NottNOISE After Hours – Mixed Bill

Galvanise Ensemble (mixed ensemble):
Duncan MacLeod Metalization of a Dream
Lore Lixenberg BIRD (voice)
James Opstad Shimmer (double bass)
Mariabrice Sapphocatherin Watching Paint Dry (piano and cello)

Primary Music Group (mixed ensemble):
David Jackman Georgia Cries
Frank Abbott Solidarity Countdown

This late-night concert features performances drawn from our NottNOISE new music series we have been running in partnership with nonclassical, that showcases new music and creative sound practices from the Midlands.

The concert starts with a performance of University of Nottingham composer Duncan MacLeod’s The Metalization of a Dream for the Galvanise Ensemble, with specially commissioned film by the visual artist Claire Orme. The programme also includes Loré Lixenberg’s evocative vocal work BIRD,  James Opstad’s scintillating work Shimmer for double bass, and Mariabrice Sapphocatherin’s playful cello and piano duet Watching Paint Dry. To finish we have two rousing performances from Primary Music Group performing mixed ensemble works by Frank Abbott and David Jackman. 

nonclassical.co.uk/nottnoise 

WATCH CONCERT

PART OF NottNOISE NEW MUSIC MARATHON.

To see full line up, please visit the main festival page  

About the artists (click to expand)

 

Galvanize Ensemble is an improvisation ensemble of musicians based in Newcastle Upon Tyne and London, run by pianist Kate Halsall. They work with composers, artists, film and text to create installations, radio, cross disciplinary performances & exhibitions. The new works for Happenstance, by Duncan MacLeod, Joanna Ward and Carmel Smickersgill were commissioned by pianist Kate Halsall and been made possible through funding from Arts Council England, PRS for Music Foundation’s Open Creator and RVW Trust. Their new album Shadows is a set of works by the ensemble, for electric guitar, piano and keyboards, voice, percussion and sampling. Performers: Joel Bell (electric guitar), Sarah Dacey (voice), Kate Halsall (piano/keys/harmonium), Phil Maguire (electronics), Stephen Hiscock (percussion). galvanizeensemble.co.uk
Primary Music Group is a flexible ensemble of visual and performance artists and musicians working with scores, performance and sound. We are based at Primary, an artist-led organisation and studios in Nottingham. primarymusic.co
Vocalist and composer Lore Lixenberg is a much in demand performer, who has sung works by a host of contemporary composers often working closely with the composers themselves as well as performing with artists such as Sam Belinfante, Bruce Mclean, Sidworthy, Georgina Starr, ORLAN, Squib Box, and David Toop. Lixenbergs’ own compositions reflect her obsession with organic participatory principles, new technologies and structures found in natural history and and the place of the Bel Canto voice and operatic structure in a world of pluralities and multi-musics. In 2018 she declared her whole life to be “an extension of her voice and singing practice… therefore to be considered an extended vocal”. www.lorelixenberg.art
James Opstad is a double bass player and composer. Since graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in 2011, he has lived a diverse musical life, increasingly dedicating himself to experimental music. He performs with duck-rabbit and Apartment House and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Birmingham.
Mariabrice Sapphocatherin was born in New Yorkbrussels. It is mostly active in improvisation as a pianistcellist. It met in Huddersfield in 2018, where it lives. It has worked together on various new music works and art performances by Émilie Girard Charest and Outi Condit and also other people. It also collaborated on a visual art project called Edible Series. Mariabrice Sapphocatherin has then been working on a non-piece for any performer playing any instrument and it is called Watching Paint Dry, as well as a number of new art performances for Laurent Estoppey, themselves, and various other people. mariasappho.com/mariabrice-sapphocatherin

About the composers (click to expand)

Frank Abbott is an artist, filmmaker, and performer. He combines an interest in projection work with performed interventions. He uses obsolete equipment, current technology, comedy formats, and social ritual to produce provocations modelled on everyday activities. Frank also organises and promotes artist collaborations, including Film Free and Easy and Primary Group. vimeo.com/frankabbott
David Jackman is a British musician and visual artist with over 130 separate releases to his name. He is an elusive but significant figure in UK and international underground music with his extensive catalogue of intense drone works, mostly as the principle - and often sole - member of Organum. Jackman's earliest known musical activity was as a member of Cornelius Cardew's Scratch Orchestra between 1969 and 1972.
Composer Duncan MacLeod’s practice utilises both acoustic and electronic forces. His output encompasses concert music, cross-arts collaboration, computer music and electro-acoustic composition. His work has been commissioned, commercially recorded, and broadcast internationally by various ensembles and soloists. These include the Arditti Quartet, Jane Chapman, Galvanize Ensemble, Juice vocal ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Musarc, Ensemble Okeanos, Orkest de Volharding, Piano Circus and Quatuor Diotima. His work has been performed at various festivals such as Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Spitalfields Festival, Gaudeamus music week (NL), Sonorities, and Bang on a Can Marathon (NY) and at prominent venues namely The Muziekgebouw (NL), Walt Disney Centre (USA), Southbank Centre, Kings Place and Café OTO. Upcoming commissions include works for clarinettist Sarah Watts as well as a large-scale multichannel electro-acoustic work drawing upon the acoustic ecology of London’s markets in response to Orlando Gibbon’s The Cries of London. Duncan is Assistant professor of music composition at the University of Nottingham and co-creates of Nottingham Forum for Artistic Research (NottFAR) and the concert series NottNOISE.

Interview:

METALIZATION OF A DREAM

University of Nottingham composition lecturer Duncan MacLeod discusses how he brought together visual art and music in his composition for the Galvanise Ensemble.

WATCH HERE