'VCS4 Day' 2022

Forthcoming on Thursday 23 June is VCS4 Day 2022, which is taking place at Goldsmiths, University of London. The day marks the arrival of the VCS4 synthesiser at Goldsmiths, a project I have been fortunate to take part in, alongside Simon Desorgher and Dr Marcus Leadley from Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studios. Further information about the event, including a link for watching a live stream, can be found below.

VCS4: 2022
23 June 2022, 1400–2000 BST.
Curzon Cinema, Goldsmiths. University of London.

The VCS4 was built by the world-renowned Electronic Music Studios Ltd (EMS) company in London more than 50 years ago and was one of a number of synthesisers used in the 1970s by pioneers of British electronic music. This is a key element of Goldsmiths’ modular synthesizer suite at the Electronic Music Studios in the Department of Music, where it is available for use by our music students, researchers and visiting artists.

The VCS4 was built for Harrison Birtwistle’s performance of Medusa at South Bank in 1970. It was moved to the EMS studio in Putney before it was taken to the Royal College of Music by composer Tristram Cary. It was subsequently owned by Simon Desorgher, a former RCM student. The VCS4 was restored to functional order in 2006 by Robin Wood at EMS and acquired by Goldsmiths in 2019. Additional restoration and repair work has since been carried out by Steven Thomas of Digitana Electronics.

The VCS4 is based on two EMS VCS3 synthesisers – a portable analogue synthesiser developed in 1969. These were widely used by such luminaries as Delia Derbyshire, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Brian Eno, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Robert Fripp and Aphex Twin. The VCS3’s in the VCS4 have been heavily modified and incorporated into a base station featuring keyboard, external audio input mixer, and signal processing inside a wooden cabinet. It is a completely unique instrument. A second, but very different, VCS4 model is owned by Matt Black of Coldcut.

 The VCS4 was acquired for the Department by Research Associate Dr James Bulley with support from the Goldsmiths Friends and Alumni Fund. For more detailed information on the VCS4 at Goldsmiths see: https://www.gold.ac.uk/ems/resourcesie/

VC4 Day 2022 will feature performances from Lawrence Casserley, Simon Desorgher, Alina Kalancea, Olivir Haylett and Ingrid Plum. The full programme of talks and discussion for VCS4:2022 will be confirmed shortly.

See Goldsmith’s event page for updates: https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=13966

Join via livestream for a day of performances, talks and discussions featuring the unique EMS VCS4 Live Performance Module: https://youtu.be/VP4Tg_E0cCQ

'Evolver' at Tribeca, NY

After two years of extraordinary and mind-expanding work, Evolver premieres tomorrow at Tribeca Festival in New York, where it is then open for a week. Tickets and further information can be found here. It is a genuinely extraordinary piece, and it has been a great privilege working with Marshmallow Laser Feast, Henrik Oppermann, Daisy Lafarge and Natan Sinigaglia / Imaginary Friends on this journey.

'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 

View fullsize

'Ayouni' released online

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.

View fullsize