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
Described by The Wire as “one of the most technically adept and creatively daring artists to use the turntable as a musical instrument,” Mariam Rezaei is a multi-award-winning composer, turntablist and performer. Working at the nexus of experimental new music, free improvisation, mutant club musics and hip-hop, Rezaei uses a digital vinyl system, allowing her to manipulate an expansive range of samples in real time. Her work has been described as “genuinely ground-breaking” (London Jazz News 2022) and “high-velocity sonic surrealism” (The Guardian 2022). Praised by The Wire, Uncut and Bandcamp Daily, her latest release FRACTURED (Heat Crimes) is one of The Quietus’s cassette releases of 2024.In November 2022, she received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation #AwardsForArtists in recognition of her contribution to music composition. She previously led experimental arts projects TOPH, TUSK FRINGE and TUSK NORTH, and is writing a book on turntablism for Repeater.
In addition to her solo work, Rezaei’s projects include a Turntable Triowith Evicshen and Maria Chávez (making their US premiere at Big Ears 2025), supergroup The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (with saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, trumpeter/electronics Gabriele Mitelli and drummer Lukas Koenig), and orchestral compositions with Matthew Shlomowitz (6 Scenes for Turntable and Orchestra). She recently performed Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music with guitarist Kobe Van Cauwenberghe. Other collaborations include duos with Jennifer Walshe, Edward George, Farida Amadou, Valentina Magaletti, Lasse Marhaug, Evicshen, Lukas Koenig, Mette Rasmussen, Gabriele Mitelli, Okkyung Lee and Ali Robertson, Black Top with Pat Thomas, Orphy Robinson, Cleveland Watkiss and Leon Foster Thomas, and a quartet with DJ Sniff, Rex Chen and DJ SlowPitchSound at Taipei Biennial 2023.
Angharad Davies is a violin player who’s work exists between the thresholds of improvisation, composition and experimental music.
Her approach to sound involves attentive listening and exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument and performance expectation. Being an intrepid collaborator has seen her work with the likes of Tony Conrad, Elaine Radigue, Tarek Atoui, Gwenno, Lina Lapelyte, Richard Dawson, JG Thirlwell and Annea Lockwood.
As a composer she has been commissioned by Counterflows, LCMF, Tŷ Cerdd, Nawr, Explore Ensemble, GBSR duo, + AndPLAY and her music is often played on BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show.
angharaddavies.com
Instagram : @angharaddavie
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
