Welcome to the MANTIS Festival of Electroacoustic Music
4th – 5th March 2023With Guest ArtistsMark Pilkington Oliver Carman Dave Payling Nikki Sheth
Featuring works byAnastasios Asonitis, David Berezan, Josh Gardner, Ella Kay, Sarah Keirle, Irving Kinnersley, Eddie Lansley, Chris Rhodes, Rosalia Soria, Rachel Beckles Willson, Ryan Woods
All the works will be diffused over our 34-loudspeaker surround sound system in the John Thaw Studio Theatre, Martin Harris Centre, the University of Manchester.Sound Installations will be held in Room G16.
Anastasios Asonitis, David Berezan, Josh Gardner, Ella Kay, Sarah Keirle, Irving Kinnersley, Eddie Lansley, Chris Rhodes, Rosalia Soria, Rachel Beckles Willson, Ryan Woods
All the works will be diffused over our 34-loudspeaker surround sound system in the John Thaw Studio Theatre, Martin Harris Centre, the University of Manchester.
DOWNLOAD PROGRAMME
PROGRAMME
SATURDAY 4th March 2023
CONCERT 1 18:00 h
Ryan Woods Blue Bucket
Ella Kay The Value of Noise
Sarah Keirle Fiovan'ny ala
Irving Kinnersley Estuary 2
David Berezan Smudge
Tasos Asonitis Cartographic
CONCERT 2 20:00 h
Mark Pilkington Hidden Forest
Mark Pilkington Lamaload
Mark Pilkington Moiré
Mark Pilkington /
Oliver Carman Synergies
Mark Pilkington Structured Behaviour
SUNDAY 5th MARCH 2023
INSTALLATION 10:00-13:00 h, Room G16
Talk 12:00
Mark Pilkington Image Slideshow
CONCERT 3 14:00 h
Eddie Lansley ‘Ro-Sham-Bo’
Rachel Beckles Willson Five estranged memories
Josh Gardner Knots
Chris Rhodes Membrana Neopermeable
Rosalia Soria Claret
Dave Payling Sunset
______________________________
Programme Notes:
CONCERT 1 18:00 h
Ryan Woods Blue Bucket
Ella Kay The Value of Noise
Sarah Keirle Fiovan'ny ala
Irving Kinnersley Estuary 2
David Berezan Smudge
Tasos Asonitis Cartographic
Chrystine Rayburn / Luca Grappi / Ryan Woods | Blue Bucket
Performers:
Clarinet - Katherine Blumer Voice - Ryan Woods
Live mixing - Mabon Jones
Blue Bucket is a communally created piece of sound art that was the result of a days exploration of sound and place at the remote El Pollel, Catalunya on an Audiotalaia residency in August 2019. It brings together the musical skills of the creators – clarinet, voice, live mixing – with the sounds of El Pollel – metallic materials, metal doors, far off church bells across the valley – to create a performance grounded in place. The piece is largely improvised.
Bio (Ryan): Ryan Woods is currently a PhD student at the University of Manchester. He studies electroacoustic composition at NOVARS research centre focusing on soundscape composition as a way of exploring acoustic and cultural ecologies. He is specifically interested in representation and uses anthropological methodologies to explore this within composition.
Ella Kay | The Value of Noise
Community, freedom, and voice should be at the heart of every city – the right to protest embodies this need. Each version of protest holds an essence of ‘noise’, disruption, and fighting for a cause.
Most awareness about climate change issues has been acknowledged by mainstream corporations through the work of protests.
Society often sees noise as an unwanted sound, but its value is reimagined when its disruptive powers are used to induce change and challenge injustices. ‘The Value of Noise’ explores the noises and sounds of different cities across the globe with a collective voice against the effects of climate change and its contributors, be it in its many different forms. A recording of an Exeter climate protest from 2021, submitted for the commissioning project, originated the inspiration for this work.
Thank you to the protesters, their noise, and their recordists for their uses in this piece.
