Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2024-25 artist development programme and learn more about their Sound Generator projects.

This week, we talk to Pheobe riley Law.

Pheobe riley Law is an installation artist with a focus in sound, performance, photography, and sculptural activation. Using a symbiotic approach, she builds dialogues between different bodies, borders and devices to activate flexible new relationships.

For Sound Generator, Pheobe is researching and developing Vegetal Empathy, a speculative simulation of the garden, exploring our entanglement with more-than-human entities through data, micro-listening and acts of tending.

Watch our video interview:

 

 

 

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"I will be researching into different plant life and finding collaborations among different people who work with plants, I'll be looking at micro worlds and using specialist microphones to delve into those." Pheobe riley Law

We look forward to sharing more details about Pheobe's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Pheobe's website to find out more about her work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of judges including leading figures across contemporary music, chose six emerging artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop a project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2024-25 artist development programme and learn more about their Sound Generator projects.

This week, we talk to Rosie Tee.

Rosie Tee is a composer and performer that conjures technicolour narratives from electronics, jazz, psych and avant-pop. Finding joy in the experimental corners of songwriting, she crafts folkloric lyrics that float above hypnotic electronic sound worlds.

For Sound Generator, Rosie Tee is researching and developing And Other Creatures, a collaborative project merging nocturnal folk songs from Eastern Europe with atmospheric electronic music.

Watch our video interview:

 

 

 

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"Sound Generator has actually enabled me to carve out time in quite a busy schedule to just focus on music making, which I'm really grateful for." Rosie Tee

We look forward to sharing more details about Rosie Tee's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Rosie Tee's website to find out more about her work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of judges including leading figures across contemporary music, chose six emerging artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop a project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2024-25 artist development programme and learn more about their Sound Generator projects.

This week, we talk to An-Ting.

An-Ting 安婷 is a multidisciplinary artist who thrives in piano, electronic compositions, and various other forms of artistic expression, described by NOTION as ‘the one-to-watch in the world of composing.’

For Sound Generator, An-Ting 安婷 is researching and developing Underwater, a new live performance project exploring the acoustic world of underwater life.

Watch our video interview:

 

 

 

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"I've been really interested in exploring nonhuman sound...then I got interested in underwater sound from sea creatures." An-Ting 安婷

We look forward to sharing more details about An-Ting 安婷's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit An-Ting 安婷's website to find out more about their work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of judges including leading figures across contemporary music, chose six emerging artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop a project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2024-25 artist development programme and learn more about their Sound Generator projects.

This week, we talk to Hang Linton.

Hang Linton is a self-taught, interdisciplinary artist, working in music, performance, dance, video, sculpture and installation. Their practice explores otherness through sound, non-linear time concepts, community and public art.

For Sound Generator, Hang is researching and developing their idea of creating a large-scale, interactive community synth machine, which could tour to different cities across the UK and Europe.

Watch our video interview:

 

 

 

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"I want to create an experimental synth that will be in the public realm and disrupt mundane spaces." Hang Linton

We look forward to sharing more details about Hang Linton's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Hang Linton's website to find out more about their work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of judges including leading figures across contemporary music, chose six emerging artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop a project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2024-25 artist development programme and learn more about their Sound Generator projects.

This week, we talk to Madame Ceski.

Welsh performer-composer Madame Ceski's work explores rural culture, traditions & environment, through contemporary experimentation and improvisation. Her multidisciplinary output varies from sound, song, video, graphic score, installation to social practice. Over the past year Madame Ceski has been exploring climate justice within her practice (Codi BWM! with Articulture & OCM), leading towards kinetic sound work.

For Sound Generator, Madame Ceski is researching and developing a new live, immersive outdoor performance piece exploring clean air, landscape and community through a playful soundscape. Titled ‘Kite Song’, the work will be performed by the public and will weave together sounds of aeolian whistling kites alongside a roaming multichannel vocal composition.

Watch the video:

 

 

 

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“I wanted to get a project going where I could think really big and this is the first step for that.” Madame Ceski

We look forward to sharing more details about Madame Ceski's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Madame Ceski's website to find out more about their work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of judges including leading figures across contemporary music, chose six emerging artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop a project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2024-25 artist development programme and learn more about their Sound Generator projects.

This week, we talk to Arun Sood.

Arun Sood is a Scottish-Indian writer, musician, academic, and intermedia artist working across multiple forms. Through working creatively and critically with archives, found sound, and composition, his work explores cultural memory, diasporic identities, song cultures, and the intersections between personal heritage, colonial histories, and climate futures.

For Sound Generator, Arun is researching and developing 'Brown Hebrideans', a project conceived with collaborator Angeline Morrison, that explores their relationship with the Outer Hebrides and Gaelic song culture.

"For this project I'm going to be working with archival Gaelic song particularly with a focus on emigration songs from the Outer Hebrides and reworking them in ways that are a bit experimental and reinterpretating them in new ways." Arun Sood

Watch the video:

“I’m very happy to be part of this programme because it gives the time and space to develop this idea at a formative stage and time and space is not always easy to come by as an independent artist." Arun Sood

We look forward to sharing more details about Arun Sood's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Arun's website to find out more about his work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of judges including leading figures across contemporary music, chose six emerging artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop a project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

Ahead of the opening of Bird Bath this May, we caught up with Alice Eldridge and Alistair Appleton to find out more about the project.

What was your initial inspiration for Bird Bath?

Alistair:
The project popped into my head when I was working on the first Newhaven Festival a few years back. There’s a beautiful but rather hidden Norman church on top of the hill there which I’d always enjoyed visiting and was surprised that so few people from the town made the journey up the hill to see it.

So there was a sense of wanting to use that space. And then I had written a libretto for a composer friend about birdsong being a freer form of language - unburdened by convention and communal meaning. So it felt like a natural match to have wordless song in that building. From there, speaking and working with Alice, it developed quite naturally.

Alice: 
Bird bath was Alistair’s initial impulse, but one that absolutely resonated with work I was doing at the time. Alistair asked if I’d help him realise an idea he’d had for an event for the first Newhaven Festival. I had been working for some time in ecoacoustics – exploring natural soundscapes from an ecological perspective as a means to infer something about the “health” of an ecosystem.

This involved several field seasons in Sussex and Ecuador, recording and listening to incredible sounds of birds, insects, frogs and toads. The focus of this research was developing ways to measure soundscapes and map it to ecosystem health, but my personal experience of soaking up these natural choruses was very rich. It made me realise what a profound effect being surrounded by pure, unadulterated song can have on you.

My background is as a musician, so when Alistair suggested the collaboration, I jumped at the opportunity to explore soundscapes creatively. We had both moved to Newhaven relatively recently and it felt like a really nice thing to “give” to the town, as well as a way to better get to know our local area.

What can visitors expect?

Alistair:
In a way there is no expectation at all that visitors will experience one thing or another. In the simplest sense they will experience an empty church filled with local birdsong. But what they personally remember, daydream or associate with those two things is infinitely varied.

Alice: 
It really is as simple as the name suggests: we will fill the very beautiful St Peter’s church with bird song from our local region and invite people in. I am making the recordings this month from the biosphere and around, so it will be relevant in space and time! Expect to hear songs from the beach and the cliffs through the rivers to the downs and the woods.

 

 

 

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Alistair, can you tell us a little bit about your meditation and mindfulness practice and how it informs the concept behind Bird Bath?

Alistair:
Again, I don’t want people to think that Bird Bath is necessarily a meditative thing. But the location of an empty church does, in our culture, often point to contemplation and stillness. My meditation practice often takes sounds as its anchor: I will spend a few minutes simplifying the field of awareness down to just sounds and enjoy the variety and changing nature of the sonic world.

And then - as with all meditation - if you really lean in on that experience, it starts to fall apart. Who is the hearer? What or where is a sound? The deeper you listen the more mysterious phenomena start to feel.

How have you collaborated together to develop Bird Bath?

Alistair:
In the initial iteration in Newhaven, I asked Alice to help with the recordings and in her boundless enthusiasm she wove together recordings from all around Newhaven into an hour-long loop. This time around we wanted to improve the sound quality and make it easier to listen to. And Alice has brought in more sophisticated ways of playing the recordings spatially. We also wanted to frame the week of open exploration with a community breakfast to start the week and a music and meditation session to end it.

Alice:
The idea is very simple in essence. The project has grown very naturally. For the Brighton edition we have invited our extended communities to add some extra events. The installation will be framed with a dawn breakfast and a dusk event that invites different forms of interaction.

Our friends at Hospitable Environments will host an ‘ecosocial breakfast’ on the morning of International Dawn Chorus Day (4 May). Then long-term musical collaborators, Collectress will perform a short set after Alistair’s closing meditation as a means to invite the audience to come and express themselves with the birds.

Alice Eldridge - photo by Stuart Robinson.

Alice, can you tell us about your creative process for Bird Bath and recording the bird song in nature?

Alice:
A mix of intuitive and planned. We are collaborating with The Living Coast, and they were keen to highlight the magnificent range of habitats we have here – from coastal and downland to rivers and woodlands.

I enjoyed the process of creating “a day in the life” style piece before for Newhaven. So I knew I wanted to take visitors on a little journey from dawn to dusk and across the habitats of the biosphere. Beyond that I really just listened and responded to what was there.

It has been a great excuse to explore the biosphere, and spend some precious time sitting quietly – especially at dawn and dusk – in some magical places. There are various bits of basic field craft involved, but really just common sense and intuition.

In terms of composition, it will be very simple. This isn’t about me expressing myself, just bringing the songs to the church. Perhaps the craft and creativity is in letting each habitat express itself and to try to take the audience on a smooth journey.

Can you tell us a little bit about your practice (as an ecoacoustician) and how it informs Bird Bath?

Alice:
As above, perhaps ironically, it was time spent recording natural soundscapes as “data” that really turned me on to the visceral value of soaking up song. This research has changed the way I think about our acoustic environment.

