Latest News
August Update
Hello and hope you are all enjoying your August days whatever you are doing. I’ve just finished editing Public Convenience the new Sonic Bothy work aiming to raise awareness of public loo closures in Scotland. Later in August Bothy Ballad gets an outing at Pitlochry Festival Theatre almost a year after it was written with Barbara Hockaday at a special Shades of Tay event and exhibition. I also had an article published in Itamar a new music online journal curated by the University of Valencia. You can read the article here.
Drake Music Scotland commission
Following work on the first movement of a new commission with Drake Music Scotland called Room to Breathe I’ll be continuing with this commission in August & September. In March I joined wind players from Nevis Ensemble and Pete Sparkes (Drake Music Scotland) in a Zoom workshop on breathing led by artist, writer and yoga teacher Laura Gonzalez. It was a fascinating session and led into 2 further workshops in April where we explored in sound and music some of the ideas from Laura’s session and questions around anxiety and hope as we continue to transition out of the pandemic. There was a performance of the movement called Fear, hope & breathing at Plug Festival – Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on 25th April. There was a performance of the movement called Fear, hope & breathing at Plug Festival – Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on 25th April which you can watch by clicking the button below.
Podcast
It was an absolute pleasure to work with Leonie Roessler recently together with a whole host of disabled artists on her new podcast released in October 2021: On art, disability, barriers and chances.
PERFORMANCE
Fall from grace commissioned by Sound Festival in 2017 for bassoon choir, voice track and drone track had a new outing at Sound Festival 2021 with James Banner (Double bass) and Stephanie Lamprea (Soprano).
Take a listen below (from 18 minutes).
coming up
Public Inconvenience – The project with Sonic Bothy all about disabled loos has reached its final stage of development … Did you know that lots of public loos in Scotland have been closed during the last 5 years in Scotland? This makes it even more difficult for disabled people, young families and the elderly to plan and enjoy a day out without the worry of being caught short. With more and more closures folks music stay closer to home, which curbs freedom and the right to explore our surroundings. In this new digital work, we explore the stories, issues and sounds of the humble public loo. I’ve just completed the sound editing stage where I brought all of our ensemble recordings together with field recordings to build the work and it has now been handed over to the next pair of creative hands to be illuminated with photography and film.
The first part of my work with the Sensory Collective project at Independent Arts Projects has involved rehearsing and preparing for the recent tour of sensory theatre production Sound Symphony. I’m now building a new idea for sensory music sessions called, The Soothing Station and getting stuck into a literature review of sensory arts practice.