'The Value of Noise' was commissioned by Cities & Memory for debut as part of their 'Well-being Cities' project, resulting in an installation at the C40 World Mayors Summit 2022 19th-21st October in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The works were required to establish different approaches to the intersection of cities and well-being and called upon various composers of different musical styles to reimagine audio recordings of different cities across the world, specially submitted for use in the project.
Bio: Ella Kay is an electroacoustic composer, sound artist and designer, and saxophonist from Oldham currently based in Manchester. She is influenced by the intricacies of humanity and life, and her work aims to interpret these often-complicated areas through the realms of experimental sound. Focusing on fixed media acousmatic works, she aims to draw attention to important cultural topics through a variety of auditory experiences.
Ella graduated from The University of Manchester in 2019 with a MusB (hons) in Music where she was awarded the P.J. Leonard First Prize for her Electroacoustic Music final portfolio of works. She has returned to the university to study for a MusM Masters degree in Electroacoustic Composition and Interactive Media.
In October 2022, The Radiophonic Institute recognised her work with an Oram Award including a Special Commendation bursary. Her music and research have been presented in MANTIS (University of Manchester), Art’s Birthday 2023 @ E-Werk (Freiburg, Germany), Sonic Cartography 2022 (University of Kent), SOUND/IMAGE 2022 (University of Greenwich), and EASTN-DC, and she is a member of RNCM/University of Manchester’s Unsupervised Machine Learning 4 Music group. She has professional experience in sound design and engineering for theatre and media, and she is currently working on interactive sonic tools for movement artists, and radiophonic storytelling.
Sarah Keirle | Extract from Fiovan’ny ala
‘Most of them don’t understand why you spent so much money on animals and just beside you have very poor people... so you have to explain why, that the ultimate goal is for people, for the wellbeing of people...’
Fiovan’ny ala (change of the forest) is a sonic exploration of two locations in Madagascar, Ankarafantsika National Park and Lake Alaotra, and the conservation work being undertaken there. All the sounds originate from fieldwork done in these two locations in September 2022 or from recordings of captive lemurs at Jersey Zoo taken in 2021. (Some lemurs are too rare to see/hear in the wild!)
The fieldwork was kindly funded by Jersey Overseas Aid to further public engagement with their conservation livelihood project in Madagascar, which aims to enhance the wellbeing of over 2,000 nature-dependent households in 14 communities through improved food security, reproductive health, and better access to community finance schemes in a way that also reduces negative impacts on the long-term sustainability of their natural resource base.
Many thanks to the Durrell team in Madagascar and my research assistant, RAZAFIMANTSOA Sahobiniriana Tsiky Mamy Ifitiavaniaina.
(This work is in-progress, and this extract features around two-thirds of the piece, which will be around 25 minutes long.)
Bio: Sarah is an electroacoustic composer and PhD researcher based in Manchester, UK. She graduated from the University of Manchester in 2017 with a first class MusB (hons) in Music and the P.J. Leonard First Prize for Electroacoustic Composition, and completed an Advanced Diploma in Sound for Film, Games and TV at SSR in 2018. In 2019, she completed a Masters in Electroacoustic Composition and Interactive Media, with Distinction. Her works have been performed at the ICMC, EASTN-DC, Radio CASo, Reform Radio, BEAST FEaST, MANTIS, ArtHouse Jersey, Diffrazioni Festival, Espacios Sonoros, TAma Festival, Ecos Urbanos, NMNW, REF Festival, BFE/RMA, MeCCSA-PGN, NWCDTP ResConf, and SHETogether. Her works have also been released by Empirica Records (FIXED.wav 2021) and ABLAZE Records (Electronic Masters vol. 8).
In September 2020, Sarah started an AHRC NWCDTP funded PhD in electroacoustic composition at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on the use of animal sounds within electroacoustic composition to create new sonic means for conservation awareness, public engagement, and nature connection. The fieldwork for this project was undertaken in collaboration with Wildwood Trust, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Jersey Overseas Aid.