The term ecoacoustics was only coined in 2014 and we are still developing core concepts (it is hard to study things that don’t have names) and measurement tools (you can’t do science without quantifying things).

Sometimes people think of science as reductive, but I find it very generative. Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to work with amazing ecologists, neuroscientists and anthropologists. I’ve come to recognise the soundscape as a rich space where information and meaning are shared across species – the ultimate multispecies media.

We still don’t really understand why bird song and other natural sounds can have positive effects on people, but I have a hunch that it is a lot to do with the dynamics and rhythms of nature’s songs and choruses. I suspect this influences my approach to recording and editing. Let’s see!

Another key influence has been working with indigenous communities in Ecuador to help them apply for national recognition of the eco-cultural importance of their soundscape as a means to protect their territory. These communities recognise themselves as part of the forest, protecting itself.

There is no division between “nature” and “culture” – it inspired me to explore ways to help Europeans remember the unity of the two. That the dawn chorus breakfast was billed as “sound art” in a major European festival feels like a step in this direction.

Alice recording in the field. Photo by Alistair Appleton.

What do you hope audiences will take away from their experience of the Bird Bath installation?

Alice: 
There are all sorts of emerging theories and evidence about the “benefits” of listening to bird song – that it can bring our sympathetic nervous system online, reconnect us to wider nature, and even provide greater life satisfaction than a salary hike.

But our hope - and hunch - is that bird bath is a very personal experience. So I suppose that I hope that people will enjoy the space it offers in their own way. If this helps them better tune in to their inner and outer worlds when they step outside again, then that is fantastic.

In the course of making the soundtrack, I have spent most weekends in April exploring nooks and crannies of the downs trying to find places filled with bird sounds away from traffic noise. Those that are public we will share on a map – so perhaps some may be inspired to explore a part of the biosphere they have not visited before.

Alistair: 
Alice and I have had some interesting discussions about whether or how a piece like this should be evaluated. My feeling is that I would like it to be as free from any interpretative encumbrances as possible. Some people come and sit for five minutes and then head outside again. Others lie down and stay for an hour letting their mind wander.

Secretly, I hope people will reconnect with the joy of listening and doing nothing (and also not being expected to do anything). I also imagine that the estrangement of hearing birds inside might make the experience of hearing them outside less taken-for-granted.

Photo of Alistair Appleton - image by Nick Ford.

What can audiences expect from the Sunday evening dusk meditation, performance and improvisation?

Alistair: 
I’m really excited about the closing performance at St Peters on the 12th. After seven days of sonic soaking, I’m hoping the stones of the church will be ringing and resonant with the birds and so getting a flock of humans inside the space will be special.

I’m going to offer a meditation which takes the birdsong as its starting point and (as I mentioned above) uses these fleetingly beautiful sonic phenomena as a springboard into the deeper nature of our perceptions and knowledge of the world.

After that Alice and the Collectress will play and we’ll end with some free improvised music making weaving in and out of the birds. Who knows what will emerge? But I'm looking forward to it.

Alice: 
This is an experiment for us – all our favourite things together! After a week of inviting audiences in to enjoy bird bath in their own way, we will offer a meditation and performance, before inviting everyone to express themselves in concert with the birds.

Alistair will lead a short guided meditation – with a dusk bird chorus. After a short break, Collectress will play a short piece to get the audience tuned in to their own performing. We recorded our first album in the same church, so this feels very special.

The piece we’ll play is inspired by the restoration of the Cockshut stream restoration project in the Ouse valley. We’ll then invite the audience to join us – so bring along an acoustic instrument, or your own voice.

Is there anything else you’d like to add about the project?

Alistair: 
Apart from the dawn breakfast and the dusk concert St Peter’s is open throughout the week for free so you can come and go as often as you like. And it is - in a way - all about locale and the local. So if you live nearby - please come as often as you like.

Alice: 
The friends of St Peter’s tell us that the church is the oldest building in Brighton – so we like to think that we are simply bringing back the bird song that it was once surrounded by. I have used this as an excuse to explore local ancient woodlands of a similar age, but some of them are private, so I can’t tell you where...

Bird Bath is part of the University of Sussex Festival of Ideas at Brighton Festival, 5 - 12 May 2024.

Find out more here

We spoke to landscape writer Sarah Acton and musicians Emily Burridge & Becki Driscoll ahead of the Seiners premiere. A newly commissioned poetic and musical piece opening each performance on The Fleet tour.

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind this piece / who you’ve met and spoken to / stories you’ve discovered?

Sarah Acton - Seiners is a spoken word and musical weaving of stories, voices and film about the seine fishing communities and coastal landscape of Dorset's Chesil beach and Fleet lagoon. Some of the memories were originally recorded during research for my book, Seining Along Chesil (Little Toller 2022) and from this starting point and my two years' immersed in these stories, the commission developed in collaboration with Common Ground for the film, and the musicians in Devon, Dorset and Cornwall; Becki Driscoll, Emily Burridge and Julie Macara. We worked at distance and together through a process involving rehearsals and conversations into deepening and reimagining the material in our creative responses. Through introductions I was able to make new fishing connections to expand my research further down the coast into the mysteries of salmon, the seine fishing tradition on the river in Teignmouth and into pilchards in Newlyn. People have been generous with their time and expertise, these heritage traditions are no longer something we can see everyday. I also took some inspiration from the film, Drifters, with its story told above and below the seas.

There are three versions of Seiners as the spoken word collaboration is with three wonderful musicians and reflects their individual approaches, styles, and our co-creative process together. Together with the Common Ground film using field recordings and archive footage, each night will be different, and every live performance has its own particular energy. It is still new material - we are all looking forward to hearing how our words, images and sounds land with audiences and spaces. It is exciting that the tour visits some of the villages where seine fishing was part of coastal life, so the stories, landscapes and characters we evoke may be familiar to the place itself and part of its heritage, while the music, film and ghost story fragments may also carry a gently progressive edge to old stories retold; remembering the environment, elements and resilience of once-marginal coastal communities.

What are you most looking forward to about touring this project to village halls and smaller venues in the South West?

I have lived in a village in Devon for the last ten years, twenty miles+ from larger venues in a town, so I understand how important rural touring can be for cultural life and accessibility. The Fleet Drifters SW tour partners with regional touring organisations and through these we have opportunity to work with venues I have never visited as well as some I have, plus there is a real buzz of bringing new original live performances to audiences and especially local audiences who may not otherwise travel or afford to see the show. Rural touring can offer brilliant and bold programming for audiences to see something different and be part of a live performance experience. As an artist, smaller venues bring different opportunities to meet people, and share work. I am looking forward to visiting some places I know well and discover new places while making new connections, seeing what is revealed in different performance spaces. The fact that this is a new commission with fresh collaborations on tour for the first time is very inspiring and generates possibility and creative energy all around.

We asked local musicians Emily (Dorset) and Becki (Devon) if they have a particular highlight from this piece / collaborative project so far. And what they are most looking forward to about performing it live. 

Emily Burridge - Seiners is a fascinating production which evolves each time Sarah and I meet. I love tuning into the visual imagery conjured up by her words and respond through using my looping pedals to create a cello scape with harmonies and rhythms . These are then notated always with room for improvisation in response to the atmosphere of the day.

It is great to have three consecutive performances as a first run for the production, for in playing to audiences it will become strengthened in its guise.

Becki Driscoll - It has been lovely to work with Sarah's words - she's often describing a coastline that I'm very familiar with having grown up near Bridport and I've really enjoyed finding a creative musical response to the rhythm and flow of her words.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it all comes together with an audience and creating that magic that you get when everyone in the space is experiencing the same thing but from their own perspective!

TOUR DATES

Image credits: 
Sarah Acton, credit Justin P Brown
Emily Burridge, credit Michi Color
Becki Driscoll

This March, sound artist, nature beatboxer and composer Jason Singh performs his live soundtrack to John Grierson’s monumental silent documentary film Drifters.

What initially drew you to agreeing to soundtrack Drifters (1929)? What do you love about this film? / what is special about this film?

It was actually an out of the blue (no pun intended) request from the BFI. They asked if I would be interested in creating a soundtrack to a silent film. It felt like a challenge and I said yes. The BFI sent me a copy of the film and after watching it through once, I fell in love with it. I loved the pace of the film and the graphic struggles of the fishing communities. There was also so much joy and togetherness. Yep, it felt epic! It’s a film that still speaks today in terms of the movement of people, climate change, technology, economics and the effects of capitalism.

Can you tell us a bit about your creative process and the vocal techniques and effects that you use for this soundtrack?

I wanted to create something which was generated entirely by the human voice. Drifters is a silent film and I wanted to somehow give voices to the people, place, fish, technology. So I sample my voice by recording it into machines and then processing it. I also layer my voice to create rhythms, melodies, textures and sound effects. Everything is created vocally and enhanced using music technology.

What makes you excited about performing this soundtrack live?

That it’s mostly live and improvised. I am not only responding to the images but also the venue and the vibe of the audience. We are all in it together. Pretty much like the film.

How would you sum up the live show experience and the sounds the audience will hear? What’s your kit set up?

It’s subtle and also intense. Audiences can expect to hear the sounds of machines, the sea, birds and whole manner of music genres and vocal sound effects.

My kit set up is pretty simple. It comprises of a reverb unit, loop station and sampler for live processing.

What are you most looking forward to about touring this project to village halls and smaller venues in the South West?

Meeting new people and sharing an important piece of art that documents the life and struggles of communities that moved around the country and the sea.

As part of this project, you’re running beatboxing and electronic workshops for Year 7s and 8s across the South West. What would you like the students to take away from the workshop and live show?

That they don’t need expensive equipment to be creative. They have incredible potential within themselves and they are able to access it when shown a few techniques.

