We are excited to announce that Raise Your Voice will be taking part in this year’s FutureEverything Festival in more than one way.

Following our appearance at last year’s festival, this year sees an innovative project that combines an exhibition of sound installations with live performance under the title Cities of Sound. From 11–14 May, Kraak Gallery will host internationally recognised works by Manchester-based artists — including Sam Salem and Patrick Sanan’s Pond Life III — exploring ideas of the city, living and lived-in systems, the facts of urban life, and the sounds these produce. An opening night on 11 May will offer a performed introduction to the exhibition, including new compositions, experimental electronics and improvisations involving the sound installations themselves.

Separate from the main Raise Your Voice event, Michael Jones (violin) and Anna Menzies (cello) will be joining fellow FutureEverything Showcase winners The Electronic Exchange on Friday 13 May for an exclusive project also involving members of Manchester Camerata. Themes of playful experimentation and remote working will culminate as the artists all meet for the first time to perform together a series of pieces that they have been developing in an online space. There are more details on The Electronic Exchange on the FutureEverything website and you can buy tickets here.

We will be announcing details of the full programme in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled.

Composer Richard Scott, who we worked with on his Onomatopoeia for our February concert last year, has mashed-up the recordings of Raise Your Voice musicians he made for that piece to create an ‘orchestral’ electroacoustic composition. Combining samples made in rehearsal of Raise Your Voice’s string and wind players with samples of double bass, trombone and percussion from musicians in Berlin, the new piece turns the chamber sound of the original into that of a screeching, full-on electronic orchestra. Click play to hear it:

The Raise Your Voice Ensemble perform new works from Manchester’s rich and varied offering of composers, mixing acoustic instruments and electronic sound, as part of the FutureEverything Festival Showcase. Come and experience challenging and original music in the relaxed atmosphere of Centro Bar in the Northern Quarter (next door to Matt & Phred’s). Followed later by chilled DJ sets from Al Sonar (of Hit&Run).

Line-up

• Passacaglie, for cello and electronics — Martin Suckling
• I Don’t Know What To Do With My Life, for clarinet and kick drum — Luke-Matthew Iveson
• The Golden Lion Hotel, for percussion and electronics — Chris Swithinbank
• Avian Riots, for ensemble — Tom Coult
• Richter VS Dragon, for ensemble and backing track — Steve Pycroft
• Aqueleyo-yo, for string quartet — José Guillermo Puello
• Dubsteps, for string quartet — John Davies

Venue

Centro Bar
74, Tib Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 1LG, UK (View map)

More about the people involved

Tom Coult is a third year student at Manchester University, and will begin a Masters course next year. ‘The Candle’ is being performed on 16th May in York and 8th June at the RNCM. He has composed a score for a 2009 production of Sinbad at the Camden Roundhouse and music used in ‘Is This Love?’, a 2008 short film.

Luke-Matthew Iveson (b.1990, Manchester) currently studies at Birmingham Conservatoire, for a BMus in composition, under the tuition of Joe Cutler and many visiting tutors. His works have been performed by the CHROMA Ensemble, Sarah Leonard & Robin Michael, Rowland Sutherland and the East Midlands CoMA Ensemble. Luke enjoys working with theatre and external arts such as dance, arts and literature. His theatre piece Ophelia:the death of was awarded joint Second Prize and the Audience Prize in the 2009 Philip Bates Prize. The Nutritional Value of Dreams was recently workshopped by Louis Andriessen.

José Guillermo Puello is a Dominican composer currently doing a Masters in Composition at Manchester University under the supervision of Camden Reeves, having done his undergraduate degree in Music at The University of Birmingham. He is currently working on merging Latin-American rhythms with Western contemporary harmonies. On the 21st of May, 2010, Manchester Camerata will perform Cojuelo Spirit at the Bridgewater Hall.

Steve Pycroft is a freelance drummer, percussionist and composer living and working in Manchester. He graduated with a Masters in Composition from the University of Manchester in 2009, studying with Camden Reeves.

Al Sonar is one of the new breed of Manchester-based talent that has surfaced on the DJ scene. As resident for Hit&Run his “Deep” style of set has been instrumental in creating the warm vibe at the night. Originally from London, he moved to Manchester in 1999 and has run a host of different Drum and Bass events. Al has worked as a tour manager and sound engineer for Manchester based Ska-Punk band, Sonic Boom Six. This has seen him touring the majority of mainland Europe and working as a freelance sound engineer in the UK.

Martin Suckling writes music, plays the violin, recently moved to Manchester and consequently spends a lot of time on trains.  He is currently writing some songs for the London Sinfonietta.  These other folks have also played his music: LSO, BBC Scottish SO, DSO Berlin, Grimethorpe Colliery Band, RSC, Britten Sinfonia, Aronowitz Ensemble.

