Sounds Between

Music Composition as Interdisciplinary Practice presents Sounds Between:  A one-day festival exploring interdisciplinary encounters in music composition.

PATS Studio 1 and Ivy Arts Centre, University of Surrey, 10.15 – 9pm. Tickets are free but advance booking is recommended:

http://www.surrey.ac.uk/arts/music/sounds-between

‘Sounds Between’ focuses on the places where music and other disciplines interact. Four specially commissioned works from squib-box, Jamie Hamliton/Dom Czapski, Jan Lee and Rodrigo Camacho/Sara Rodriguez explore a broad terrain of ideas: the perception of meaning and mass media, the strange attractions of digital avatars, how dancers become musicians in order to ‘play’ a space, and the formation of cultural identity in London’s Hatcham (New Cross).

Surrounding these premieres are contributions from leading artists, researchers and industry figures: Susanna Eastburn (Chief Executive of Sound and Music) leads a panel discussion on drivers and obstacles to interdisciplinary work in music composition, Jason Freeman shows how online networks can enable realtime, participatory music making, and Matteo Fargion and Jonathan Burrows perform work from their extensive back catalogue of sound/movement pieces. A workshop from Michael Picknett exploring theatrical devising techniques in composition and an installation by Scott Mc Laughlin (as well as plenty of opportunities for networking) complete the day.

Music Composition as Intedisciplinary Practice (MCIP) is an AHRC-funded research network of artists, artistic researchers and scholars. Over the past year we have been commissioning, sharing and reflecting on music composition as a nexus of different disciplines. We have held a one-day seminar at Oxford Brookes University and a two-day symposium at the University of York. Through these events and through artists’ documentation of the commissioned pieces we have looked for insights into how such approaches to composition reflect different kinds of interdisciplinarity, how interdisciplinarity is facilitated ‘on the ground’ and how understandings of creativity might contribute to and be re-evaluated by the study of such work. ‘Sounds Between’ brings the practice that has underpinned the network into wider public view. The diversity within the programme reflects the phenomenon we are studying; it will appeal to those interested in experimental music, performance, multimedia, installation, dance and theatre practices, or simply curious to hear and see a snapshot of composers working between disciplines today.