Irving Kinnersley | Estuary 2
Estuary 2 explores the area around Brean Down, a limestone headland which extends dramatically into the Bristol Channel, as a “zone of formative and transformative processes set in train through the interplay of wind, water and stone . . .” (Tim Ingold). Humans, inhabiting this area since neolithic times appear in the piece as fragile presences, dominated by geological and tidal forces. Some human appearances are temporally ambiguous, the solitary walker who appears at the beginning and end of the piece or the human interactions with stones and pebbles. Others, such as the sounds of humans playing on the beach are clearly contemporary. Playing with this ideal of temporal heterogeneity sounds which have disappeared from the present reappear in the piece, such as the foghorn which last sounded in 1980 and the traces of radio static and morse code which refer to Marconi’s early radio transmissions from the end of Brean Down across the Bristol Channel to Wales.
Bio: Irving Kinnersley holds a degree in English Literature and Religion from the University of London, a Master’s in Modern Literature from the University of Kent and an MMus in Creative Music Technology from Bath spa University. He is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Manchester. His works has been selected for performance at several peer reviewed colloquiums and festivals including, the MANCA Festival, Seeing Sound, Festival Ecos Urbanos, Festival DME, Audio Mostly, the MANTIS Festival, the BFE-RMA Research Students Conference and the Convergence Festival. His piece Elegy 1: Time Present is Time Past won first prize in a category of the 2021 edition of the KLANG International Electroacoustic Competition.
David Berezan | Smudge
Smudge was composed using recordings of sounds produced while cleaning a kitchen cooker top. The combination of metal, sponge, moisture, pressure and motion created a variety of sounds that, when further processed and arranged, created animated textures and rapid gestures. Voice-like qualities also emerged, both human-like and conjuring of other creatures. Smudge was composed at EMS (Elektronmusikstudion) Stockholm during an artist residency in January 2023.
Bio: David Berezan is Professor of Electroacoustic Music Composition at The University of Manchester (UK). His work has been awarded in the Destellos (Argentina, 2022), MusicWorks (Canada, 2021), Klang (France, 2015), Música Viva (Portugal, 2012), CIMESP (Brazil, 2003, ’05), Bourges (France, 2002), Luigi Russolo (Italy, 2002), Espace du son (Belgium, 2002), EAR (Hungary, 2001), and JTTP (Canada, 2000) competitions. He has worked in residence in the studios of the University of Calgary (Canada, 2011), Université de Montréal (Québec, 2011), CMMAS (Mexico, 2011), EMS (Sweden, 2011, ’12, ’18, ’23), VICC (Sweden, 2011, ’12, ’14), The Banff Centre of the Arts (Canada, 2000, ’07), ZKM’s Institut für Musik und Akustik (Germany, 2007), Ina-GRM (France, 2007), IMEB (France, 2007), ESB (Switzerland, 2005), and Tamagawa University (Japan, 2007). His work is published by empreintes DIGITALes (Montreal, Canada).
Tasos Asonitis | Cartographic
Cartographic presents an attempt to create a three-dimensional map from sound. Leveraging Machine Learning techniques, an original sound source is broken into small segments and these segments are scattered in 3D space according to their timbral qualities. The piece unfolds as we navigate through this space and explore the different neighborhouds. Fluctuating between descriptive and poetic, the journey takes us through various stages as we observe the system gradually falling apart and what before stood like a map, eventually dissolve into an abstraction.
