sound art Archives - Nichola Scrutton

Posted on 08/07/202122/07/2021 by nichola

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, being actively involved in staying creatively connected to participants/musicians and producing new work is 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.

Posted on 21/11/202015/05/2021 by nichola

Up Closeness | Zoë Strachan

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.

Posted on 26/09/202016/02/2021 by nichola

Wave Shift

Wave Shift is an immersive soundscape composition. Source materials for the work include a selection of field recordings captured during an artist residency with UZ Arts at Sura Medura in Sri Lanka, and vocal sound recordings. Wave Shift was originally composed for a collaborative installation with artist/printmaker Natasha Russell, and then subsequently recomposed as this shorter standalone work.

<a href="https://nicholascrutton.bandcamp.com/track/wave-shift">Wave Shift by Nichola Scrutton</a>

Wave Shift Released in 2019

Wave Shift was the first release in August 2019 in the new season South Asia PhoNographic Mornings as part of the soundscape project Each Morning of the World produced by Stéphane Marin in France on BandCamp. All donations from the project go to the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE). Many thanks indeed to Stéphane for inviting me to contribute the track, record the voice intro and outro for the season’s radio broadcasts each week, and the album artwork.

Posted on 16/03/202020/06/2020 by nichola

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, 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…

<a href="http://sonicbothy.bandcamp.com/album/fields">Fields by Sonic Bothy Ensemble</a>

More Information

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

Posted on 09/10/201920/06/2020 by nichola

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…
<a href="http://sonicbothy.bandcamp.com/album/fields">Fields by Sonic Bothy Ensemble</a>

More Information

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

Posted on 31/08/201915/05/2021 by nichola

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.

Posted on 16/08/201919/06/2020 by nichola

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.

Posted on 19/05/201920/06/2020 by nichola

Residency at Q-O2 in Brussels

Q-O2 residency — Portrait photo © Wendy Kirkup.

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!

Posted on 17/05/201915/05/2021 by nichola

Rays & Correlations | Zoë Strachan

Zoë Strachan and I created Rays & Correlations for a live broadcast from the Radiophrenia studio on 15th May 2019. This is our third collaborative radio artwork. Previous works are In Transit and Static Flux.

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.