Chris Swithinbank is currently completing a Masters in Composition at the University of Manchester with the generous support of a Harry Clough Bursary. He works with both acoustic instruments and electronic sounds and has recently had works performed at New Music North West, MANTIS Festival and Wrexham Arts Festival. Upcoming premières include Wegen & Waldstille for Psappha and Mikrokonzert: I Swear I Saw the Sun Falling to be performed by Vaganza at York Spring Festival of New Music in May and at the RNCM in June.

Links

• FutureEverything Listing
• Last.fm
• MySpace
• Facebook
• Sound and Music

That’s it. Today saw the final rehearsal before Sunday night’s Raise Your Voice Ensemble début gig. The fantastic programme of new Mancunian music is sounding great and everyone at Raise Your Voice is really excited. We hope to see you at Centro Bar on Sunday night to share in our excitement and enthusiasm!

Here’s a photo from Monday’s rehearsal of Richard Scott with the Raise Your Voice Ensemble. Richard is using a unique system built from a Buchla Lightning II infra-red MIDI controller and two Nintendo Wii remotes coupled to software by STEIM, a music technology research and development centre in Amsterdam, to manipulate sample recordings of our ensemble as part of a directed improvisation.

Raise Your Voice Collective’s very own in-house band perform their very first concert, featuring new works from acoustic and electroacoustic, Manchester-based composers, and an improvisatory collaboration with special guest Richard Scott. All this and more in the cosy confines of Centro Bar in the Northern Quarter (next door to Matt & Phred’s).

Line-up

• Laptop set – Heather Bamforth
• focusinfocusoutfocusinfocusout, for flute, clarinet, drum kit and cello – Hannah Ashman
• Public Bodies, fixed media – Sam Salem
• New work, for ensemble – Steve Pycroft
• Waves on the ebb, for ensemble – Francesca le Lohé
• This is Water!, for ensemble and tape – Chris Swithinbank
• Clinamen clinamen clinamen, for clarinet and string quartet – Mauricio Pauly
• Onomatopoeia, improvisations for ensemble & electronics – Richard Scott

Venue

Centro Bar
74, Tib Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 1LG, UK (View map)

More about the people involved

Hannah Ashman is 19 years old and currently in her first year of a music degree at the University of Manchester. Her interest in composition resulted in her spending her gap-year at Trinity College of Music, where she studied with Paul Newland and Ollie Leaman. Her musical interests are eclectic, encompassing such diversities as experimental Hip Hop artist Flying Lotus, Debussy, and contemporary Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen.

Heather Bamforth studied Music at the University of Manchester at undergraduate and postgraduate level before going on to complete a PGCE. She now teaches very small people how to write and in her spare time enjoys performing on laptops.

Francesca Le Lohe is a second year music student at the University of Manchester whose major interests are in composition and ethnomusicology. She is especially interested in the relation and crossover between the two fields. Francesca is fascinated with Japanese music and aesthetics, which is a dominant influence in her current compositions.

Born in Costa Rica, composer Mauricio Pauly is currently based in Manchester. He has recently been awarded the prestigious Staubach Honoraria commission for a new work to be premiered at the 45th International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany, in 2010 by Oslo-based ensemble Asamisimasa. His new string quartet will be premiered in New York by the JACK Quartet in February 2010.

Steve Pycroft is a freelance drummer, percussionist and composer living and working in Manchester. He graduated with a Masters in Composition from the University of Manchester in 2009, studying with Camden Reeves.

Sam Salem is a multimedia artist and acousmatic composer whose music has most recently been performed/exhibited in Montreal (ICMC09), New York (NYCEMF), Berlin (SMC 08), Valencia (Digital Media 1.0) and around the UK and Scandinavia (as part of the Wet Sounds ’09 tour).

Starting out as a jazz saxophonist, Richard Scott has found his way to using experimental electronics in conjunction with live instrumentalists to perform improvised music. He has lived in Manchester for almost twenty years and has recently worked in Amsterdam as Artist-in-Residence at STEIM.

Chris Swithinbank came to Manchester to study music and is currently completing a Masters in Composition at the University of Manchester with the generous support of a Harry Clough Bursary. He works with both acoustic instruments and electronic sounds and has recently had works performed at New Music North West, MANTIS Festival and Wrexham Arts Festival. Upcoming premieres include …going back to the skies, for Trio Atem, a new work for Psappha and Mikrokonzert: I Swear I Saw the Sun Falling to be performed by Vaganza at the RNCM in June.