Bio: Tasos Asonitis is a sonic and audiovisual artist whose activities encompass various facets of digital arts. His primary interest is on immersive virtual environments that can be described by the creative entanglement of computer generated music and 3D graphics. His work deals particulary with non- anthropocentric themes. Asonitis' artistic output however is not limited to the audiovisual domain, and includes multi-channel fixed media pieces, sonic installations and compositions for moving image. Recipient of the EPSRC doctoral scholarship, he is currently doing a PhD in Composition at NOVARS Research Center. Contact: tasos_a@hotmail.com
CONCERT 2 20:00 h
Mark Pilkington Hidden Forest
Mark Pilkington Lamaload
Mark Pilkington Moiré
Mark Pilkington /
Oliver Carman Synergies
Mark Pilkington Structured Behaviour
Mark Pilkington Hidden Forest
Hidden Forest is an algorithmic composition that combines a variety of coded media elements. The concept examines the impact of technology on representing ecological concerns. An imaginary forest acts as an ecosystem inhabited by entities whose presence is sensed through the movement of light and sound. These non-biological entities flash across the screen intertwining and reproducing with one another. It’s through an appliance of movement that allows us to comprehend their embodied existence in a spatial-temporal field. The piece amplifies our senses to raise awareness of how natural and artificial ecosystems can interact to bring about social change. The visual material consists of photographs, film and hand-drawn sketches all encoded to follow the properties of the sound material. The appliance of mapping and the use of experimental modelling is an important aspect in the artistic research of this algorithmic composition. The temporal in the invariant algorithmic design relies on continual relations rather than digital fixing. It is precisely this emphasis on the evolving relationship between parameters or their interactive feedback that characterizes the piece in terms of real-time adaptation, emergence and transformation. The parametric design allows the temporal dimension of space to become central through the formation of invariant topologies. Prediction is no longer based on finite probabilities, but rather on the inclusion of potential qualities. Thus, the piece offers a fresh insight into the formation of art to restore a continuity of experience in nature.
Mark Pilkington | Lamaload
Lamaload A/V is an audio-visual composition addressing the ecology of a rural setting. The presence of the Lamaload dam in the Peak District National Park, UK offers a unique audio-visual experience. Its unique architectural shape provides an acoustic screen that inadvertently magnifies and reflects the sounds of the surrounding area. The sound material consists of naturally occurring and found sounds recorded at different locations around the dam. A B-format ambisonic recording technique was used in order to retain a sense of the soundfield. The ambisonic recordings were decoded at the EMS studio in Stockholm (SE) into eight discrete channels conveying a spatial experience that physically and metaphorically relates to the specific environment. In Lamaload A/V (2017) photographic and graphic images of the dam and the surrounding area are directly animated by natural and human-made sounds. A custom-built program analyses eight discrete audio channels and visualizes them across eight corresponding screens. The result is a reconstruction of audio-visual spatial imaginings founded upon concepts that critically engage with the public in meaningful ways.
The visuals were programmed using Processing at the Thought Universe electronic music studio, Manchester, 2017. Lamaload was composed during a composer-in-residency program at the NOVARS research centre at the university of Manchester 2015/16.
Mark Pilkington | Moiré
Moiré is a fixed audio-visual composition that investigates perceptual correspondence between sound and image. The concept is based on encounters and exchanges between fictional characters within a milieu of audio-visual interference. Digital transformations portray memories, thoughts and feelings of social meaning projected in an audio-visual framework. Creating a living dynamic field that demonstrates how social information is captured and inverted in a continuum of self-expression.
The original visual material consisted of computer coded graphics and film footage captured from VHS video tapes. This was animated to fit the sound by splitting it into fragments to produce a spatial temporal structure. The image materiality is spatially arranged in both the horizontal and vertical planes according to the spectral content of the sound material. Each component has been aligned to form temporal spatial trajectories to transform audio-visual space. Creating a phenomenological experience pertains to a metaphysical state of transcending the meaning of the original sourced material.
Filming directly in front of a TV screen infused the video images with a secondary layer of magnetic polar patterns to create a moiré field. A moiré field is a vibration that appears solid through the diffraction of light between two visible surfaces, it's the point at which light exceeds our ability to discern such fine slices of time.
Sounds were produced using analogue and digital synthesizers at NOVARS the University of Manchester, 2010. Visuals produced at Thought Universe studios, Manchester, 2013. Moiré awarded the grand prize at the Open Circuit Festival, University of Liverpool, 2014.
Mark Pilkington / Oliver Carman | Synergies
Synergies (2020) is a collaborative piece by Dr. Mark Pilkington (Thought Universe) and Dr. Oliver Carman (University of Liverpool) that investigates the integration of sound and images in the composition of electroacoustic music. Using code we formed an animated graphic score to represent sounds derived from the human voice.
