City St George’s, University of London Experimental Ensemble (CUEE) and Field Recording Ensemble (FR) come together for an evening of exploratory sound-making and collective improvisation.
This year CUEE are joined by guest collaborator Iris Colomb, an artist, poet, improviser, curator, editor, and translator based in London. Her practice merges poetry and other art forms to explore various relationships between visual and verbal forms of text through projects involving performance, poetic book-objects, experimental translation, and improvisation.
Free admission; please register to attend, since space is limited.
Programme
CUEE with Iris Colomb will embark upon semi-structured collective improvisations, combining approaches devised by students with elements of conduction, all developed using an exploratory approach across the year and in workshop with Iris Colomb earlier this term.
FR ensemble will present three short pieces incorporating a field recording score, live instrumentation and the live deployment of specialist field recording mics.
Digital Snake – The Digital Snakes (Lucy Cates, Amarveer Jandu, Eva O’Neill)
By using contact and electromagnetic recordings we explore hidden sounds within the university, contrasted with recorded audible sounds. The soundscape is divided into three parts by each artist respectively. The soundscape is then rebroadcast 10 times in a self-made echo chamber consisting of a highly reverberant shower unit; using the spatialisation of standing waves or reflections to feedback into the recording. This final iteration of the resonant soundscape will be incorporated into the performance.
Alteration #1 – Daniel Reeves, Cezary Cilulko, Gianluca Cardella
This piece explores the organic and the synthetic by presenting natural elements, mixed with the extremes of digital alteration. Manipulated found sounds, captured using portable recorders, contact mics and electromagnetic pickups form melodic fragments over an industrial rhythm.
Snippets of Uni Life – Josiah McPherson, Lloyd Murphy, Serra Turkmenoglu
"Snippets of the Uni Life" was created by our group to convey the life of a student within university. Pretty straight forward. However, we try to explore underlying themes of mental health; the active and passive mind and how the two overlap positively and negatively. We recorded many spaces around the university, and the surrounding area in attempts to truly depict the intricacies of the student mind and their surroundings. We hope you enjoy!
About CUEE
City St Georges, University of London Experimental Ensemble (CUEE) creates a space for a wide range of experimental practice, welcoming any and all sound-sources and instruments into its group exploration. Formed in 2016 by Tullis Rennie, CUEE places improvisation at the heart of its approach, combining guest artist encounters with making its own new work.
CUEE have collaborated with guests including Jamie Howell and Lilja María Ásmundsdóttir, and in 2019 the group responded to improvised sound with visual artist Gina Southgate, co-producing a permanent installation on canvas for the Music Department at City. They have also worked with composers Alwynne Pritchard, Michael Finnissy, Kunsu Shim and Drew Crawford, as well as with Seth Cluett in a tribute concert to Pauline Oliveros. In 2019 a live recording of Cath Roberts' Off-World and March of the Egos by CUEE was featured on the multi.modal release Boundaries, alongside interpretations of Mieko Shiomi's Boundary Music by Jan Hendrickse and David Toop. The ensemble is led by Cath Roberts.
About Field Recording Ensemble
This year the field recording ensemble has been working with three different layers of field recording practice. We have spent time in London recording sounds of everyday life, as well as focusing on gathering traces of less accessible sounds such as those of electricity and the vibration of infrastructures such as bridges and stairs using specialist microphones. These recorded sounds have been used to compose a field recording score which each small group has devised a live performance in response to. These live performances attempt to map a space where live playing meets the concerns of field recording practice, with an emphasis on sonic layers, the intermingling of different sounds and the interactions between sound and space. The final component of our investigations has been an exploration of the potential of field recording kit itself as a tool for live performance, with some groups incorporating specialist microphones or exploratory mic-ing into their live presentations. The ensemble is led by Kate Carr.
Attendance at City St George's events is subject to our terms and conditions.
-
Performance Space
College Building
280 St John St
London EC1V 4PB
United Kingdom