I’m really thrilled to share news of this PRS Foundation Open Fund for Music Creators Award to record an album for release in 2022. Label and other info will follow in due course. Thanks so much – this is very exciting!
In another thread of Night Vision I am responding to the main text through a series of drawings with an umbrella title Memory | Dream | Encounter.
I was delighted to offer micro-commissions to composers Ruth Wiesenfeld, Elisabetta Senesi, Dafna Naphtali, Julia Drouhin and Claire Docherty – an invite to create miniature sound compositions using fragments from those drawings as a visual prompt.
On 31st August 2021 the six composers met in a virtual gathering to listen together, discuss the works and creative process.
Many thanks indeed to the composers/sound artists. The works are:
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 images were a prompt, a connecting point, a spring board for dialogue. The sound compositions stand as individual works and as a collection, which hopefully will be shared publicly in the future.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’s debut album Fields is still available at Bandcamp in hard copy and digital formats…
For more information on Sonic Bothy Ensemble, and all the charity’s activities, please visit Sonic Bothy’s website.
“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…
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’s debut album Fields is available at Bandcamp…
For more information on Sonic Bothy Ensemble, and all the charity’s activities, please visit Sonic Bothy’s website.
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 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.
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!