Mark Pilkington | Structured Behaviour
Structured Behaviors is an algorithmic composition that fuses both audio and visual entities. A series of algorithmic behaviors are mapped using custom designed audio-visual processes. Numerical relationships are established to generate a visual composition that provides the basis of a complex interplay within the auditory level. The coexistence of human and machine interactions forms an ontogenetic structure that relies on continual relations between the user and technology. An ongoing structural change occurs from moment to moment, either triggered by interactions, or as a result of internal dynamics. The visual material consists of drawings representing sound transformations in space. Sound material is derived from instrumental, modular synthesisers and environmental sounds. Non-linearity plays a structural role in the temporal evolution of the invariant algorithmic design. It is precisely this emphasis on the evolving relationship between parameters and interactive feedback that characterizes the piece in terms of real-time adaptation, emergence and transformation.
Bio (Mark): Dr. Mark Iain Pilkington is a composer and performer of electroacoustic music. His practice encapsulates both sound and image to extend spatial imaginings between real and virtual space. The coupling of sound and image are applied to electroacoustic composition, installation, and screen- based works. Forging immaterial and creative labor through a network of interwoven and augmented territories, his work increasingly queries the way operations carry great critical and creative potential. Seeking new modes of critical engagement that incorporate multiple narratives through non-digital and digital aesthetic informs the direction of his pedagogy. His theoretical research focuses on the relationship between artistic genres and their respective aesthetic theories with reference to electroacoustic music, sound synthesis, visual music, coding, philosophy, and film. His practice especially focuses on audio-visual composition using real and virtual entities to explore time and space. His work has been performed, exhibited and screened at conferences and festivals globally. ICMC, ARS Electronica, ZKM | Karlsruhe, MANTIS festival and the Open Circuit Festival. Interdisciplinary work is carried out collaboratively with artists and composers.
Thought Universe is Mark’s artist name produced beat based electronic music.
His drawings and paintings provide material for his electronic sound compositions.
Bio (Oliver): Oli Carman is Lecturer in Music Technology at the University of Liverpool. He is a composer of Acousmatic music, a number of collaborative audio-visual works and recently an author of fantasy fiction. His work is regularly performed throughout the UK and internationally, and has also been recognised at numerous international festivals and competitions recently including - Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival, Aug - Sept 2020, PIXELS FEST, Yekaterinburg, Russia, March 2020, Mention - Prix Destellos, Argentina, 2019 and 2nd Prize - Xenakis International Electroacoustic Competition 2017.
INSTALLATION 10:00-13:00 h, Room G16
Talk at 12:00 h
Mark Pilkington Image Slideshow
CONCERT 3 14:00 h
Eddie Lansley ‘Ro-Sham-Bo’
Rachel Beckles Willson Five estranged memories
Josh Gardner Knots
Chris Rhodes Membrana Neopermeable
Rosalia Soria Claret
Dave Payling Sunset
Eddie Lansley ‘Ro-Sham-Bo’A game of S.K.A.
T.E., Ro-Sham-Bo to start, winner sets first...
The clatter of polyurethane wheels on concrete, the slap of plywood on paving and the silence of the board in the air. The sonic signature of the skateboard is familiar to many ears. However, Ro-Sham-Bo explores one of the few moments of relative silence in a skateboard’s existence – when the board is mid-air during a trick.
The piece utilises gyroscope and accelerometer data, collected while undertaking various skating tricks and manoeuvres, to answer the question ‘what does a kick-flip sound like?’ or rather, how can the sonification of physics data offer a unique sonic insight into the forces acting upon a skateboard in motion?’.
Bio: Eddie Lansley is currently studying for a masters in Electroacoustic Music and Interactive Media at the Novars research centre, University of Manchester.
Rachel Beckles Willson | Five estranged memories
1. Waltz
2. Golden Submarine
3. Motet
4. Three-part invention
5. Serenade
I created miniatures 1, 3 and 5 as audio-visual studies using some wire anatomy studies that I kept when I cleared out my late father's sculpture studio. I combined some basic expressive ideas (which are revealed only at the end of each film) with an exploration of audio and video processing techniques (mainly GRM Tools and TouchDesigner).
Miniatures 2 and 4 are audio alone.