Tour dates

Opening each performance, landscape writer, Sarah Acton presents a newly commissioned piece. Weaving ghostly fragments of the south west seine fishing heritage alongside atmospheric visuals by Common Ground, Sarah and local guest artists Emily Burridge (Dorset), Julie Macara (Cornwall) and Becki Driscoll (Devon) premiere new poetic and musical work Seiners.

Image credits:
Jason Singh, credit Julian Fraser
DRIFTERS (1929) dir John Grierson, film stills - Courtesy BFI
The Fleet project image, IWant Design

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2023 artist development programme, delve deeper into their Sound Generator project and discover what the process has meant to them.

This week, we talk to Caitlin LM.

Caitlin LM is an electronic producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist from Manchester.

Please tell us about your Sound Generator project. What is it and where did the initial inspiration come from?

This project is a musical guided mushroom forage/funghi exploration. Recently I’ve become really interested in the world of funghi and how funghi interact with our world, and there is so much to learn, it’s fascinating. So I was really excited to create an immersive music and funghi experience in response to this!

How has your idea developed during the programme so far? And what have you learnt?

It’s been really exciting looking at how it would work practically - I want the project to be partly outdoors, so alongside thinking about how I am responding musically, I have also been looking at how this actually works!

What has this opportunity meant to you?

As an independent artist, there’s often a lot of pressure to have things finished and ready, but there are so many components to creating work, and so much development that people don’t see. It’s such a huge relief to be given the time and space to develop things at a pace that feels right.

Has it helped you to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

I’ve learnt a lot about field recording, and I’ve started to experiment with lots of ways to incorporate sounds from nature into my music!

Who are your key artistic influences for this project?

I’m really inspired by artists who use nature either as inspiration or literally use recordings as part of what they do. Jon Hopkins’ ‘Music For Psychedelic Therapy’ comes to mind in particular, as his use of nature not just in terms of recordings but also as spaces for sound processing is really exciting.

What have you been listening to recently? Any new music recommendations?

Redivider by VLMV is on repeat for me at the moment! Incredibly soothing and beautiful, a gorgeous cross over between production and live instrumentation.

What are your hopes for this project? How do you see it developing beyond this initial 6-month award?

I’m hoping that I can secure funding to develop the whole project and take it on for a run of shows as part of a rural tour, which will also include foraging and talks about funghi.

Photo credits: The pictures are all from the guided forage I went on with David Winnard of Discover the Wild - a local funghi expert who took me round for the day and introduced me to all sorts of weird and wonderful specimens. 

We look forward to sharing more details about Caitlin LM's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Caitlin's Instagram and follow to find out more about her work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of leading figures across contemporary music, chose six early-career artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop an innovative project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2023 artist development programme, delve deeper into their Sound Generator project and discover what the process has meant to them.

This week, we talk to Heledd C Evans.

Heledd C Evans is an artist and facilitator based in Cardiff, working with sound as both medium and subject matter – from site specific installations and performances, to multi-layered soundscapes.

Please tell us about your Sound Generator project. What is it and where did the initial inspiration come from?

In Spring 2023 I had been part of a project, Organ@Soar with Ty Cerdd and Theatr Soar in Merthyr Tudfil, where 6 composers/sound artists were commissioned to create a new work for the recently restored mechanical organ in the Theatre, which was then performed by James McVinnie. It was such a wonderful project and gave me a lot of direction in my practice, in that working with acoustic instruments and exploring ways of composing is something I really want to pursue.

I found the organ so fun and accessible to work with, which surprised me as I didn’t think it would be. Organs are essentially the first synthesizer – you can create a whole orchestra of sound with just a few buttons. But not many people have access to them, be it by physical barriers (like not having open access to an organ), or a lack of confidence and know-how from no musical training or experience. I really wanted to share the organ with more people, especially in Merthyr Tudfil where the mechanical organ is at Theatr Soar, so my project stemmed around finding ways of connecting people with any range of musical experience to the organ and what it can do.

My project follows Community Music Wales’ creative model of community music – that creativity is a human right, but not everyone has the support needed to exercise this right. Finding ways to create and facilitate creative outlets that are accessible and engaging for people is vital for wellbeing, and what I wanted to achieve ways of working with through my Sound Generator project.

How has your idea developed during the programme so far? And what have you learnt?

Ideas always work very differently in real life to in your head, so having the time to try them out and learn this has been very useful! Creating my own composition tools like key weights (to hold notes down) has been a difficult process, but I now know what sort of shapes work well and how to make them. I’ve also experimented with simple text scores and game-like instructions for how to use these composition tools, and it’s been very valuable testing them out myself and with others to reflect on how they work.

What has this opportunity meant to you?

It’s been wonderful to have extended, unpressured time to work through ideas without the demand to create a final outcome simultaneously. It’s also created the space to equally balance the importance of research and developing with creating, and helped me to understand the role of research in my creative practice as a whole. The mentoring especially has been invaluable to help me achieve this, as well as logistical advice and support from the sound generator team.

Has it helped you to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

This time has helped me to identify and separate different facets of my practice between making art for ‘arts’ sake’, and my practice in facilitation and engagement and a connector of people and ideas, which has been extremely helpful to my process.

Who are your key artistic influences for this project?

I really admire my mentors, Claire M Singer and Kathy Hinde for their invaluable advice and ideas, and how they work with communities in their practices. Exploring fluxus scores and games, as well as deep listening practices from Pauline Oliveros as well as been an integral part of the project.

What have you been listening to recently? Any new music recommendations?

I’ve been to some great gigs recently - I saw Fiona Monbet perform a new orchestral commission, which was amazing! I’ve been loving her album Maelstrom since, especially her track Cantus Carminis. I heard Brìghde Chaimbeul perform at Hidden Notes festival recently as well, and have been listening to her albums non-stop since!

What are your hopes for this project? How do you see it developing beyond this initial 6-month award?

I hope to create more physical composition tools from the natural surroundings in Merthyr and host formalised events to bring different groups to the organ and get people making music! The main aim is to connect people to the organ and sustain relationships with it, from people who currently have no musical outlet, to artists working across different mediums! I would also love to finalise a body of work I have created for this particular organ through a printed score and recording, to mark my time working with this instrument.

We look forward to sharing more details about Heledd C Evans' Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Heledd's Instagram and follow to find out more about her work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of leading figures across contemporary music, chose six early-career artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop an innovative project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2023 artist development programme, delve deeper into their Sound Generator project and discover what the process has meant to them.

This week, we talk to Chizu Anucha.

Chizu Anucha is an audio-visual artist working with music and its relationship to the moving image. Their practice meets at the intersection of music composition, video and site-responsive performance.

Please tell us about your Sound Generator project. What is it and where did the initial inspiration come from?

The project – may the townspeople rejoice! huzzah!! – is an audiovisual botanic flower bed of music, ambient sound, video and writing that centres black and indigenous POC perspectives through the lens of spiritual practices, beliefs and rituals.

I’m inviting a group of creative practitioners to explore notions of ancestry, belonging, the collective voice, healing, pleasure and desire in response to a series of prompts.

It was initially inspired by a radio series called Two Way Dreaming. One edition of the series centred a conversation between black practitioners who spoke quite intersectionally and academically about nuanced experiences.

It was soundtracked by a mix of ambient, RnB and experimental music and this format of communicating ideas really resonated with me. Sort of part-podcast, part-music mix. It's so simple and just made a lot of sense.

may the townspeople rejoice! huzzah!!, 2023, collage of video stills.

How has your idea developed during the programme so far? And what have you learnt?

I started with a very strong intention to relearn the bass clarinet. It feels good knowing I have access to a woodwind instrument again, because without Sound UK's support I'd never have considered it to be realistic for me.

I've had a bunch of studio visits and mentoring with people I really admire. I've had conversations I never thought I'd have with people and I feel like my eyes have widened so much.

To the sound and music elements of the work, I've introduced video as a natural progression of this language and I'm looking into coding. I'd like to not pigeonhole the project into a film or installation so I'm looking into coding to see how it could maybe exist as a website or experiential archival database.

I'm growing more comfortable in embracing vulnerability in my work. The subject of it is deeply personal and it's sensitive, so there's a lot of trust involved in taking people's responses.

People have been so generous with what they have shared and with their time - so there's a responsibility to honour them with further work that does justice in service to what they have offered to it.

I'm accepting chaos and uncertainty and letting that inform and guide the work as opposed to adhering to rigid milestones I set for myself or for contributors.

What has this opportunity meant to you?

It's meant that I can freely experiment and fail. Normally there's no room for failure and there's a strong expectation to produce a material outcome.

Having this kind of support is huge for me because there's a level of trust that has been granted to just do what I want to do and pursue genuine curiosity. To have that accepted and genuinely valued means a lot.

Has it helped you to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

Just generally in my practice and in my life, I'm much more clear in what I want to do and how I want to go about doing it.

I feel much less uptight and rigid about things, whereas before I felt quite hardened by the art world and the competitive nature of the music industry.

I took it all really seriously and thought of things quite hierarchically. Now I feel warmer and more open to chaos, failure, rejection and these inevitable things I'd try to avoid completely.

It's a feeling I can't unfeel. I feel like I'm seeing something other people saw years ago and I'm quite new to it.

may the townspeople rejoice! huzzah!!, 2023, video still.

Who are your key artistic influences for this project?

Going back to the feeling of being offered support and time which has given me more headspace and a feeling of trust. I feel softer in the mind and in my body and I hope it's reflected through a way of working which is new for me.

I'm allowing a lot of good habits, routines, departures, stillness and more running and cycling to influence my thinking and energy.

Some video art on Eternal Family TV: a comedy series by Simple Town called Livestock; and part documentary, part experimental fiction, La Roche.

Strong influences are so vast and can't really be pigeonholed. I listen to The Early Bird Show on NTS and the Breakfast Show pretty much everyday.

I'm a massive fan of The Blindboy Podcast, and recently there's been a lot of knowledge sharing surrounding Greek and Irish mythology and how they intersect with simulation theory. Also a lot of Limmy on Twitch too - he helps me do admin.

