Tag: voice

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Word of Mouth

Word of Mouth is fixed medium work (4′) that uses the human voice as the only sound source. Structurally the piece uses gestural phonemes to project a range of non-linguistic vocal sounds on the breath, which are extended and woven together to evoke metaphorical and spatial associations.

Selected Performances

CAAA Centre for Art and Architecture Affairs, Portugal (Fringe Música Viva 2013)
Radio 6: Cafe Sonore, Netherlands (Musica Viva Sound Garden)
France Musique Radio: ‘Electrain de Nuit’, Christian Zanesi (Musica Viva Sound Garden)
Música Viva Festival Sound Garden, Lisbon, Portugal (2012)
RadiaLx, Radio Art Festival / 88.4 FM, Lisbon, Portugal
Lights Out Listening Event, Glasgow

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Lateral

Nichola Scrutton Lateral

Originally commissioned and created for High-Slack-Low-Slack-High – a suite of audio works relating to the Clyde River curated by Minty Donald for GI Festival of Visual Art – Lateral was made as a live, site-specific installation set in Dixon Street, Glasgow. Subsequent to that event I created a studio version of the work.

Background info

Dixon Street is a main thoroughfare that runs from the river directly up through the city’s main shopping artery. The aims of the work were to highlight a sense of disconnection from the river and to create multiple cross currents by merging the river sounds of Lateral and the sounds of the city environment. The work was projected over large horn speakers mounted in the street between two buildings, creating a view down to the river. Six vocalists added a further layer of human presence with their resonant tones both emerging out of and being subsumed by the undulating sound density of the site.

The starting point for the work was the idea of a ‘Lateral System’ – a system of navigational aids comprising shapes, colours and numbers, used to guide boats up river channels into ports and docks. However, the multiple resonances of the word ‘lateral’ took on greater significance in the work through the associations and digressions that emerge with the notion of a flowing river. Place names, numerical information from tidal charts and signal/radio sounds serve as signposts along the way, rooting the work in a real world place. But the perpetual flow of water and the periodic rhythms of a vocal landscape contribute to a sense of multiple spatial and historical resonances, and to ideas of flowing with and against the current.

Many thanks indeed to Claire Docherty, Kirstie Edgar, Jessica King, Morag Stark and Hanna Tuulikki for their live vocal contributions both on site at Dixon Street and at the closing event in the Clydeport Authority Headquarters.

Performances/events include…

2016
‘Inter-#6’ (Glasgow)
Curated radio show ‘Glasgow Soundscapes’ WebSynRadio (France)
2015
Curated listening hour at Brooklyn Acoustic Ecology Festival (US)
LOLG project Shona Island (Scotland)
2014
(25 Feb – 2 March)
Here. now. where? Saout Radio, 5th Marrakech Biennale
(12 – 18 January)
Framework Radio broadcasts
12th london, uk ::: resonance 104.4fm
13th amsterdam, nl ::: concertzender
13th vancouver, us ::: radio nouspace
14th south devon, uk ::: soundartradio 102.5fm
14th maribor, si ::: radio marš 95.9fm
15th lisbon, pt ::: radio zero
15th vancouver, us ::: radio nouspace
16th coimbra, pt ::: rádio universidade de coimbra 107.9fm
16th lisbon, pt ::: radio zero
17th ljubljana, si ::: radio študent 89.3fm
17th brussels, be ::: radio campus 92.1fm
17th vancouver, us ::: radio nouspace
18th london, uk ::: resonance 104.4fm
18th new york state, us ::: wgxc 90.7fm
18th brasilía, br ::: rádio paisagem
2012
Foldover, WOBC 91.5 fm, Ohio
Time/Zones, Akademie der Kunst, Berlin
AIR/EAR Installation, Radio-System, Argentine

High-Slack-Low-Slack-High, GI Festival, Dixon Street, Glasgow
High-Slack-Low-Slack-High, GI Festival, Clydeport HQ, Glasgow

 

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Teaching Fellow University of Glasgow

After being awarded my PhD from University of Glasgow I worked as a Teaching Fellow in Music there for two years.