Miniatures 2-5 also explore two of the acoustic instruments that I play (oud and saxophone) through physical preparation. In preparing and playing the oud, I used dry linguine and chopsticks. I played the saxophone (just the mouthpiece and neck) attached to a tube, which I partially submerged in a bucket of water. I multi-tracked my voice as well in the third study (Motet). The first study (Waltz) is a transformation of sounds from the Ligurian Sea.
When I thought about turning these studies into miniature audio pieces I realised they had the shadows of historical repertoires that I had listened to with my father. This added a layer of humour to me, hence the titles, but for some listeners the connection will be irrelevant.
Bio: Rachel Beckles Willson is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and researcher, Professor of Intercultural Performing Arts at Codarts, Rotterdam and Leiden University in the Netherlands. She is also a Masters student of electroacoustic composition here at NOVARS.
Josh Gardner | Knots
This piece explores a history of language localised to the artist. It is articulated through a history of human language, ranging from basic morphemes and phonemes through to vowels, chanting, proto- language1, epic poetry2, classical poetry3, and an elegy.
Heavily inspired by Joyce’s Ulysses, it mimics Ulysses’ progression through literary styles to form a receptive electroacoustic take on postmodernism.
Functionally, it is a piece that pits the span of the millions of years of linguistic formation against the microseconds it takes to form and speak a thought. These timelines are entwined to elevate the banality of a regular thought whilst situating the artist in situ against the backdrop of immense, muddy swathes of time.
The piece closes with an elegy that addresses questions of self-doubt and artistic validity, ending by sealing the artist off as a doppelgänger trapped in the binary information of their own recorded voice.
1 An excerpt from Schleicher’s Hymn, the first piece of verse to be written in Proto-Indo-European. 2 The opening proem of Beowulf, read in Old English.
3 An excerpt from Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, relating to Orpheus.
Bio: A former literature student, Josh is a current postgraduate student at the NOVARS research centre. Concerned with the aesthetics of noise music as well as the philosophies of manufacturing desire (Deleuze, Guattari, Zizek etc), his pieces explore the topics of: apophenia, the tendency to relate patterns where none exist; the homogenisation of hyperreal meaning amongst the masses; and the aesthetics of mapping cognitive emergence through AI and machine learning technologies.
Chris Rhodes | Membrana Neopermeable
Membrana Neopermeable is an interactive mixed reality piece which seeks to explore the ever- thinning boundary between performing with physical and digital instruments; aiming to discover what this means for the future of music composition. It does this via allowing a performer to compose music through interacting with both a physical and digital guitar within the same physical space, culminating in a live mixed reality experience. In this sense, the performer is presented with both a physical acoustic guitar and a playable virtual guitar which ‘appears’ to be in front of them. This is made possible through using the Oculus Quest 2, the Unity game engine, Max 8, novel biometric sensors (Myo armbands) and open-access machine learning software (Wekinator). Ultimately, this piece seeks to discover how future multimodal spaces can be used as compositional assets.
Bio: Chris Rhodes is an artist and sonic researcher working both within the fields of human-computer interaction (computer science) and musical composition. His artistic interests, developed during his PhD in Music Composition at NOVARS Research Centre (University of Manchester), lie with questioning the boundaries between physical and digital spaces, and what this means for new compositional processes; where his technical research regarding machine learning/AI seeks to support this artistically-led aim. He currently explores his research interests within music as a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester (department of Computer Science) and Lecturer in Digital Media Production at University College London (UCL Knowledge Lab). His work has been performed internationally at conferences navigating both the domains of musical composition and computer science, such as the International Computer Music Conference, Sound and Music Computing and New Interfaces for Musical Expression.
Rosalia Soria | Claret
I used a small collection of sounds from a bass clarinet for this piece. I was attracted by its timbre and the possibilities of creating new textures and behaviours from a few notes. I transformed a collection of slap sounds, a few overtones, and a scale in the lower register into various textures to create a journey into timbre and lively behaviours. Through these textures, I intend to evoke agitation and give a sense of playfulness. I used a state-space mathematical model to control a wave-table process, thus imprinting its behaviour into the sounds.
