Kings Place, London, UKPhoto: Monika S. Jakubowska The dark stage is peppered with cymbals that resemble flowers gazing at an artificial sun. A solitary bell is heard but its source is unclear. Midori Takada emerges from an aisle and ascends onto the stage, intermittently striking… Read More
Various venues, Montreal, CanadaPhoto: Open Reel Ensemble at MUTEK Forum by Maryse Boyce This year is the 24th edition of Montreal based festival Mutek, which investigates how new technologies are applied in the creative industries while also exploring tech’s symbiotic relationship with electronic music. It… Read More
Mute Frequencies, my sound art project with Laura Rogatchevskaia, released its Svalbard Soundtracks album today. It’s something we’ve been working on since 2019 and we’re really happy to see that the project found a home on the Flaming Pines label. Inspired by three silent documentaries… Read More
Nkisi, Iklectik, London, UKPhoto: Jonathan Crabb In the concluding chapter of Kick It: A Social History Of The Drum Kit, author Matt Brennan notes that drums have infiltrated music production to the extent that “we are all drummers now”. This is especially true of electronic… Read More
Suzanne Ciani + Li YileiKings Place, London, UK Taking refuge in Kings Place from the sweltering summer heat, I’m met by Li Yilei’s solitary song. The London based artist begins with an avian melody performed on a whistle. The phrase fills the hall, looping and… Read More
Museum Of Portable SoundPortsmouth, UK/Online “Are you familiar with the story of the first MP3?” asks John Kannenberg, director and chief curator of the Museum of Portable Sound (MOPS). He plays me the 1987 a cappella version of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner”. Karlheinz Brandenburg, the… Read More
In my latest podcast for audio.com I talked to Blanc Sceol, the London based sound art duo of Stephen Shiell and Hannah White. Stephen and Hannah work together across disciplines, incorporating field recording, intervention, voice, acoustic ecology and instrument building. They often focus on participatory… Read More
If you tune your digital dial to Radio Amnion each month during the full moon, you’ll hear a new composition specifically commissioned for the occasion. In June, Blanc Sceol, the London based duo of Stephen Shiell and Hannah White, presented Orbit, a half-hour piece recorded… Read More
O YAMA O The quartet formed from the eclectic cultural milieu around London’s Cafe Oto take folk, sound art and call and response to create a liberated vision of modern song. By Ilia Rogatchevski Photography by Wendy Huynh. Sitting outside East London’s Cafe Oto, O… Read More
The underground music veteran Mihály Víg looks back on Hungary’s Soviet-era scene.Image: Balaton’s Károly Hunyadi (left) and Mihály Víg in Budapest, 1980s. Photograph by János Vetö Outside of his native Hungary, Mihály Víg is best known as a soundtrack composer. His work is closely associated… Read More
