What is the mass of sound? How much space does it occupy?

Without matter there is no sound, but sound is not the matter that carries it.

Sound Matter brings together six unique performers in a program of three intimate sets. The concert presents different perspectives, focusing on the various materials used for music and sound creation. It highlights improvisation as means for composition and explores collaboration as a process of offering and sharing creative visions.


ANGHARAD DAVIES WITH LINA LAPELYTE

Angharad Davies is a violinist whose work is situated in the complex intersection of improvised and composed music. She is dedicated to exploring and expanding sound production on the violin, and has developed a specific approach to the violin, which extends the sound possibilities of the instrument by attaching and applying objects to the strings or by sounding unexpected parts of the instrument's body.

She is an active performer in contemporary, improvisation and experimental music both as a soloist, within ensembles such as Apartment House and Common Objects, and in smaller improvised groups with musicians, Axel Dörner, Taku Unami, and Tisha Mukarji.

Her sensitivity to the sonic possibilities of musical situations and attentiveness to their shape and direction make her one of contemporary music's most fascinating figures.

www.angharaddavies.com

Lina Lapelyte is an artist, composer, musician and performer. She says of her practice, ‘it can be placed ‘in-between’; in-between classical and experimental, music and fine art, composing and improvising.’ Initially trained as a classical violinist in Lithuania Lina showed an interest in experimental music from early on. Her experience playing with the likes of David Toop, John Butcher and Anton Lukoszevieze within the London improvised music scene in 2006 radically changed her way of composing, her pieces becoming frameworks for improvisations rather than finished compositions. Questioning the importance of musical training became another strand in her work leading her to incorporate untrained performers in unorthodox ways. Her opera Have a Good Day! examines issues of displacement, otherness and beauty through piano, electronics and text. It involves using actual cashiers from local supermarkets for the vocal strand of the piece. Another piece, Candy Shop, reworks the games of power embedded in rap songs, making them into lullabies while narrating a story about beauty, gender and the mundane. ‘Lina is working right at the edge of what popular music could become.’ Brian Eno

www.linalapelyte.com




ANDIE BROWN WITH ADAM BOHMAN

Andie Brown is a musician from London. Starting out on bass guitar at the age of 13, her unorthodox style and desire to experiment with sound led her to working with the band Cindytalk in her late teens. In 2007, she began working under the name These Feathers Have Plumes, using traditional and non-traditional instrumentation and field recordings to build multi-layered soundscapes. Her début release soon came through New York label Period Tapes and in 2010 followed the full-length release of Corvidae on Tartaruga. Currently working with glass, her live performances also incorporate field recordings, found sound and spoken word dialogue.

Andie collaborates frequently with other musicians, most frequently, Sharon Gal, and is a member of the group, Remedial Queen of England alongside Sophie Cooper and Joincey.

thesefeathershaveplumes.com

Adam Bohman has been operating on the outer fringes of underground music for decades. Working with home-built instruments, found objects, tape cut-ups, collages, ink drawings and graphic scores. Favouring acoustic sounds over electronics, he explores the minute tendrils of sounds coaxed from any number of non-musical instruments and objects. He is a member of British experimental groups, Morphogenesis, The Bohman Brothers, Secluded Bronte, and The London Improvisers Orchestra. Adam's music is unique and experimental, incorporating Fluxus japery, musique concrete, sound poetry and free improvisation.

www.discogs.com/artist/75355-Adam-Bohman




DAVID TOOP WITH SHARON GAL

David Toop is a composer, musician, author, a professor and lecturer at the London College of Communication and curator with a particular interest in sound practice, listening and improvisation. He has worked in many fields of sound art and music, including improvisation, sound installations, field recordings, pop music production, music for television, theatre and dance. He has recorded Yanomami shamanism in the Amazonas, appeared on Top of the Pops, exhibited sound installations in Tokyo, Beijing and London’s National Gallery, and performed with artists ranging from John Zorn, Evan Parker, Bob Cobbing and Ivor Cutler to Akio Suzuki, Elaine Mitchener, Lore Lixenberg and Max Eastley. He has published five books, including Ocean of Sound, Haunted Weather, and Sinister Resonance: The Mediumship of the Listener, released eight solo albums, including Screen Ceremonies, Black Chamber and Sound Body, and as a critic has written for publications including The Wire, The Face, Leonardo Music Journal and Bookforum. Exhibitions he has curated include Sonic Boom at the Hayward Gallery, London, Playing John Cage at Arnolfini, Bristol, and Blow Up at Flat-Time House, London.

David is a member of CRISAP (Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice) and is currently writing Into the Maelstrom: Improvised Music and the Pursuit of Freedom. His opera – Star-shaped Biscuit – was performed as an Aldeburgh Faster Than Sound project in September 2012.

davidtoopblog.com

Sharon Gal is a vocalist, performer and experimental musician. Her practice involves vocal and electronics free improvisation, collaborative group and site specific performances, field recordings and radio broadcast. She performs solo, and in regular collaborations with Steve Beresford, Steve Noble, Alex Ward, John Edwards, Dylan Nyoukis, Phil Minton & Feral Singers and Andie Brown. She has been conducting a series of collaborative group compositions ; L’ESPRIT D’ESCALIER – for voices in a staircase, LONG DRONE – for a large ensemble of various instruments, TOY ORCHESTRA – for children and adults and GALS with GUITARS – for female guitar players.

Sharon is a founder member of London’s arts radio, Resonance 104.4 FM and has been presenting and producing various shows, including the weekly; DIGGERS, with Edwin “Savage Pencil” Pouncey, and STEREO CILIA, an audio diary and city soundscape. In 2013 she was commissioned, together with artist Liliane Lijn, to recreate Lilliane’s book, Crossing Map, as a radiophonic sound piece.

Sharon's music was released by Ash International/ Paradigm records/ Chocolate Monk / Emanem / Ecstatic Yod and American Tapes Labels, with a new, forthcoming release, Birdsongs, on the Tapeworm label.

www.sharon-gal.com