As we approach the registration period for the New Voices artist development programme, take a look back at some of the work and composer experiences from New Voices 2019
New Voices is Sound and Music's artist development programme for new ideas, new sounds and new music. It draws on the models from our previous programmes Embedded, Portfolio and Pathways, and on the partnerships and expertise nurtured through these schemes.
As we approach the registration period for New Voices 2021, take a look back at some of the work and composer experiences from New Voices 2019
Find out more about New Voices 2021 here
Otto Willberg's 'Bootleg Spatial Recall'
Otto Willberg is a musician and double bass player involved in improvisation and other exploratory music. As part of the New Voices 2019 cohort, Otto produced Bootleg Spatial Recall - an archive of the reverberation of public and common spaces. The website is a public sourced archive, and is a tool for listening closely to parts of our environment that gets ignored and forgotten. Bootleg Spatial Recall was created as part of the New Voices programme, utilising the additional support offered to individuals where digital activity has the potential to enhance their project - the Dimensions Award.
You can hear Otto talk about the wider project Bootleg Spatial Recall sits within - Barbaric Mystical Bored - on his Sound and Music composer profile here.
Sharon Gal's 'Etudes'
Sharon Gal is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, vocalist, free improviser and composer. Her work explores presence, listening, embodiment, and the relationship between people, sound and space. Created as part of her time on New Voices and co-produced with ‘Unpredictable Series’, 'Etudes' is a collection of scores and propositions, presented as a deck of 78 cards, with text on one side and colour on the other. A music, performance and art resource, the work acts as a catalyst to inspire and trigger the imagination. It’s an open score with interchangeable possibilities, to be played alone or with others.
You can hear Sharon talk about 'Etudes' and her time on the New Voices programme on her Sound and Music composer profile here. You can also watch a short video introducing the cards below.
Mella Faye's 'OEDIPUS'
Mella Faye is a musician, actor and director and composer. In 2016, Mella set up her company, Pecho Mama, to begin creating work that fused her two creative obsessions; theatre and music. Through this platform, Mella creates progressive, music driven performance that boldly experiments with form, and digs deep into the human condition.
In 2019 Pecho Mama began producing a radical reinvention of the Oedipus myth, telling Jocasta’s story and fusing London’s domestic grit with a searing live Electronica score. For her New Voices work, Mella has focused on releasing the album OEDIPUS, from the show, giving particular focus to herself as a musician and composer.
Read an interview with Mella Faye on the Sound and Music website here, and stream her single 'Back Against the Wall' below.
Emily Levy's 'Songs of Belonging'
Emily Levy is a British singer and composer, whose musical influences range from medieval to classical, folk to jazz. She works closely with the voice and sound design and is particularly interested in blurring boundaries between both stylistic genres and electro acoustic writing.
Created as part of New Voices, 'Songs of Belonging' is a multi media work that straddles concert, theatre and film. It combines recorded speech, an ensemble of singers and instrumentalists and integrated visuals by artist Magali Charrier. It explores themes of ‘home’ and ‘identity’ and how dramatic possibilities can open up when we find common language in contrasting lives.
Read an interview with Emily Levy on the Sound and Music website here, and watch a video of where the work is so far, as part of Snape Malting's Festival of New below.
Max Syedtollan's 'Four assignments'
Max Syedtollan is an artist-composer living and working in Glasgow. His practice spans music, sound, text and moving image. 'Four assignments', was written for and performed in collaboration with Plus Minus Ensemble as part of his time on New Voices 2019 . It featured on both on BBC Radio 3's 'New Music Show' and BBC Radio 6 Music's 'Freak Zone' with Stuart Maconie. You can watch the video for 'Four assignments', below.