Series 2015 SONICpicnic

JUSTIN WIGGAN / IRIS GARRELFS / MANFREDI CLEMENTE / GIRILAL BAARS / JAMES WYNESS / BEN PEERS

SESSION #01: 4PM / SESSION #02: 7PM

Our final event of 2015 is an exciting expanded affair featuring local, national, and international artists. The evening session will see Justin Wiggan joined by SOUNDkitchen member Annie Mahtani and Chris Mapp to realise the second instalment of his DEADSONGS project. Also on the bill are Iris Garrelfs and Manfredi Clemente. In the afternoon session Girilal Baars will present two pieces for voice and live electronics, alongside performances from James Wyness and Ben Peers.

Justin Wiggan presents Dead Song Two

DEADSONGS is a body of research work based on a collection of 12 inch records which have been buried, exhumed, and transformed into beautiful and tragic slates of dissolved phonic information. Wiggan will be joined by Annie Mahtani and Chris Mapp to explore the content of these dead records by sonic investigation of the surface decay. The performance will be accompanied by a video projection of the surfaces of the records as they are played.

Justin Wiggan is a sound artist and educator whose work uses phonics, text, film, object changing and drawing to make interface solutions to creative and site/circumstance-specific problems. He was awarded the Arts Council England International Artists Scheme Funding for his new piece The Doberman Variations, which is now an interactive book and the world’s largest download code. Along with the Ikon Gallery and John Taylor Hospice, he started the ground-breaking and unique research project Life Echo, turning the memories of people at the end of their lives into sound as a provision of care service.

Iris Garrelfs

Iris Garrelfs is a sound artist working on the cusp of music, art and sociology. Her practice includes fixed media, installation, improvised performance. Her artworks and performances have featured internationally, including at Tate Britain, National Gallery, Science Museum, International Computer Music Conference, and Visiones Sonores in Mexico. Several of her works have recently been nominated for the British Composer of the Year Award (Sonic Art).

In performance Iris often uses her voice as raw material for conjuring multilayered listening experiences via MaxMSP. Improvised voice is transmuted into machine noises, intricate rhythms, and choral works, and spontaneous scores and elements of space are used to mould complex aural collages. Her performances have been compared to artists such as Yoko Ono, Henri Chopin, and Meredith Monk.

Manfredi Clemente

Manfredi Clemente is a composer of musique concrète, field recordist and electroacoustic improviser based in Birmingham, where he is pursuing a PhD in electroacoustic composition under supervision of Jonty Harrison. His research investigates space not just as a mere parameter of the compositional process, but as a main dimension of perception and of evocative processes involved in listening experience. He is an active member of BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre) and his works have been performed in Italy, United Kingdom, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Japan, and Greece.

Manfredi will perform a live improvisation using a no-input mixing board. Hardware outputs are fed back into the inputs, transforming the desk into an analogue synthesiser. Control over the internal processes is very far from being total - the device is in fact a semi-chaotic system, and even a slight change to a single parameter can totally subvert the totality of the audible result. The output of this paradoxical instrument is a challenge to audibility with sounds that range from the deepest bass to the most pleasantly harsh highs.

James Wyness

James Wyness is a computer musician based in southern Scotland. Having worked for many years with concrete material, the sounds of hand made microtonal instruments and environmental recordings, he is currently making new work with algorithmic processes and digital synthesis.

James will present a live multi-channel immersive performance for digitally manipulated hand made microtonal bowed zithers and prepared bowed psalteries.

Girilal Baars

Girilal will be joining us from Sweden to perform two pieces for voice and live electronics; The Bonnie Banks o Fordie and 20th Century God. Both pieces use only sounds created by the voice during the performance.

Girilal Baars is a composer, vocalist and improvisor based in Uppsala (Sweden) who has recently completed a PhD in composition at the University of Huddersfield (UK) under the supervision of Monty Adkins. For the last few years Girilal has been exploring the meeting point of old vocal traditional music and contemporary electroacoustic music, and has spent a fair amount of time developing a practice of performing live voice with electronics. Apart from regular concerts and projects in Sweden, in 2013-15 his work has been selected for performances as far apart as Toronto, Belfast, Perth, New York, Malaysia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Mexico, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Macedonia, Estonia and Italy.

Ben Peers

Ben Peers is a composer based in Birmingham, where he recently completed an MA in electroacoustic composition. His work often makes use of the electric guitar, and he is currently developing a loop and feedback based digital interface for improvisation with a variety of live sound sources.

Ben will present his debut improvised performance using a bespoke maxMSP looping and layering environment.