Bio: Rosalia is a composer and electronics engineer. Her research interests include multi-channel composition using state-space models for sound synthesis and transformations and composing for broader audiences. She studied composition at the “Conservatorio de las Rosas” in Michoacán, Mexico, and completed an MSc in Electrical Engineering at the UMSNH University in Mexico in 2010. In 2013 she received the prestigious PDS award from the University of Manchester, where she completed a PhD in Music at the NOVARS Research Centre. She has presented her works at various international festivals such as “Ars Electronica “ in Austria, “Visiones Sonoras” in Mexico, “MANTIS “at the University of Manchester, and Kling Gut 2018 in Germany, to mention a few. She was a member of the Mexican National System of Art Creators from 2018 to 2021, where she worked on a project to raise awareness about racism in Mexico through electroacoustic music.
Nikki Sheth | Windmills of Lapua
“Direct impacts of wind farms can include collision and barotrauma (damage to tissues from air pressure changes around turbines); indirect impacts can include habitat loss (roosts, commuting routes and foraging areas) and fragmentation.” – bats.org.uk
This piece comments on the impact of wind farms on the bat population. It uses field recordings of windmills taken in Lapua, Finland using microphones that pick up normally inaudible frequencies (such as contact and electromagnetic mics), combined with various field recordings of bats.
This work was made possible thanks to the Develop your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England and was originally composed for the 3D IKO Sonible loudspeaker.
Bio: Nikki Sheth is an internationally recognised sound artist and composer. Her practice involves field recording, 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.
She has received international recognition for the quality of her field recordings and soundscape compositions and her work has been performed worldwide. In 2020 she was awarded a Sound and Music award, nominated for the Phonurgia Nova Awards in the Field Recording: Soundscape category and was an Honourable Mention for the Sound of the Year Awards in the Composed with Sound category. In 2021 she was nominated for an Ivor Novello Composer Award in the Sound Art Category.
Her work has been presented at BEAST FEAST (UK), Sonic Territories (Germany), Pitea Performing Arts Biennial (Sweden), KMH (Stockholm), Spektra Festival (Columbia), Ecoacoustic Congress (Brisbane), The Global Composition (Germany), DLR Lexicon (Dublin), Perspectives on Listening (Brisbane), Balance Unbalance (UK), Sound + Environment (UK) and more. She has been featured on Framework Radio, Clydebuilt Radio, Resonance FM and BBC Radio 3 and her work has been published with a variety of labels.
Dave Payling | Sunset
Sunset is a meditation on gradually diminishing light intended to have a calming and meditative effect as the audio-visual stimuli fade to darkness. The composition pairs video of the pure light of an actual sunset with ambient environmental audio textures. The soundtrack gently unfolds with sparse subtle gestural moments in both sound and video, but the primary theme is a sustained atmospheric texture. Any perceptible gestures are extended over a long duration focussing the eye and ear on the textural qualities of the video and sound (Smalley 1986). To complement the spatial qualities of the video, ambient sound materials are used, which have been time-stretched to enhance their drone-like qualities revealing their inner detail. Several 'frozen moments' of sound were created and arranged to produce movement and flow through the soundscape. Alongside these textures there are occasional flurries of sound to signal changes and variation.
Bio: Dave is an audio-visual artist who teaches and studies Electronic Music at Staffordshire University, teaching audio mastering, sound synthesis and Touchdesigner. He is a visual music composer and holds a PhD in Visual Music composition. His earlier research centred on sonification and auditory display and his composition ‘Listen (Awakening)’ was performed at the Sydney Opera House as part of the ICAD conference in 2004. His more recent work focuses on composition for Visual Music with animation and electronic music. Dave also produces more mainstream Electronic music and is From the Floor section editor for Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture. Dave’s compositions have been performed at the Soundings Festival Edinburgh, MANTIS Festival University of Manchester, flEXiff Experimental Film Festival Sydney Australia, Seeing Sound Bath Spa, ICMC Shanghai, NoiseFloor Festival Staffordshire and the Understanding Visual Music Conference in Brasilia, Brazil.
