Thursday 2 November 2023, 7.30pm
Mariam Rezaei / turntables
Angharad Davies / violin
Atzi Muramatsu / cello
Semay Wu / cello
"This is residency is all about new music, new partnerships, new dynamics. I admire all the musicians and they’re all very different to each other. Most significantly, they’re all composer-performer-improvisers working in multi-disciplinary contexts.
I always joke about Limp Bizkit and being the DJ in a big band, so making a group with Lukas Koenig, Mette Rasmussen and Gabriele Mitelli is both a dream and a joke come true. I’ve got a cheeky sense of humour, but I’m deadly serious about music making and finding a fun and interesting dynamic with other musicians.
Turntablism is a series of ever evolving continuums. I know and understand this, not only in my being, but in my music. Through its sensitivity and nuance, the turntable creates new timbres and unusual techniques when paired with a string ensemble. For this residency I’ll be working with violinist Angharad Davies, and cellists Atzi Muramatsu and Semay Wu. We are not going to rehearse, we are not going to talk about it, we’re just going to turn up and play.
I’m a great admirer of Edward George’s The Strangeness of Dub. For me there’s a clear affinity between dub and turntablism and I’m looking forward to exploring this together. There is a strangeness and absurdity to the turntable that is often misconstrued. More often than not, developments in music have come from unsung heroes. Perhaps sometimes those innovators don’t understand the significance of what they’ve discovered.
Ahead of the residency, I’m going to ask the musicians to send me solo recordings which I can manipulate and transform on the turntables. I’m looking to find extraordinary new sounds in real time, stretching and extending the acoustic instruments beyond their real-life capabilities. That’s what to expect from the residency." – Mariam Rezaei
Mariam Rezaei is a multi-award-winning composer, turntablist and performer working across experimental new music, free improvisation, mutant club music and hip-hop. Described by The Wire as “one of the most technically adept and creatively daring artists to use the turntable as a musical instrument,” Rezaei uses a digital vinyl system, allowing her to manipulate an expansive range of samples in real time using classic turntablist skills and her own innovative techniques.
The Anglo-Iranian virtuoso’s latest solo release FRACTURED (Heat Crimes) has been praised by The Wire, Uncut and Bandcamp Daily, and was one of The Quietus’ cassette releases of 2024. Rezaei is a member of the international free music supergroup The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, the pioneering Turntable Trio with Evicshen and Maria Chávez, 1984 with Kobe Van Cauwenberghe and Sakina Abdou, and Fire! Orchestra.
Her co-composition with Matthew Shlomowitz, 6 Scenes for Turntable and Orchestra, was premiered at IMD Darmstadt 2023, while in October 2025, she premiered Scholar’s Record, a major commission for the 75th Donaueschinger Musiktage that draws on the legendary festival’s audio archives. Other recent projects include a collaboration with Ensemble Contrechamps and upcoming commissions from Ensemble Intercontemporain and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
Other collaborators include Pat Thomas, Bill Orcutt, Jennifer Walshe, Edward George, Farida Amadou, Mats Gustafsson, Valentina Magaletti, Robyn Rocket, Thurston Moore, Lasse Marhaug, Evicshen, Fritz Welch, Raymond MacDonald, Lukas König, Okkyung Lee, Dali de St Paul, Kenosist and Ali Robertson.
Angharad Davies is a Welsh violinist based in London working with free-improvisation, compositions and performance. Her approach to sound involves attentive listening and exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument, her classical training and performance expectation.
angharaddavies.com
Atzi Muramatsu is a multi-disciplinary composer living in Edinburgh. His works encompass music for concerts, dance, poetry, exhibited arts and films. His music features in three BAFTA winning films including a short film The Violinist, winner of BAFTA Scotland Best Composer New Talent Award 2016. He plays in Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and leads a contemporary string quartet Lipsync for a Lullaby.
Semay Wu is a composer, cellist, improviser, and media/sound artist. Influenced by free improvisational frameworks, Semay composes primarily in electroacoustic sounds: most recently with graphic scores, field recordings and live electronics. She has also developed video pieces, performance/interactive-installations, as well as an online audio cookbook for Manchester’s communities: Sounds Like Scran, in 2021. Semay’s solo performances use sampling and improvisation, of cello, voice and everyday objects, and has released four albums: Raspberry Hotel (Akashic Records, 2022), Sharmanka & Unsteady Stones (Scatter Archive, 2023 & 2024), and The Spinal Cactus #001 (self-released), made for her first UK tour (as solo) in 2024.
https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/unsteady-stones