What have you been listening to recently? Any new music recommendations?

Some of my favourite music over the last couple of months has been:

- Slauson Malone 1 - Jasper Marsalis is my favourite artist alive today. No question. Multi-disciplinary magic.

- Tara Clerkin Trio - they always soundtrack the nights I'm on tour and I blissfully wander around cities at night.

- KMRU - I saw him at Sonica in Glasgow recently and that was a real highlight of the year.

- Headache - their album with Vegyn is perfect for riding around the city on your bike at night time :) very surreal, dark, funny spoken word over ambient flangey, wobbly beats. Stunning.

- Chanel Beads - they have a song called Ef that I always listen to halfway and restart, then repeat about 2-3 times and then queue again as a treat for later.

- Sessa - they had a really good show with Zakia on NTS which put me onto them and resparked my love of Brazilian guitar music, sort of psychedelic bossa nova. It's really beautiful.

- underscores - simply great for thrashing.

...and then lots of stuff on the radio.

What are your hopes for this project? How do you see it developing beyond this initial 6-month programme?

I'm developing it into a linear video at the moment, just as a way to communicate it in a way that makes the most sense for the elements that make it up.

I'm taking it to a residency in southeast France at the beginning of 2024 for about 8 weeks so I'm interested in how this same methodology will translate in Nice. I'll take a music kit and a couple of miniDVs and just keep making.

I'm interested in archival and anecdotal research of black experiences within the institution I'll work from; social movements documented on video and through sound; and in built environment structures and architectural/landscape design. The way that this work can sit in those contexts is really exciting to me.
___

We look forward to sharing more details about Chizu Anucha's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Chizu's Instagram and follow to find out more about their work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of leading figures across contemporary music, chose six early-career artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop an innovative project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2023 artist development programme, delve deeper into their Sound Generator project and discover what the process has meant to them.

This week, we talk to Marco Woolf.

Malawian-born musician and storyteller Marco Woolf’s work has been described as light, complex, rich and immediate, swarming with micro-details that multiply with each new listen. He creates layered music with a deepened sense of narrative through improvisation and stories.

Please tell us about your Sound Generator project. What is it and where did the initial inspiration come from?

Stories play a huge role in the music I make and the way I present it, and I’m always seeking to expand the role that stories play in my work.

Recently, I have been working on a new body of work that explores the theme of how communities heal from collective trauma. For this project I wanted to incorporate dance/movement in my work.

My Sound Generator project is exploring two things; firstly, the different ways that dance can influence my performance and songwriting and secondly, how I can take my music and this new performance out of traditional music venues and into community spaces.

Sara Marques warming up for an exploration session focusing on how movement can influence the texture of the music/sounds we make. Featuring Carmel Smickersgill on acoustic and electronics and Manon McCoy on lever harp.

How has your idea developed during the programme so far? And what have you learnt?

Well initially I was hoping to use the time I spent with a dancer to develop new musical ideas but I soon realised that what I wanted to achieve with the live performance needed more attention and after a super inspiring chat with one of my mentors I decided to focus on that.

What has this opportunity meant to you?

This has been so valuable for me, Sound Generator has definitely helped me take my career to the next stage.

Being able to dedicate time to my craft in this focused way alongside the amazing mentorship has done wonders for my confidence moving forward and I’m so excited about the direction this project will take.

Has it helped you to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

As an independent artist, sometimes it feels like you have to move a million miles per hour to make the most of the opportunities that you get but with Sound Generator I was able to slow down and really think about what I want to achieve with my creative practice and how to best go about that.

Marco, Sara and Tom discuss story shaping.

Who are your key artistic influences for this project?

Ooh loads, where to start:
- Pina Bausch’s ‘Rites of Spring’ (specifically the Sadler’s Wells and École des Sables performance)
- Francis Bacon’s ‘Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion’
- MF DOOM
- Partita For Eight Voices by Caroline Shaw

What have you been listening to recently? Any new music recommendations?

- The Omnichord Real Book by Meshell Mdegeocello
- We Get What We Get & We Don’t Get Upset by Carmel Smickersgill
- Massive Sunray by Diving Station

What are your hopes for this project? How do you see it developing beyond this initial 6-month programme?

The next stage is to secure support for an extended tour in 2024. I then hope to use this project to write new music for a new body of work.

Exploration session 1. Finding more ways to inject movement in the music we share.

We look forward to sharing more details about Marco Woolf's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Marco's Instagram and follow to find out more about his work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of leading figures across contemporary music, chose six early-career artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop an innovative project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2023 artist development programme, delve deeper into their Sound Generator project and discover what the process has meant to them.

This week, we talk to Nikki Sheth.

Nikki is an internationally recognised sound artist and composer. Her practice involves field recording, multichannel soundscape composition, multimedia installations, sound mapping and soundwalking. She uses sound as a medium to bring a voice to the environment and encourage a wider awareness of the natural world.

Please tell us about your Sound Generator project. What is it and where did the initial inspiration come from?

My project is called 'Immersive Soundscapes for Well-Being' and explores the use of environmental sound as a tool for well-being and fostering a deeper connection between people and the natural world.

I am using 3D sound technology to create an immersive listening experience using field recordings that I have taken on a recent trip to the Azores. I am collaborating with movement artist David Kam, bringing my sounds to his yoga and mindfulness practice in a view to collaborating for public sessions in the future.

I have been commissioned in the past to present binaural listening sessions for well-being by We're All Bats and The Space to Come, so the inspiration came from these sessions where I started to think about how these sounds could work in other well-being contexts.

Nikki Sheth recording underwater sounds in the Azores. Photo by John Lucy.

How has your idea developed during the programme so far? And what have you learnt?

My idea has been really well received by everyone I have spoken to about the project. I think it's become a bigger project than I anticipated as I was initially planning to record sounds in the UK but combined this opportunity with a trip to the Azores.

I wanted to explore the way sound could be used in yoga and mindfulness sessions and David Kam has been amazing to talk to about this. We spent a few hours listening to the sounds, discussing ideas about how the sounds could be used in sessions and the types of movements we would imagine with each sound.

We are hoping to turn this into a series of sessions in the future, which would be amazing.

What has this opportunity meant to you?

I have been sitting with this idea for a long time but never had the support to start developing the idea, both financially and in terms of mentoring opportunities, so this means a lot to me.

It's amazing to have the time and space to develop your idea and have Maija (from Sound UK) there to share ideas with, help with any uncertainties and guide me with the project.

I have especially enjoyed the mentoring sessions and getting input, feedback and advice from all of my mentors who helped me to think about the project in new and exciting ways.

Nikki Sheth recording frogs at a pond in the Azores. Photo by Nikki Sheth.

Has it helped you to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

It's given me the opportunity to try something new, collaborate with other practitioners and forms of well-being practices that I have always thought my work would fit in well with. I'm taking my sounds to new spaces and new audiences which is really exciting. Talking to my mentors has also given me a lot of insight and information on how to move forward with my practice.

Who are your key artistic influences for this project?

The field recordings I took and my experience in the Azores hugely influenced this project as it is a very natural and wild place with lots of beautiful environmental sounds and landscapes. Also, looking at yoga, meditation, contemporary dance and mindfulness artforms.

What are your hopes for this project? How do you see it developing beyond this initial 6-month programme?

I'd really like to see this turn into a series of sessions that could be presented in many different locations across the year, bringing these wonderful sounds to people who are interested in well-being practices but have never thought of how environmental sound could benefit them.

Nikki Sheth recording in the Azores. Photo by John Lucy.

We look forward to sharing more details about Nikki Sheth's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Nikki's website to find out more about her work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of judges including leading figures across contemporary music, chose six emerging artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop an innovative project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and read our latest artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2023 artist development programme, delve deeper into their Sound Generator project and discover what the process has meant to them.

This week, we talk to Gwen Siôn.

Gwen Siôn is an award-winning composer, producer and multidisciplinary artist working with sound, sculpture, video and installation. She creates multi-instrumental, vocal and electronic compositions, and her own hand-built instruments and electronic sound devices by recycling found objects and natural materials. Gwen is interested in the relationship between sound and environment, ecology, mythology, ritual and synaesthetic crossover.

Image: Gwen Sion AKA catHead playing a live electronic music set with her experimental handmade instruments. Photo by Maxine Monaghan.

Please tell us about your Sound Generator project. What is it and where did the initial inspiration come from?

My aim is to create an experimental audiovisual project for concert venues that explores connections between music, landscape, tradition and ritual. I want to find ways of combining experimental electronic music, contemporary orchestral composition, choral composition (specifically informed by the North Wales working class tradition of Slate Quarrymen’s choirs) and moving image to create an immersive live performance piece.

The project is called Llwch a Llechi which translates as Dust and Slate. I am researching Celtic folklore motifs, socio-political histories and the important cultural relationship which exists in this area between music (especially quarrymen’s choirs) and landscape, and its deeper roots in Celtic oral tradition but by bringing this into a current space through experimental electronic music and contemporary composition.

I am interested in the juxtaposition of old and new, preserving culture by exploring new ways of expressing it and presenting it to new audiences in spaces where it has not traditionally existed. The quarrymen’s choirs traditionally existed in the workplace, and concert halls of orchestral music have often been spaces harder to access for working class people from rural areas, so I’m interested in connecting these things, especially through experimental electronic music and contemporary composition practices.

The initial inspiration for the project came from my interest in landscape and folklore. My practice is centred around the relationship between sound and environment and finding ways of interpreting landscape in musical terms. I make handmade instruments using found natural materials (including slate) and often use non-traditional composition methods, experimenting with ways of reading the landscape as a score.

Image: One of Gwen's handmade electric slate harps.

I’m really interested in using composition to explore the cultural, ecological and socio-political significance of a particular place. Being a first-language Welsh speaker and having grown up in a post-industrial working class slate quarrying town in North Wales I feel very connected to this landscape of high mountain ranges, rugged coastlines and slate slag heaps and the socio-political and cultural histories which are bound to that environment.

