Cumbria-based new music and sound art festival Full of Noises presents two nights of performances by artists from their 2013 programme. Day 1 sees performances from composer/sound artist Ryoko Akama, who explores Japanese ideology and the art forms of Noh, Teaism, Kabuki; the four machines/two people sextet of Howlround who create an uncanny and beguiling soundworld from vintage machines; and the first ever live appearance by newly formed North West based duo, featuring two thirds of Ex-Easter Island Head - The Aleph.

Starting life in a former canteen building on the edge of Barrow-in-Furness' Trident submarine manufacturing plant, FON has invited a wide range of artists to explore the Lake District's industrial fringe from Faust, AGF, Philip Jeck, Hildur Gudnadottir and Tetsuo Kogawa to Dopplereffekt, Mobile Radio, Haco, John Wall, Lee Gamble and Richard Youngs.

This year's festival took a back-to-basics approach through a programme of work focusing on analogue and acoustic sound sources, archaic and obscure technologies and a series of talks focusing on the forerunners and pioneers of experimental and electronic music. Works included new commissions for handbells, EMS Synthi A and a tuba/trombone/organ 5.1 system alongside lectures on Pierre Schaeffer and Hugh Davies, a film portrait of Lol Coxhill and a giant black sub-bass-emitting bouncy castle.

Each of the two nights at Café Oto will feature three artists from this year's programme alongside a short introduction from the festival curators. FON will also be taking up residence in the project space during the afternoons with performances, talks and short films from the festival archive.

Full of Noises OTO Project Space schedule.

RYOKO AKAMA

Ryoko Akama is a composer/sound artist, currently undertaking the second year of her PhD at the University of Huddersfield. She initiated her interest in electronics during a sound engineering course at SAE college in the late 90s. She enjoys DIY in order to realise compositions, sound installations and performance. An apprenticeship to Mrs. Yatotaka Kineie on Nagauta (a form of traditional Japanese music using the Shamisen, voice and percussion) since 2005 has influenced her artistic insight, from where she explores and researches Japanese ideology and the art forms of Noh, Teaism, Kabuki etc. The composition series `Tone of Orient`, presented at the FON festival, deals with the aesthetics of subtlety and delicate soundscapes of traditional instruments alongside electronics and objects.

www.ryokoakama.com



HOWLROUND

First coming to prominence with hugely-acclaimed LP The Ghosts Of Bush last year, Howlround have now expanded to a sextet (four machines, two people) and create recordings and performances entirely from manipulating natural acoustic sounds on vintage reel-to-reel tape machines, with additional reverb or electronic effects strictly forbidden. In an age where one can create all manner of electronic music with a simple swipe of a mouse, Howlround prove not only how much fun is to be had in making things complicated again, but conversely just how little effort is sometimes needed to create a genuinely uncanny and beguiling soundworld: the rough underbelly of our pristine, Pro-Tools universe. A second LP, Secret Songs Of Savamala, recorded almost entirely in a flooded basement in Serbia has just been released and has already been compared to the work of Philip Jeck, Morton Feldman and even the sculptures of Rachel Whiteread.

robinthefog.com/howlround/



THE ALEPH

First ever live appearance by this newly formed North West based duo, featuring two thirds of Ex-Easter Island Head. 'The Aleph take the threads of musical material and weave them with the threads of musical culture. Time collapses in on itself as music - from the distant past to the far future; known and unknown - is combined and recomposed into long-scale classical form to create a spectral, alternative present. "It's in the cellar under the dining room."


This performance was funded through the OTO Projects Promoters and Artists Fund set up to support the creation and delivery of new live events with UK-based musicians. This fund was made possible with support from the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.



www.jerwoodcharitablefoundation.org