June 2015
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Hello So my birthday passed with a gentle visit down the Thames River in London to visit Strawberry Hill House, the incredible gothic fantasy house disguised as a castle, built for Horace Walpole in 1749, offering up some wild inspiration for my anticipated move very soon.
May began with the premiere of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe in Amsterdam, which was astonishingly successful. With five sold out nights at Het Muziektheater, the show was an epic production, in a collaboration between Dutch National Ballet and ISH. Imagine contemporary ballet of the highest magnitude mixed with more urban dance moves, so a dance on point, balancing on their toes, would be accompanied by another spinning backwards, forwards, over, under, around them. This video captures the character and energy perfectly.
The show will tour later this year around The Netherlands and plans for international shows are also planned so stay tuned for more information. The score is now available from both iTunes and also Bandcamp, all 112 minutes of it!. The Bandcamp version offers a few more special treats, unavailable elsewhere, such as digital photos and posters of the production. My recent production with London Sinfonietta is now available online for free download. Ripples and Roots: Rushmoor Stories, was a collaboration to create an original piece of new music inspired by the stories and musical memories of Rushmoor residents in the UK. The sessions were conducted with musicians from the London Sinfonietta in response to the local communities with whom we met, drawing influence from all manner of stories, memories, Nepalese dancing and singing and even easy listening music. Using these resources I’ve composed a new work that reimagines these very varied connections into a work that attempts to join the dots in a playful but emotive manner.
I’m writing this over in Umeå, Sweden for Music Tech Fest right now, in a gathering of creative minds, nimble fingers and inventive characters over one long weekend. I was honoured to have had the chance to perform a live set with Graham Massey of 808 State and British artist Jason Singh. Watch a clip of the show here.
Then it’s off to IRCAM in Paris, the legendary Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music to begin my role directing and mentoring four young French composers in their work towards a show at Centre Pompidou on 1st July 2015. I will be there for two weeks working in the airless basement developing the ideas and production alongside Christian Rizzo and lighting designer Caty Olive. Let’s see what magic follows at ManiFeste. My production with seminal English industrial group Test Dept continues with another free show lined up at Rough Trade East in London on 16th July. The band will be in conversation, presenting their new book and selling vinyl reissues, after which I shall be performing my interpretations of their music live. You can listen and download all the mixes here. So, as always, thanks for your support and until next month, take care. Prof Scanner 🙂
::: listen ::: ::: read ::: ::: film:::
Sound Matters Wolverhampton Art Gallery The Crafts Council presents Weave Waves, a digital commission, which brings together sound artist Scanner, and textile designer Ismini Samanidou.Weave Waves explores sound, geography and mapping and how this data relates to both textile weave structures and musical scores. The work features as part of a show exploring the relationship of crafts and audio. Scanner and Samanidou were inspired by the visual and technical similarities between the digital software they both use and the physicality of code. soundmatters.org.uk Night Haunts Artangel Interaction invited www.nighthaunts.org.uk Bittersweet Songs for the Sleepless City NightJam is the latest project in Artangel Interaction’s Nights of London NightJam presents two music tracks, a film, photographs, that can be experienced |