Image: Landscape photograph of North Wales - dry stone wall, mountain.

How has your project developed during the programme so far? And what have you learnt?

My ideas have developed so much since the start of the programme. Having a focussed period of supported Research and Development (R&D) has allowed me to experiment, create and research and as a result I feel like I’ve learnt a huge amount about the choir culture of North Wales quarries and Celtic folk traditions in relation to experimental electronic music.

I’ve been able to explore ways of incorporating orchestral instrumentation into the work and to develop skills in both choral and contemporary orchestral composition and arrangement which are relatively new ways of working for me so it’s been a really enriching time so far and I feel like I’ve learnt a lot.

What has this opportunity meant to you?

This opportunity has meant a great deal to me – it’s given me the time and resources necessary to research and develop my ideas and take tangible steps towards realising my most ambitious project to date, which would simply not be possible without support.

The project involves lots of new ways of working for me, so I really needed an extended period of development time in order to learn new technical skills and extensively research the subject matter.

Having access to Sound UK’s networks and the opportunity to connect with incredible artists who are experts in their fields and to receive targeted mentoring from them to support the project has been both inspiring and transformational for my practice and has meant this project has been able to develop in ways which I couldn’t have imagined initially.

This support has enabled me to develop practical skills in orchestral composition and choral composition which has made realising the project possible. The Sound Generator programme has also given me the opportunity to connect with larger venue partners who will potentially produce the fully realised live project in its final stages, which is really exciting!

Image: Gwen's slate harps.

Has it helped you to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

This programme has felt like a significant turning point in my career as a composer and has really helped develop both my creative and professional practice. It has enabled me to further develop scoring and notation skills and develop new technical and creative skills in orchestral and choral composition using both software and real players and singers.

I’ve also been able to purchase professional scoring and orchestral software, which I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise. Allowing me to explore new ways of working and giving me the opportunity to develop these new skills has opened up a world of creative possibilities.

Sound UK has also given me access to support and resources, which has meant I could think about my work on a much bigger scale. This has been really refreshing as it’s allowed me to be more ambitious with my ideas.

Who are your key artistic influences for this project?

I haven’t thought about any specific artists as key influences for this project but what I think has really been a huge influence on the project is looking back at the kind of songs these slate quarrying choirs would have been singing when they were first formed and how that connects back to a much older Celtic oral tradition.

I’ve been looking a lot at Welsh folk music and the kind of traditional folk songs these choirs might have sung and also at broader Celtic folk motifs and melodic motifs in Celtic music, which I feel will really inform the project as I’m trying to find ways of exploring ritual and tradition through an experimental contemporary lens.

Image: Quarrymen gather in a 'caban' - a small hut where workers would take their break and gather to sing, recite poetry, make tools, carve designs, debate politics and tell stories, a creative refuge where landscape, craft and music met to provide a moment of sanctuary from the extreme dangers faced as part of daily working life. Photo credit: Meirionnydd Archives, Gwynedd Archives Service 2023.

I want to consider how folk tradition can exist today, how we can celebrate cultural identity and history by bringing it to a contemporary space. How does culture survive and thrive – through modes of translation, by moving with the times, by constantly evolving and through people experimenting with new ways of experiencing it and presenting it to different audiences.

As a composer who works primarily in experimental electronic music, I am really excited about working in a different way for this project, exploring other forms of music and trying to combine elements of traditional Celtic music, choral composition and contemporary orchestral composition with experimental electronic music.

What have you been listening to recently? Any new music recommendations?

The new Loraine James album is absolutely amazing, I’ve really been enjoying it so would definitely recommend that.

What are your hopes for this project? How do you see it developing beyond this initial 6-month award?

The project will premiere at a festival in Cardiff in Autumn 2024. I am so grateful to the festival for their interest in my project idea and faith in me as a composer - having a partner now on board has really helped me see a way of realising the project in its final stages of live performance and has really given me the drive to develop my creative ideas further. My long-term ambition for this project after it premieres next year is for it to hopefully tour concert venues across the UK.

Image: Gwen Sion AKA catHead performing live with her electronic instruments at Ara Deg festival 2023. Photo credit: Beverley Creddock Unit Pictures.

We look forward to sharing more details about Gwen Siôn's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Gwen's website to find out more about her work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist research and development (R&D) programme that supports early-career artists and seeds the development of an ambitious new project. Following an open call, a panel of judges including leading figures across contemporary music, chose six emerging artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop an innovative project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and read our latest artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on social media.

This month we invite audiences to step into the Forest of Dean and explore the inner world of the trees in a new audio-visual experience, The Secret Sounds of Trees.

Last month we caught up with sound artist Jez riley French to learn about his creative process, find out about some of the sounds he has recorded for this installation and how he is working with composer Lau Nau on this soundscape.

This is part 2 of the interview. You can read the first part of the interview here.

How has listening to the forest affected you? Can you describe your experience of listening to the forest?

Listening, if you give it time, can be transformative to ones sense of place, and across the scale; from being immersed in a single sound source, to perceiving more and more of all the sounds around us at any given time, and of course, to aspects that signify less positive change.

At Beechenhurst, and in other forests over the past four or five years, I’ve noticed a quite radical drop in insect activity for example. Of course there is also the now constant sound of flight paths and traffic nearby.

I know such sounds frustrate some listeners, but it is what is there and if, like me, you reject the divide that the word ‘nature’ implies, separating the human species from all others, then those sounds are ‘nature’ sounds also, it’s just that they are made by one species without consideration of any other.

I find thinking about such sounds in that way gives one a sharper sense of our impact. That said, listening to species sounds below the surface, without those human sounds is a remarkable experience, and that is what The Secret Sounds of Trees will allow the audience to do.

How would you like audiences to approach this experience? And what do you hope audiences will take away from this experience?

To get the most from this, or any listening experience, the key really is to give time and space to the listening. That sounds obvious, simple, but as a species we’re generally not that good at listening.

We tend to try to occupy the space we are in, physically and sonically, even if we think we’re being quiet. So find a comfortable position in the area of the forest the event will be taking place in and realise that being there means you are part of the piece also.

The willingness to let all the other sounds have priority for a while will, hopefully, give each person a more meaningful experience, shared with everyone else there and of course, the forest itself. It’s important to remember also that we are encroaching on all the other species, and accepting that can help with the listening, with finding space to listen.

Any tips for audiences on how to listen deeply during the installation?

It does tend to be different for each person, but I think with events such as this, where we’re not on our own, the key is to be aware of your individual role in the collective quietness that will enhance the experience. Allow time for the sounds to take us beyond our usual, short attention spans.

Deep, or active listening, at its core is really about allowing the place or situation to guide the process. You have to give up control in a way. At least give up the idea that you know what a forest sounds like in this instance.

For this specific location we are providing straw bales to help the experience. Not many of use can stay totally still whilst standing for more than a few minutes.

How does being at Beechenhurst make you feel?

I tend to think, as I’ve already alluded to, that how we feel about a specific place takes time, and it should take time. I hadn’t visited this part of the forest before this project so I’m still processing my impressions, but, given that I was there specifically to listen, it did take me a couple of days to find my feet so to speak.

I think that’s one of the positive things about accessible spaces like Beechenhurst; you can go for a few hours or a day, but you can also keep returning and the closer you look, and listen, the more there is. Personally, if I keep returning to a place I have to allow it to influence my reason for doing so. Not to return with expectations, but with an understanding that I, we, have to do something more than use environments for our pleasure.

I spent some time around the borders of Beechenhurt also, thinking about the tension there is for any artist working in such places. We bring ourselves, our equipment and, hopefully, more people to them at times, but with work such as The Secret Sounds of Trees there is an important element of allowing audiences in to the sensory world of other species that isn’t normally accessible, so there is the artistic value but also a wider purpose that links to environmental knowledge and respect.

The Secret Sounds of Trees is a new audio-visual installation taking place at Beechenhurst in the Forest of Dean from Friday 22 - Sunday 24 September. To find out more and to book tickets, visit the event page here.

In September 2023 we invite audiences to step into the Forest of Dean and explore the inner world of the trees in a new audio-visual experience, The Secret Sounds of Trees.

This month we caught up with sound artist Jez riley French to learn about his creative process, find out about some of the sounds he has recorded for this installation and how he is working with composer Lau Nau on this soundscape.

Can you tell us about your creative process for this new soundscape and your time capturing sounds at Beechenhurst?

My practice involves working with what I tend to refer to as sound outside of our attention and a key part of this is developing specialist microphones and techniques for listening in different ways, for example to the internal sounds of plants.

My interest is in the listening itself, and how accessing these sounds allows us to re-think the narratives around our perception of place.

When I’m able to spend some time in a specific location, such as at Beechenhurst, I’m not interested in ‘sound collecting’ as a flat, technical process. Instead I spend the time engrossed in the listening itself, including through the microphones I build, and every now and then, if it feels right, I’ll press record.

I think you have to be happy to let sounds go, to not always try to document them as it can, if that is the only motivation, interrupt the listening. It’s perhaps subtle, but for me that is how I keep a creative connection to the act of listening. It’s an intuitive process, guided of course by research and creative impulses, but the personal, moment to moment experience is what has allowed me to question standard ways of both listening and recording, and in so doing, extend the practice.

For Feathered Pink Botanic, the sound piece that is part of The Secret Sound of Trees, I focused on the internal sounds of trees, moss, ferns and in soil horizons beneath the forest floor.

The material itself then takes time to reflect on, re-listen to and start to gain a sense of how a piece might form from it.

When I do record something it tends to be a durational process, often spending several hours listening to a single sound or a wider location as it evolves. So listening back can also take a long time. It’s a gradual process; some days you have to step back, wait, and come back to a recording with fresh ears, find new ways for it to work in a piece.

