Various venues, Sheffield & Rotherham, UK
Photo: Lord Spikeheart by James Ward

After taking a year out in 2023, No Bounds returns with a sprawling programme for its seventh edition. Things begin in a low key fashion with a lecture at Sheffield University’s Firth Hall. The American composer John Chowning, now in his nineties, explains how he accidentally discovered FM synthesis in 1967. His early compositions, which consist of various synthetic timbres, ping across the room through a quadraphonic set-up. The evening closes with Voices, where his partner and soprano Maureen Chowning controls a Max/MSP patch with her voice.

Sheffield’s Emergence Collective kick things off in earnest the following night at the cathedral. Ten improvisors circle around repeating modes, constructing seemingly archaic compositions that slot beautifully into the grand architectural setting. Oram Award winner Lola de la Mata follows with a minimal set that employs the inherent acoustics of the building. Backed with dramatic red lighting, the choreography and growling theremin elicits near universal awe from the audience. Over at the Hallamshire Hotel, local electronica legends The Black Dog take over with two AV sets. As the music shifts from murky ambient to dark minimal house, distorted monochrome images of brutalist buildings dissolve into impossible ruins and Gaudí-like towers dreamt up by AI. What initially looks like a paean to postwar architecture reveals itself to be a critique of utopian thinking.

Safety concerns mean that Mark Fell’s multi-channel installation Cole’s Hidden Corners is cancelled outright. Instead I head to the basement of Exchange Place Studios for Flow State. Co-created by Aaron Spall, Daniel Bacchus and Dr Joan Ramon Rodriguez-Amat, the installation features various mutating forms projected onto walls while squelchy sounds pour down from speakers hidden in the overhead pipework. The piece utilises data gathered from the Don and Sheaf rivers that bring into focus the history and ecology of these vital ecosystems. Nearby at SADACCA – Sheffield and District African Caribbean Community Association – several rooms are given over to a group exhibition. White Teeth explore the impact of Sheffield’s pirate radio scene in a film multicast on multiple portable TV sets, while What Your Sound Can Do by Ashley Holmes dives into the cultural legacy of dub production techniques with a visual poem featuring grainy footage of a nighttime cityscape.

The late night programme takes place at Hope Works, a repurposed industrial estate outside the city centre. This is the festival’s spiritual home, and there’s an overwhelming number of acts scheduled into the early hours. Kenya’s Lord Spikeheart fuses extreme vocal delivery with furious industrial beats that polarise some attendees, while Batu’s set unites the crowd into a heaving sweaty organism. Back at SADACCA, tech difficulties mean Tom Payne’s immersive performance Storm Cloud is delayed. After waiting for 40 minutes in the cold, the intimate DIY space Delicious Clam provides a welcoming alternative with Micromoon’s shifting time signatures and hiphop-infused shoegaze.

On Sunday, focus shifts to neighbouring Rotherham. Chapel Of Our Lady is a tiny church sitting atop a bridge. Inside, Akhmad Kharoub – a Syrian refugee whose journey to the UK is scarred with traumatic experiences – performs what he calls a “mix of flamenco and war music”. Improvising alone on an acoustic guitar, Kharoub draws out serene melodies that are loaded with tension and despair. Despite the festival’s evident desire to max out the programme, the more understated performances make the most impact.

Ilia Rogatchevski
Originally published by The Wire, November 2024