Glasgow Unesco City of Music

2009-2011 University of Glasgow (Music)
Teaching Fellow (0.6 fte)

In brief, areas of work included:

Sonic Arts Levels II and III;
Practice-based Composition Workshops;
Contemporary Music Ensemble;
Lectures in Music and Technology;
Advising UG Dissertations and students on the MLitt in Popular Music Studies (Creative Practice);
First GLEAM concert organiser and host;
Music Education Project Organiser;
Course Administration.

2004-2009  University of Glasgow (Music):
Graduate Teaching Assistant

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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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All We’re Skilled In | Plantation Productions

All We’re Skilled In was a film, sound art and heritage project run in partnership with Plantation Productions, Glasgow Film Theatre and Scottish Screen Archive. Erin Scrutton and I worked with young carers in Glasgow to create atmospheric sound tracks for silent film clips using original historical footage of the Govan shipyards and the people who worked there. The film below, made by Jamie Dempster, is a short documentary of the project itself. The film has had several screenings, including the Glasgow International Film Festival.


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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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Hold Your Breath

Hold Your Breath 5Hold Your Breath was a large-scale visual/sound art project set up to improve the entrances/exits to the Clyde Tunnel, with the participation of the Whiteinch and Linthouse communities at each end of the tunnel.

I composed the various contributions of source sound and music into one large 40-minute work, which was to be projected by radio into the cars traveling through the Clyde Tunnel.


 

 

 

 

Various groups were involved in creating sound/music source materials for the soundscape: Paragon Ensemble working with St Jerome’s and Whiteinch Primary Schools; Art Form with Bryan Tolland; Tigerstyle and Dhol Infusion drummers; and the MacAlpine Family all contributed. I worked with Paragon Ensemble in the schools, gathering up sounds/songs from the children, the playground and surrounding streets, and recorded songs at the MacAlpine’s (four generation) family party

(photos courtesy of Kathy Friend)

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Sustenance


Sustenance is a studio composition (14’37) that explores human interaction with objects and processes that make up our daily existence. The sound materials progress through sections, each defined by a specific sonic/material character drawn from the objects and processes used in cooking. At a higher level of structure, the work traces a general transformation from dry to wet, reflecting decay. Selected for various international broadcasts, SONUS online listening library and for NAISA Deep Wireless 7CD, produced in Toronto, Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

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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’.

 

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Hooks + Bites | Glow Co-Create

Sound artist and facilitator in the creative team of Plan B Collective, who were awarded £30,000 for a Glow Co-Create project  Hooks + Bites for the Curriculum for Excellence (2010-2011). The project worked in partnership with Perth Concert Hall, Perth and Kinross Council, Learning and Teaching Scotland and Creative Scotland. Hooks + Bites was one of ten education projects across Scotland commissioned to take artists into schools to work with pupils to generate creative content for the national schools intranet, Glow.  

The Hooks + Bites project culminated in an exhibition in Perth Concert Hall’s unique media art space Threshold and included a digital audio-visual artwork on its soundbox, bank of screens and sound/audio unit in the public toilets. Plan B Collective was later selected to present a seminar on the ‘Hooks + Bites’ project at the 2010 Scottish Learning Festival.

Creative Team: Fiona Fleming, Nichola Scrutton, Erin Scrutton and Barbara Chalmers.

Watch a film about Hooks + Bites

 

More on Glow Co-Create

The Co-Create project has been set up through a partnership between the Scottish Arts Council (Creative Scotland) and Learning and Teaching Scotland.  GLOW Co-Create recognises the important role the arts can play in learning, in supporting and enhancing the Curriculum for Excellence, and in developing innovative new approaches to learning and teaching through Glow.

Managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government, Glow is the world’s first national intranet for education.  It provides a platform for online collaboration and sharing and allows Scotland’s 54,000 teachers and 750,000 pupils to work and learn in ways that have not been possible before.  Glow is breaking down barriers and making learning experiences and opportunities more widely accessible to users across Scotland. Also read more at TES news.

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Breathing Space

Breathing Space (7’56) is an early studio composition that uses the human voice as the only sound source.  As the title suggests, the driving force of the work is the breath and its potential to evoke different sensations of space.  Breathing Space continually overlaps the border between the literal and metaphorical, and the ambiguous relationship between ‘natural’ and processed sounds.  The form proceeds as a relatively free exploration of these multiple vocal possibilities but comes to pivot on a transformation from intense saturation to extreme reduction. The work was selected for a range of international broadcasts on experimental radio.