As the installation for Beechenhurst is multi-channel, involving spatialisation, it’s only completed when we’re back there, working with speaker placement and the environment itself of course.

How have you collaborated with Lau Nau to create this soundscape?

I’ve known Laura (Lau Nau) for many years now and one thing that I find interesting about her work is that it uses melodic material in ways that pull you in to the music with apparent ease but without compromising its strength.

As with any collaboration there’s an important element of trust involved of course, and I think that’s been there since the first time we worked together. This means we can each connect to the material being shared with more of the ‘space’ that is needed.

Laura is based in Finland so we’ve been sending each other recordings and talking through ways to maintain the central point of the piece, which is to reveal the forest in a way that invites as wide an audience as possible to listen differently, connecting in new ways to the other species around them.

Can you tell us about some of the sounds of nature that we will hear within your new soundscape?

Describing the sounds in the piece is difficult, partly because many of them have not been recorded before.

The wider research is still catching up with these forms of listening and recording, and, to be honest, it’s not always clear what process is making the sounds. The cellular processes as plants draw in nutrients, or the microscopic signals in mycorrhizal / mycelium networks are all part of the work.

I think we’re also at a point now where we need to think carefully about how the language we use when talking about non-human life carries with it a degree of imposition, often unintentional but with some weight. That might seem overly senstive to some, but considering these questions is part of the responsibility we have when, in effect, we are using the sounds of other species as creative material.

What I can say though is that audiences will hear root systems taking in moisture, bark crackling as sap rises, the intricate sound of water storage in the moss blanketing the forest floor, insect activity and other vibrations in soil horizons (different layers of soil).

Is there a sound you captured that has really surprised you?

I’m always surprised, which is why I’m still finding new ways to listen, still fascinated.

Sometimes I might have a basic idea of the possible sounds from specific sources. For example the resonance of a building vibrating in its locale, or the root systems of plants early in the morning, but the point really is that these sounds never repeat and every inch of every environment is different, if you listen at the micro-level, even to vast landscapes.

The myriad combinations of sounds are always new, always evolving, so I’m constantly surprised. Constantly realising how much we can get from listening, and how much we still have to learn about what we hear, and how we translate the experiences.

Part two of our interview with Jez riley French will be published on our website in early September. Sign up to our mailing list here to be the first to know.

The Secret Sounds of Trees is a new audio-visual installation taking place at Beechenhurst in the Forest of Dean from Friday 22 - Sunday 24 September. To find out more and to book tickets, visit the event page here.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2022 programme, delve deeper into their Sound Generator project and discover what the process has meant to them.

This week, we talk to Piera Onacko.

Piera is a pianist, synth player and composer with deep roots in jazz practices and an interest in improvisation through live electronics. Her newest outfit, un.procedure, release their debut album on 14 October 2022.

Please tell us about your Sound Generator project. What is it and where did the initial inspiration come from?

The initial idea took root after I was given hours of footage from my dad of our family in rural Ukraine during the 90s. An important piece of family history, yet not something I had directly experienced myself, it led to conversations about how memory and history can manifest in different ways beyond the objectivity of lived experience.

After integrating this footage into my live set, it became a possibility that this idea could extend to an installation setting, with audience engagement at its heart.

Each iteration of the installation will consist of a callout for home footage, driven by the local community. The footage is then used in a series of aural and visual collages, with music developed by my band un.procedure.

The audio will be catalogued as a kind of library, each strand of music relating to an emotive part of the footage. I’m currently researching how the installation will look from a design perspective, as well as function practically, with a core in-house team.

How has your idea developed during the programme so far? And what have you learnt?

The idea has pushed forward significantly over the course of the last few months. Researching spatial audio and receiving mentoring in this has been eye opening in particular!

It has also been useful to have the time and resources to see some other audiovisual installations and gain insight into the practicalities in setting up and running an installation, as well as effective costing.

What has this opportunity meant to you?

This opportunity has been so significant in pushing me forward as an artist; to have the funding to allow creative room in realising something so ambitious is a valuable thing.

The team at Sound UK have facilitated really useful mentoring opportunities and advice sessions for all the artists.

Has it helped you to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

Absolutely. My boundaries were firmly set at ‘musician’ until now. It has been a great experience bringing to life a project not confined by my own set ideas of my practice.

Working with so many talented people across all areas of the arts is also inspiring for setting a new standard for yourself.

Who are your key artistic influences for this project?

I’m a big fan of early experimental electronic musicians. There’s something really special about the dark, slightly eerie nature of those early recordings.

I love the sounds of the Radiophonic Workshop and krautrock bands of the 70s, especially.

What have you been listening to recently? Any new music recommendations?

I just checked out the new Szun Waves album, Earth Patterns. Any music by James Holden is especially beautiful.

What are your hopes for this project? How do you see it developing beyond this initial 6-month programme?

I have also received funding from Jerwood Arts to debut this project in 2023 – so that’s where my sights are set currently! I would really love to think about touring the work once we’ve premiered it.

We look forward to sharing more details about Piera Onacko's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Piera's website to find out more about her work.

You can listen, download and buy un.procedure's new album here: https://unprocedure.bandcamp.com/releases

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist development programme for bold creative ideas. Following an open call, a panel of judges including leading figures across contemporary music, chose six emerging artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop an innovative project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and read our latest artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2022 programme, delve deeper into their Sound Generator project and discover what the process has meant to them.

This week, we talk to Loula Yorke.

Loula Yorke is a composer, sound artist and improviser with a specialism in modular synthesis. As a composer, Loula uses electronics and participation to create sonic artworks. Releasing work since 2019 that dances in the spaces where the personal meets the political, she’s been described by Electronic Sound magazine as a ‘DIY noisenik champion’ and recognised with a special commendation by the 2020 Oram Awards.

Please tell us about your Sound Generator project. What is it and where did the initial inspiration come from?

My aim is to create a project that engages mothers and daughters in a collaborative sonic activity.

A series of workshops will form the basis of the creation of a new work for spatialised sound and lasers on the theme of mothering and daughtering – about care, separation, projection, love, expectations, and probably a tussle over the narrative!?

My inspiration comes from my own experiences of mothering and daughtering, and builds on my work of 2020 'Atari Punk Girls' where I led a group of teenagers in synth-building and then threw them their first rave!

How has your idea developed during the programme so far? And what have you learnt?

Yes! The project now incorporates lasers, which I'm learning to programme myself.

At first I was more thinking about the sonic aspect and workshop activity ideas, but I've been really encouraged by the project to think bigger and be more ambitious, so now the visual aspect I want to create out of the material has come to the fore.

What has this opportunity meant to you?

It's allowed me to see if I can take it from a thought bubble into something solid, which has meant a lot. I've been thinking about this for years.

Has it helped you to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

Yes! I'd never tried to programme lasers before (I'm only just beginning in that endeavour though to be fair!).

I've used mentoring time to talk to Leon Trimble at Chromatouch about lasers and noise, and as well as thinking through the design of a 'synth ensemble' box with audio electronics specialist Dr Tom Richards (so lots of people can play my noise synths at once in sync).

I also had the incredible opportunity to go into the Dome Room at the music school at the University of Birmingham, and be set up on their 3rd order ambisonic sound system to play live with my modular set-up. I'd only ever heard my stuff in mono or stereo before.

It was so special to have those days in that space, with such a high level of support from Head of Music, Dr Annie Mahtani.

Who are your key artistic influences for this project?

The chaotic circuits of the late Rob Hordijk, 90s raves, lissajous figures, Teleplasmiste, and as ever the freedom of live art and noise!

What have you been listening to recently? Any new music recommendations?

Um I mean I've got a new album out, 'Florescence' that I've been listening to constantly for about 2 months while it's been finalised haha – but also I just came across Tyshawn & King, Tyshawn Storey and King Britt's improv collab that I'm loving, Colleen's The Tunnel and the Clearing, Aura by Hatis Noit - erm I could go on!

What are your hopes for this project? How do you see it developing beyond this initial 6-month programme?

I'd love to get a residency in a big space that can accommodate my technical requirements so I can develop the audio-visual side properly, and I'd love to get the 'synth ensemble' machine made and useable for workshops.

We look forward to sharing more details about Loula Yorke's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Loula's website to find out more about her work.

You can listen, download and buy Loula's new album, Florescence, here: https://loulayorke.bandcamp.com/

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist development programme for bold creative ideas. Following an open call, a panel of judges including leading figures across contemporary music, chose six emerging artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop an innovative project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and read our latest artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Photo credits: Jeff Scott, Ross Harrison and Sofi Nowell.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2022 programme, delve deeper into their Sound Generator project and discover what the process has meant to them.

This week, we talk to Jasmine Kahlia.

Please tell us about your Sound Generator project. What is it and where did the initial inspiration come from?

Serenading the Hood came from an idea I got whilst cycling with my bluetooth speaker around London - exploring the connection between space, silence and sound.

I love hearing different genres bounce off of the walls - brickwalls, tunnels, stairwells, squares. I also found a connection with passers by that liked or interacted with the music I played in different ways.

How has your idea developed during the programme so far? And what have you learnt?

My idea has become more refined and I've learnt loads about taking the steps to create a larger project, using my networks for mentoring, giving space for inquisitive questions and challenging my artistry.

What has this opportunity meant to you?

It has given me a moment to be more intentional with my work, and also allowed me to take a break from being so prolific, in order to have a more strategic view of where I want my art to go.

Has it helped you to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

As a multidisciplinary artist, I am often balancing many commitments, and this has given me a new structure for larger and more thoroughly planned work.

I've also taken time to rehearse and explore simple sounds and experiment with both amplified and acoustic sound.

Who are your key artistic influences for this project?

I take influence from myself mostly, and I am interested in architecture and residential design.

Coming from Tottenham, I take time to people watch and respond to the environment and people's cultures and music tastes.

I also enjoy the elements of street parties and music in public spaces, which you often come across in North London.

