Thanks to all those involved and everyone who came to see our exhibition Cities of Sound at FutureEverything Festival two weeks ago. For posterity, here are some photos from the exhibition at Kraak Gallery. (Photos by Sam Salem & FutureEverything.)

You can also find a few photos and a video of Pond Life on Fat Roland’s blog.

Read more about the artworks in our exhibition booklet (PDF, 750kb)

How do we hear? What do we hear? How do we shape our sonic environment? More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities, but do we notice what our new habitats sound like? How does human presence impact on the acoustic reality? Raise Your Voice Collective present an interactive engagement with ideas of the city, living and lived-in systems, the facts of urban life, and the sounds that these produce.

Venue

Kraak Gallery • 11, Stevenson Square, Manchester, M1 1DB (map)
Open daily: 11am – 6pm

Opening Night

Join the Raise Your Voice Ensemble from 6:30pm on 11 May for a special performed introduction to the exhibition, featuring new compositions, improvisations and experimental electronics, plus a laptop and Bugbrand Modular Synthesizer set from special guest Richard Scott reflecting on the sounds of Manchester past and present.

Artworks

Pond Life III — Patrick Sanan & Sam Salem

A collaboration between Californian mathematician Patrick Sanan and Manchester-based composer and artist Sam Salem, Pond Life presents viewers with a tactile interactive experience. Using programming that mimics evolutionary systems, the luminous interface projected onto a tank of water allows visitors to interact with an ecosystem whose behaviour reveals perhaps the paths of humanity’s earliest migrations and the first foundations of settlements as the digital organisms gather around precious natural resources, represented by different coloured light. [http://www.sanansalem.com/]

Hô: a Sonic Expedition to Vietnam — Ricardo Climent

Hô presents the gallery visitor with the opportunity to navigate their way through an imaginary sonic expedition to Vietnam. Using a large steering wheel reminiscent of that of an old sailing ship, the viewer moves their way through a series of audiovisual puzzles uncovering in the process the unique soundworld and culture of Vietnam.
Hô employs open-source software techniques to offer the gallery visitor a computer-game-like experience in which the usual visual parameters are relegated in importance in favour of a focus on acoustic exploration.

A Scrapbook of Metro Sounds — Kaho Cheung

Whether known as le métro or the underground, the subway or rapid transit, the sound of trains rattling through tunnels is a key feature of the soundscapes of many of the world’s biggest cities. From 2007 to 2010, artist and composer Kaho Cheung travelled around the world collecting recordings of these transport systems. The installation A Scrapbook of Metro Sounds allows the gallery visitor to make virtual acoustic journeys between Helsinki, Tokyo, Bangkok, London, Berlin, Stockholm, Hong Kong, New York, Athens, Barcelona, San Francisco and Valencia, revealing in the process a globalised network of similar sounds, but also the subtle cultural variations in the deployment of this most everyday of technologies.

Plus: Field recordings and tape music.

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.

Our second night at Centro Bar took place on Friday 14 May as part of the FutureEverything Festival Showcase. Thanks to everyone who came down and made the evening such a success. Sorry to those of you who had to stand on the stairs, but it was fantastic to have such a great audience again! We discovered that Centro gets pretty noisy upstairs on a Friday night, but for the most part the music prevailed.

For those of you who couldn’t make it or would like to hear the music again, most of the pieces from the night are now available online to stream and download:

1. I Don’t Know What To Do With My Life — Luke-Matthew Iveson
2. Avian Riots — Tom Coult
3. Passacaglie — Martin Suckling
4. Dubsteps — John Davies
5. Richter VS Dragon — Steve Pycroft

The download comes with PDFs of the event flyer and the programme with information about all the Raise Your Voice composers and players, as well as track-specific art.

Simon Bray kindly came down and took some photos, some of which you can see here. Check out Simon’s Flickr Photostream for more of his photography. Look how many people there were!

The next Raise Your Voice performance will probably be in September 2010. Keep your eyes peeled and in the meantime, have a listen to our live recordings. Take care!

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