improvisations was strictly limited to the editing of gestures and textures in time and space to enhance or magnify relationships/conflicts that emerged by chance as each layer was added.

(i) Dwelling/In Dialogue: studio composition (17′). Listen

(ii) Dwelling/Encounters: pre-composed sound and live performance, in which two live performers merged and improvised with a pre-composed soundtrack projected through multiple loud speakers.  Swiss vocalist Céline Hänni and I undertook a short intensive residency to explore extended technique vocal improvisation that culminated in the final performance. (12’30). Listen

(iii) Dwelling/In Reflection: live interactive solo performance (18′). Listen

 

 

 

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Academic Awards

Academic Awards and Qualifications

PhD in Electroacoustic Composition – portfolio ‘Hearing Voices’  – University of Glasgow (graduation Nov 2009)
Funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Award – selected from open competition (2005 – 08)

MMus in Composition – University of Glasgow (2004 – 05)
Supported by a Bellahouston Scholarship and a Broomhill Scholarship 

BMus (Hons) First Class –University of Glasgow (2004)
The Goudie Prize ‘Most Distinguished BMus Hons Graduate’.