Photo credits: Justin Jamgbadi.

What are your hopes for this project? How do you see it developing beyond this initial 6-month programme?

I hope that I can create this installation - this body of work needs to be made.

I want to document the real-time history of Tottenham (what is happening in the last year to 10 years here) and how we connect to each other through music, through silence, through body language, through memories and through what it means to claim or not claim living in the hood.

We look forward to sharing more details about Jasmine's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Jasmine Kahlia's website to find out more about their work.

Sound Generator is Sound UK's artist development programme for bold creative ideas. Following an open call, a panel of judges including leading figures across contemporary music, chose six emerging artists working at the forefront of sound and music.

Sound Generator supports artists in the first 5-10 years of their career. Over the six month programme, they each receive mentoring by a range of professionals to develop an innovative project ready for showcasing to the industry.

To be the first to hear about our latest projects, news and read our latest artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2022 programme, delve deeper into their Sound Generator project and discover what the process has meant to them.

This week, we talk to Daphnellc Lavender and Ambra.

Please tell us about your Sound Generator project. What is it and where did the initial inspiration come from?

Exploring Tarot Through Sound transforms the Major Arcana tarot cards into fresh and unique soundtracks that support our collective self-care practices. With this project we want to collaborate with the queer community to offer a new way for folks to interact with tarot. By experiencing it through sound and various interactive mediums, people can deepen and personalise the meaning of each tarot card and create supportive insights for their self-reflection and self-growth.

It’s not solely music that we wish to create, but also to explore frequency, colour, mood, field recordings and loops. It’s similar to writing a soundtrack in a way; exploring the interpretation of the cards, producing sounds that are accessible and meaningful, that can reveal new things through multiple listens and in different environments.

Our inspiration came from our interests and passions; music, art, sound art and tarot. Meeting Ambra through tarot made Daphnellc want to start with the interpretation of tarot into sound, and vice versa.

A photo of The Magician from different tarot decks. From left to right: Smith-Rider Deck; Mystic Mondays deck; The Modern Witch deck; The Cosmic Slumber Deck.

How has your idea developed during the programme so far? And what have you learnt?

Sound Generator has really helped us to crystallise and clarify our vision. A mix of exciting creative ideas are now taking specific shapes and forms. It is enabling us to make our project more tangible and something we can present to venues and potential collaborators.

We are also learning new ways of making installations and sound more interactive. We’ve learned to communicate how tarot and sound excite us, and how we wish to explore developing our energies together.

What has this opportunity meant to you?

The opportunity to be part of Sound Generator means a lot to us. It’s an opportunity to further connect and invest time and energy on the project, as well as finding a community of people who are experimenting with music like us.

The support and guidance we receive keeps us motivated and makes us feel that bringing this project to life is not only possible, but even more exciting than we could have imagined.

Photo of the Full Moon July 2022 - I've observed the full moons more this year than ever before, since meeting Ambra. February's and July's held the most power for me.

Has it helped you to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

Definitely. We’ve both learned some technicalities, including field recording, writing music to a guide and we’re in the process of learning how to create DIY sound tools for audience participation.

Daphnellc: As a music producer, I have learnt to work alongside Ambra, creating music and sound with someone who isn’t a musician; this was a main motivator and is key to expansion and diversification, and something I wish to grow.

Thinking about a potentially more diverse audience from typical gig scenarios has developed ways of thinking about sound in different spaces, for different times of day, for example, and that has led to approaching sound creation from a full 360 view, considering other senses, sound sensitivity, and accessibility too. We’ve learned more about sound editing, image and video making as well.

Who are your key artistic influences for this project?

Daphnellc: That’s a difficult question to answer succinctly, as I am inspired and influenced by so much. Perhaps wanting to create and explore slower sounds, not necessarily in tempo, but also sound that gives ourselves time to feel, to absorb and to nurture healing. I paint a lot and seek out visual stimulation that is mysterious, ethereal at times, maybe abstract and therefore open to interpretation.

I am also fascinated with sound in films. I particularly love French New Wave films where there is very little music, but rather sounds of real life. Even cars don’t bother me in these recordings but I hate the sound of them around me! I studied a captivating interview with Céline Sciamma about sound design in her films (read it here); she talks of subwoofers ‘aiming at the stomach’ and so on. There’s a parallel in the films of Chantal Akerman: ‘Akerman brings such attention to bear on the soundtrack - carefully selected, choreographed, and precisely mixed sounds modulated to certain ends - that her technique has the effect of lifting the soundtrack away from the images and inserting a space between them’ (Quote from this Film Quarterly article). I want to explore these ideas in my sound creation.

I also listen to a lot of field recordings and have also developed a fascination for birdsong and miniscule sounds lately.

Photo of Refracted Sunlight - Our project explores spaces & sounds between.

What have you been listening to recently? Any new music recommendations?

Daphnellc: I had a flurry of music creation all summer, so I've been absorbed in that. I returned to old favourite hip hop mixtapes (DJ Anti Crisis on Social Harmony Bandcamp and Rap Shit by L.A. Club Resource) and went to Supernormal Festival where highlights were MC Yallah and all the performers in the Queef Qult area.

I'd recommend exploring experimental / independent / queer music via platforms like Bandcamp where artists are paid for their work.

Ambra: I've been reconnecting with some Italian music (like Giuni Russo), and relaxing to SZA and Kali Uchis.

What are your hopes for this project? How do you see it developing beyond this initial 6-month programme?

We hope to soon have our first live event as part of an installation in a queer space.

We hope to meet people who are into tarot and to explore it with them through sound and image. We want to continue to support ourselves and others with our creativity.

Temperance - a watercolour painting created to the rhythm of our Temperance soundtrack.

We look forward to sharing more details about Daphnellc and Ambra's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Daphnellc's Bandcamp page to find out more about their work.

To be the first to hear about tour latest projects, news and read our latest artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Sound UK’s artist development programme, Sound Generator, supports early career artists and the work they present.

In this series of Spotlight interviews, we find out more about the artists on our 2022 programme, delve deeper into their Sound Generator project and discover what the process has meant to them.

This week, we talk to Andrew Woodhead.

Please tell us about your Sound Generator project. What is it and where did the initial inspiration come from?

My project is called I Sing of a Place That is Dear to My Heart - it’s about my roots in South Yorkshire and things that remind me of home, starting with ideas of landscape and zeroing in on dry stone walling in particular as a source of inspiration for creating music.

My goal is to combine this with the a cappella folk singing and pit band traditions of the Pennines as well as my own practice, which blends jazz/free improv, contemporary composition and electronic music techniques.

How has your idea developed during the programme so far? And what have you learnt?

It’s definitely evolved from my original vision quite radically - from initial thoughts of creating a speaker installation in a stone structure. I’m now on the road to looking at etching into the stone itself as a way of creating scores and musical instructions which are built into a stone structure that lives permanently on the land.

I’m taking a stone carving course next week and am also enrolled at Birmingham maker space STEAMhouse to test laser cutting and water jet cutting on various samples of gritstone, limestone and slate that I’ve taken from my home town.

What has this opportunity meant to you?

Having the time and space to test ideas, to feel safe enough for things to fail, completely change your mind and go back to the drawing board is something I’ve rarely had the opportunity to do before in my career - it’s incredibly liberating as an artist.

Has it helped you to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

Most definitely, it’s pushed me well outside of my comfort zone and the amazing mentors I’ve spoken to have really prompted me to re-examine how my music can be presented.

It’s definitely a big step forwards for me. Plus, thanks to my DSWA beginners course I can now officially repair a gap in a dry stone wall...!

Who are your key artistic influences for this project?

I would definitely point to the Stanza Stones project by Simon Armitage/Tom Lonsdale/Pip Hall as a reference point, it’s a beautifully executed piece of public art which resonates very strongly with the inspirations behind my own project.

I’ve been diving into ideas of journeys, walking and landscape forming the inspiration for song and music in the folk world, particularly discovering the wonderful Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell and great vocalist/guitarist Bella Hardy via the Folk On Foot podcast has been great.

Marsden Jazz Festival’s Chronotope series recorded over lockdown was another touchstone for this project, particularly Tom Challenger’s pieces for the project and the duo of Matthew Bourne and Keeley Forsyth, all responding to the landscape.

Nate Wooley is also a big influence on me, the laser focus of his compositional practice and his commitment to process are always in my mind somewhere when I’m creating projects of my own.

The distilled elegance of Kathy Hinde’s work has stayed with me since discovering her earlier this year. Amazing stuff.

I’ve been lucky enough to be mentored by some of the artists that inspire me too in the forms of Rie Nakajima, Jim Finer and Matthew Olden, all of whose work resonates in different ways with what I’m trying to do on this project.

What have you been listening to recently? Any new music recommendations?

Blue Ruth’s tape release Mausoleum from last year is astonishingly good and has been on repeat a few times recently.

Ruth Goller’s Skylla record is also absolutely stunning.

On Anton Hunter’s recommendation I’ve been listening to Mavis Staples’ If All I Was Was Black - a beautiful album.

Fellow Sound Generator artist (and fellow Birmingham resident) Piera Onacko’s new EP with her band Un/Procedure isn’t out yet at the time of writing but I’ve been blown away by both of the live shows I’ve seen them do and I imagine the EP will be no different.

I know it’s not technically music but…Ben Sharrock’s film Limbo which came out last year is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in ages and has been resonating in my head ever since I saw it. It also features amazing improvisers Sue Lynch, Adrian Northover, Hannah Marshall and John Edwards on the soundtrack, which I didn’t realise until the credits rolled!

What are your hopes for this project? How do you see it developing beyond this initial 6-month programme?

I really hope it can become a reality in the not-too-distant future! Working through these ideas has been such an inspiring process, I’d love to find the right partners to take it forward from here.

We look forward to sharing more information on Andrew's Sound Generator project as it develops. Visit Andrew Woodhead's website to find out more about his work. 

