'Ayouni' Guardian Review

A 4 star review for ‘Ayouni’ in the Guardian Newspaper today, written by Peter Bradshaw.
It is good to see the film getting the recognition it deserves:

Director Yasmin Fedda, who is from a Palestinian and Syrian background and lectures in film at Queen Mary University of London, has created a powerful and urgent documentary tribute to those who have been “forcibly disappeared” by the Assad regime in Syria, estimated to be around 150,000 since 2011.

To watch Ayouni please see the official website to find the platforms it is available on: https://ayounifilm.com/watch

'Island' now available online

Island is now available to download via iTunes, Vimeo, Google Play and Amazon Prime Video

Watch on demand via Vimeo

Across the water on the island, four individuals experience the year in which their lives will end. Illness progresses, relationships gently shift, and we are witness to rarely seen and intensely private moments. One person shares their acceptance of death, whilst another is surrounded by a community in shock. We observe bedside care and the rhythm of breathing. In a pathology lab, microscopic biopsies in close-up show the interior of bodies, our biology. Filmed over 12 months on the Isle of Wight, Island is a life-affirming reflection on the phenomena of dying, portraying the transition away from personhood and observing the last days and hours of life and the moment of death. Like the ferries cyclically arriving and departing in this an enigmatic landscape, the film appears buoyant, afloat. Death is shown to be natural and everyday but also unspeakable and strange.

★★★★★  – The Sunday Times
★★★★  – The Guardian

“Poetic; disarmingly intimate” – Sight & Sound

“Probes uncharted territory with great intelligence and sensitivity” – Little White Lies 

'Ayouni' online launch

Ayouni is now available to watch worldwide at www.ayounifilm.com

It was a great privilege to compose the score and sound design for the film, directed by Yasmin Fedda..

At a time when the dictatorship in Syria is still in power, and its position is being normalised, it feels crucial to respond to the crimes that have been committed in its name, and in the wake of the destruction it has created across the country. Since 2011, government forces, and other armed groups, have forcibly disappeared at least 100,000 people – making them absent, silenced, invisible.

Families and friends of the disappeared still face the difficult tasks of finding answers. In this context, it is essential to build and preserve a portfolio of war crimes that can be used for accountability and for eventual justice. Ayouni is a small contribution to this effort, bringing intimate stories and realities in focus.

'Ness' by Adam Scovell

Recently released is Ness, directed by Adam Scovell with Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood. I loved doing the sound design and soundscore for Adam’s exploration of Orford Ness. The film features the haunted radiophonics of Drew Mulholland.

You can read Adam Scovell’s thoughts on the film here.

You can read more about Ness on Elsewhere Journal here.


Orford Ness Lighthouse in 1942

Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1990)

Very pleased to announce that the fully digitised archive of Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1990) is now openly available online, with all articles and issues free to access in perpetuity: https://www.contactjournal.gold.ac.uk/ – a huge thanks to everyone involved in this three year long project, in particular to Dr Fiorenzo Palermo and Gregory White who did so much work on making this all possible.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Photographic documentation from a recent trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park.


Horniman x Goldsmiths, 21 March 2019

I am co-curating two installation pieces at the forthcoming Late at the Horniman Museum as part of my work as Research Associate in the Department of Music at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Firstly, there will be a spatial Longplayer Listening Post installed for the evening. Longplayer is a 1000-year long composition by Jem Finer, for which I am a trustee. More information here.

‘Longplayer Detail’ Copyright: Debbie Bragg

Secondly, I’ve been working with the artist Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom and Black Tower Projects on a new iteration of Boakye-Yiadom’s ‘Adaptive Rhythm’ spatial audiovisual work. We’ve been working with the Horniman Musical Instrument collection and the phenomenal Taiko drummer Aki Fujimoto in realising the project.

‘Before: Adaptive Rhythm, Black Tower Projects, 2018’ Copyright: Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom

More information on the whole event here, including a link to get hold of tickets.

The Horniman x Goldsmiths late event will take place from 6.30–11pm on 21 March 2019.

Talk: Daphne Oram and Optical Sound, Camden Arts Centre, 3 February 2018

Writer Frances Morgan talks with contemporary composers Tom Richards, James Bulley and Sarah Angliss about optical sound and its framing in history, considering the work of electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram (1925–2003).

Writer Frances Morgan talks with contemporary composers Tom Richards, James Bulley and Sarah Angliss about optical sound and its framing in history, considering the work of electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram (1925–2003).

Black Rock

Recent photographic documentation from a field recording trip to Snowdonia in Wales with David Shearing.
 

National Slate Museum, Llanberis, Wales.
 

Dinorwic Quarry, Llanberis, Wales.
 

Llyn Padarn, Snowdonia, Wales
 

Longplayer Day 2017

This year, on 21 June, I'll be celebrating the longest day of the year with the inaugural edition of Longplayer Day. I've been lucky enough to have the opportunity to curate proceedings with the wonderful Helen Frosi (see Helen's Soundfjord project here). The day features some extraordinary artists, writers and screenings. Some of those involved include: Steve Beresford, Rosie Bergonzi, John Cage, Angharad Davies, Jem Finer, Cathy Haynes, Charles Hayward, John Latham, Michael Morris, Dominic Murcott, Áine O’Dwyer, Pauline Oliveros, Tim Spooner, Blanca Regina, Dan Richards, Adam Scovell and Robert MacFarlane, Siswå Sukrå, The Study Group, John Tilbury, John White, Richard Wilson (with Ansuman Biswas and Sean Dower).

You can find up to date information about the programme on the Longplayer website here, and a Facebook event page here. The image below is of the limited edition artwork for the day by graphic designer Joe Hales.

 

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The woman who could 'draw' music

Some nice words about Daphne Oram, a recent play on Oram's life in Glasgow, and a section about last year's performance of Still Point (from the BBC's Holly Williams) here: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170522-daphne-oram-pioneered-electronic-music?ocid=fbcul

The Oram Award was launched this month in her honour by the PRS Foundation and the New BBC Radiophonic Workshop to “celebrate women innovating in sound and music”. An Individual Note was reprinted recently as a coffee table book and her archive is available to study at Goldsmiths University in London. The Science Museum exhibited the original Oramics machine and Apple has released an Oramics app. Last summer, her mythical composition Still Point – conceived in 1949 but never performed – finally came to life thanks to Shiva Feshareki, James Bulley and the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Oram was only 23 when she wrote Still Point. A wildly ambitious piece, it predates equivalent experiments by the likes of Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen. The piece is a sort of warped call-and-response between the orchestra and 78rpm records, using turntables and microphones to live-manipulate the sound. Its long-delayed debut was hailed as a triumph, Oram’s visionary take on electro-acoustic composition finally unleashed.
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