To be the first to hear about tour latest projects, news and read our latest artist interviews, join Sound UK's mailing list and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

One of DJ Mag’s ‘Ones to Watch 2022’, award-winning DJ and Turntablist NikNak presents Sankofa live on tour from 12-18 July 2022, an immersive sound and visual experience exploring the narrative of a young Black woman, Afrofuturism and her comic book heroes.

NikNak is devoted to developing her practice as a DJ and Turntablist, sound artist/composer, producer, tutor, sound engineer and radio presenter. She was the first black Turntablist to win the Oram Awards in 2020.

We caught up with NikNak for a short interview ahead of the tour to find out more about Sankofa and what audiences can expect to hear and see in the show.

We are excited to be producing your first solo tour. How are you feeling about it all?

Very excited! This is a new aspect of my career I never expected, let alone something so ambitious. Thank you so much for supporting me as well, I wholeheartedly appreciate it!

Tell us more about the inspiration for Sankofa?

I’m a big nerd and so Sankofa is very much an exploration of that, what I’ve learnt so far researching afrofuturism and black spirituality. Storm and my own love for comic-books definitely inspired Sankofa.

How did you get into turntablism?

An inspirational lecture from Sophy Smith back in 2010 really sparked my interest, as well as wanting to be more expressive with DJ-ing.

Can you tell us a bit more about your research into surround-sound and turntablism?

It’s been both enriching and ongoing. I’ve looked at specific books, audiobooks etc on ambisonics and afrofuturism, as well as looking at my own nerd.

What can audiences expect to hear and see in the show?

It’ll be a multisensory experience from the black perspective, a celebration of black-self love, comic books, a version of black femininity - I guess what mine feels, looks and sounds like. Beautiful visuals from Loëpa and music that will take everyone on a journey.

Can you tell us more about your collaborator for this project - Loëpa?

She is a good friend and someone who is very open to continually build upon ideas. We’ve been having a great conversation from the start of the Sound Generator programme (Sound UK's artist development programme) about ways in which we can develop the visual language for Sankofa, and it’s been really inspiring.

You’re also touring with live loop musician XANA – tell us about their set?

Xana kindly supported me at a performance at Cafe Oto last year and the set then featured a lot of bass and audience interaction, including wearing a specifically-designed vest that makes the performance more multisensory. I think for the tour, Xana’s set will be a further evolved version of this and I can’t wait to experience it!

Lastly, who are some of your favorite artists that you listen to again and again?

In no particular order, Loraine James, Shiva Feshareki, Burial, J-Dilla…. There’s loads more but they’re off the top of my head!

NikNak's Sankofa is touring from 12-18 July 2022, with support from XANA. Find tour dates, venues and ticket links on our NikNak Sankofa event page.

We are working with Reading Borough Council to launch two new self-guided audio trails celebrating Reading’s heritage.

We caught up with local artist Aundre Goddard to find out more about his audio trail. Aundre worked with Richard Bentley to bring to life the sounds and story of Huntley & Palmers, one of Britain’s most famous biscuit companies, whose first shop opened on London Street in 1822.

Can you tell us more about the Audio Trail? What are the key themes, stories and sounds that you are exploring?

The audio trail highlights what Huntley & Palmers meant to those who worked there. It feels right to focus on their memories. It was a delight interviewing ex-employees too . . . Peggy and Shirley had me in stitches; I couldn’t stop laughing.

What do you hope audiences will experience from doing the Audio Trail?

I hope audiences feel a deeper connection with Huntley & Palmers workers. They contributed a great deal to the people of Reading.

What is your relationship to Reading and how has this influenced your approach to this project?

The only time I have spent away from Reading was when I went off to university. I love this town and the people in it. My granma was the inspiration for this artwork. She worked at Huntley & Palmers and passed away before I started creating this audio trail, so I was influenced by her and women workers.

What’s your favourite thing that you’ve discovered about Reading & this area during the creation of this audio trail?

Oh, that has to be the women protesters who threw machinery into the River Kennet. I think they are amazing role models.

And what is the most unusual or interesting sound that audiences can expect to hear during the walk?

Oh my, I quite like the sound of the biscuit tin being opened. It reminds me of Christmas time where mum goes the extra mile with a tin of fancy biscuits.

How would you describe the experience to someone who has never done something like this before?

I would describe it as a theatre experience. The trail is an entertaining way for young people to learn about Reading’s rich history. It has a little something for everybody.

Reading Audio Trails are available to listen to on the Reading Borough Council website and members of the public are able to walk the trails using their smartphone.

LISTEN HERE

The audio trails are commissioned by Reading Borough Council. Produced by Sound UK in association with Readipop and Berserk Productions.

The commission is part of the Reading High Streets Heritage Action Zones Programme, led by Historic England and Reading Borough Council.

Photo credit: James John

We are working with Reading Borough Council to launch two new self-guided audio trails celebrating Reading’s heritage.

We caught up with local artist and BBC Radio 3 presenter Fiona Talkington to find out more about her audio trail.

Can you tell us more about the Audio Trail? What are the key themes, stories and sounds that you are exploring?

It’s a real journey of discovery. We’ve called it Pints, Pies and Protest because breweries were a key feature, there’s a famous pie shop there, and we meet am important Reading woman of the past who stood up for what she believed in and the legacy of her work is still here in Reading today. It’s a real bringing to life of Reading as an ever-evolving town.

What do you hope audiences will experience from doing the Audio Trail?

I hope they’ll be surprised and delighted at the range of things we find in the trail. It’s a nice walk close to the town centre, so I hope they will enjoy the reminder that Reading is a truly historical town.

What is your relationship to Reading and how has this influenced your approach to this project?

I was born in Reading, grew up here and still live here, and although my work has taken me to so many places Reading is my home and the opportunity to discover and learn more about an area I had just taken for granted has been wonderful.

What’s the favourite thing that you’ve discovered about Reading & this area during the creation of this audio trail?

In one sense, talking to other people who know so much about the history, about how things fit together and who really opened my eyes.

But I’ve also loved thinking about the sounds of Castle Street when there were carts and wagons instead of cars and buses.

And the Allied Arms!

And what is the most unusual or interesting sound that audiences can expect to hear during the walk?

Elephants!!

Personally, what do you enjoy most about Audio Trails?

It’s probably my background in radio (I’m a presenter on Radio 3) but I love the way voices can transport you to another place. And I love learning new things in anything I’m researching, then I become so desperate to share it all.

How would you describe the experience to someone who has never done something like this before?

It’s magical! Like being taken by the hand by a friend and being shown around, things to discover, something to smile at. And it’s something you can do over and over again, in different weathers, at different times of day.

From 21 June Reading Audio Trails will be available to listen to on the Reading Borough Council website and members of the public will be able to walk the trails using their smartphone.

The audio trails are commissioned by Reading Borough Council. Produced by Sound UK in association with Readipop and Berserk Productions.

The commission is part of the Reading High Streets Heritage Action Zones Programme, led by Historic England and Reading Borough Council.

Photo credit: James John

Continuing our interview series, celebrating 20 artists for Sound UK's first 20 years, we recently caught up with the wonderful folk singer and musician, Lisa Knapp.

South London based folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lisa Knapp has been much in demand touring the length and breadth of the UK and across Radio and TV since her remarkable debut, Wild & Undaunted (2007), marked her out as one of the brightest and most innovative players in a newly invigorated British folk movement.

What do you remember about the projects we did together? And what was your most memorable experience?

I have great memories of researching and playing on a barge with electronics artist, Leafcutter John, as we sailed up the Grand Union Canal. Such an unique opportunity and brilliant to work with an artist so completely out of my own sphere.

We created an entire set from scratch using research, field recordings, writing songs, using recordings, live sampling under water - all sorts of really inventive things.

I am also really enjoying our current project (more to be revealed soon), again working with different artists always makes one learn so much.

It’s been a long journey this one for obvious (Covid) reasons but I’m really looking forward to where it will lead when we are, eventually, out of this pandemic.

Did these projects help to develop your creative practice? If so, how?

Absolutely yes. These projects gave me different perspectives both in artistic thought and practical approaches.

Working in different environments and with new collaborators has given me confidence to think differently.

I’ve also found these projects to be incredibly supportive environments in which to stretch myself and try new things.

What have you been up to recently?

Things have been very disruptive but I feel they are, kind of, getting back to some sense of normal, at least for periods of time.

I recently recorded and released an apocryphal Christmas carol and I am looking into new songs. I’ve been doing a little bit of songwriting too.

I launched a Patreon which has and continues to keep me on my toes. I’ve also been teaching singing online so, yeah, things are ticking along.

In 2021 Sound UK launched a new artist development programme to help develop and test ambitious creative ideas. How important do you think initiatives like this are and the work Sound UK does commissioning artists?

As an artist I cannot stress enough how valuable having the opportunity to take time out to play and experiment is - and how vital it is in the development of new work.

Being able to research and develop unhindered leads to key new ideas being born. This in turn brings new perspectives and valuable insights into the artistic sphere.

What role can a producer like Sound UK play in helping artists to realise their potential?

I think the creativity with which Sound UK birth new ideas for collaborative ventures gives artists an opportunity to flex and extend beyond comfort zones.

Collaborative ventures always broaden horizons, enabling exploration from new perspectives, which often reflect back artistic thoughts and perhaps even talents one may previously have not been aware of.

What does the coming year have in store for you? What are your future plans?

I’m hoping for a solo release this year and there may be some other collaborative work in the pipeline too!

What are your hopes for music and its audiences in a post pandemic world?

I think if there’s anything positive to come out of the pandemic (which may be stretching it!) I think it's the value of community one gets in being a performer or an audience member and participating in real live events.

It’s one of the many ‘normal’ things in everyday life that we took for granted so I hope that when we do get to perform or attend an event that we all remember how fragile, special and important these experiences are.

Visit Lisa Knapp's website to find out more about her work.

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