EVENTS

ED WRIGHT: Composer

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Modulate

20:00, 20 November 2019
Sheldon's Wine Bar & Bistro, 8 Penrhyn Road LL29 8LG Colwyn Bay

The latest installment of the Modulate collective's awesome live performance sessions. Modulate Music is dedicated to promotion of events for the live performance of electronic music in the North Wales area. Expect synthesisers, drum machines, and modular gear perfomances

https://www.facebook.com/events/2421714661431079/

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LLinell | LLinyn

21:00, Saturday 3 August, Ffin-y-Parc, Llanrwst (doors open at 20:45):

For one night only, Mist will be inhabited and animated by dancers who will create a movement score responding to the dynamics of the sculpture and music from a live harpist and electronics where the taught strings of the instrument and the installation become intertwined via a mesmerising duet.

The artwork Mist by Sébastien Preschoux is a large scale thread sculpture commissioned by Migrations, stretching majestically from tree to tree within the grounds of Ffin-y-Parc Gallery near Llanrwst

Choreographer: Matteo Marfoglia

Dancers: Angharad Harrop, Angharad Jones

Harp: Helen Wyn Pari

Live Electronic Sound: Alan Chamberlain, Ed Wright

Concept: Marc Rees

Creative Producer: Iwan Williams Ffiwsar

 

Mist

Artist: Sébastien Preschoux

Curator: Karine Décorne, Migrations

Note: Limited numbers - entry only for the first 100 people. Limited parking space available.

https://eisteddfod.wales/the-maes/places-maes/agora

Accretion Entropy @ AGORA
National Eisteddfod of Wales Llanrwst Maes

3pm 10th August.

Performing as 1 third of Accretion Entropy

Experimental electroacoustic trio consisting of Charles Gershom Spendlove, Dr Ed Wright and Rob Spaull. Through performance grounded in improvisation; a gradual accumulation of sounds is used to coalesce and transform a blank canvas from a state of maximum entropy, into structures of ordered textures and rhythms.

An eclectic mix of electric violin, modular synths, custom hardware, and digital workstations are used in a number of unorthodox ways to create an ensemble that reflects the mixed backgrounds of the performers. Sparse cinematic soundscapes to chaotic high energy percussive pieces are all represented in the performances.

https://eisteddfod.wales/

Sound Sculpture

7-9th August Golygfa Gwydir

In 2005 the biggest labyrinth in the world was built in the Gwydyr forest. Every year since then there are been performances staged there.

https://www.golygfagwydyr.org/forest-labyrinth/

Turbo

Acousmatic/electroacoustic music all finished and to be released online on iTunes, Spotify etc in early autumn.

Turbo is a piece of music which I have been working on for a while. It draws on three separate sound sources namely two Formula One cars which raced when I was young, the Lotus 97T and the Ferrari 412 T2, as well as a Scalextric set. These three sources form the basis of the track with the remaining sounds derived from them or synthesised from first principals.

The engines of that era sounded very different. It was a less regulated time, before the advent of widespread electronics, the introduction of hybrid engines or the level of concern about petrochemicals and their environmental impact. While there have been many changes for the better over the last thirty years in F1, the sound of the grid is not one of them.

While working with the audio to create something musical rather than a historical document several things jumped out at me. Firstly it is amazing how melodic these vehicles are. From the chord of D and A created by snapshot sample of a car in the distance to the almost choir-like textures created by zooming right in on only a very narrow set of frequencies it really should not have been a surprise how ‘tuned’ race cars are. Secondly, the sounds are highly cyclical, but in an evolving way which can be exploited to find not only glitchy textures but also built on and augmented.

As well as drawing on the sounds of the turbo engine the idea of a turbo spiral extends into the structure of the work. There are four main sections to the music which repeat and develop with increasing rapidity. If you travelled around a spiral at a constant speed you would find a new section of music every ninety degrees. As the spiral tightens the sections become shorter, leading to a whirling inexorability in the final stages.

 

This idea of structural acceleration extends to a Ferrari engine sound heard throughout the work. It starts very low and slow; five-thousandths of its original speed and then gradually ramping up to become audible, first as a bassy rumble before transforming into glitchy background antics before flying past at full speed at the end.

 

Creating this piece has been an interesting challenge; trying to balance something which is intellectually rigorous (e.g. the golden-spiral mapping and computing), along with creating something which is engaging to listen to. I have tried to convey something of the excitement and nostalgia the source sounds bring to me, but also that tranquil space that you find in split seconds of extreme focus, the loudness and brutality of the spectacle, and hopefully something beautiful.

Sui Generis
Anglesey
Saturday April 27th 2.00pm

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New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF)
Abrons Arts Centre New York - 466 Grand St, Lower East Side, NY.

16-22 July 2018 (Concert 1 16th July 1pm)

http://www.abronsartscenter.org/on-stage/shows/2018-electroacoustic-festival/

The New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF) is the largest showcase of electroacoustic music in New York City, and one of the largest festivals of its kind in the world.  The festival began in 2009 with the intention of bringing the most innovative and creative new electroacoustic music from around the world to New York City.  Works are presented in high-quality multi-channel surround sound environments that include up to eight different simultaneous sound channels, and sometimes many more.  The festival includes music performed by acoustic musical instruments, laptops, and custom electronic devices, as well as works involving digital video, and sound installations.

The works presented each year are chosen by a panel of internationally respected composers and musicians.

The festival also features performances from a wide variety of internationally-known specialists in contemporary experimental music.  Featured performers have included cellist Madeleine Shapiro, clarinettist Esther Lamneck, pianist Keith Kirchoff, the C4 Choral Ensemble, and Patti Cudd, percussionist.

Featured performers in 2018 will include flutist Gianni Trovalusci, cellist Madeleine Shapiro, pianists Keith Kirchoff and Jocelyn Ho, clarinet and tarogató player Esther Lamneck, violinist Maja Cerar, clarinetist Marianne Gythfeldt, and percussionist Patti Cudd.

 

Live gig for BBC Radio 3

Neuadd Ogwen, Bethesda Stryd Fawr, LL57 3AN Bethesda, Gwynedd

14/3/18 7:00 pm

We (Rob Spaull, Charles Gershom Spendlove & Ed Wright aka. Accretion Entropy)are playing as part of a gig put on and broadcast by BBC Radio 3.... It's a free event so please do come along, listen, support and be a part of the audience and atmosphere! We'll post more details as they become available and are finalized for the moment here is the program web page :) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xf2tw

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Listen to the Voice of Fire

Ceredigion Museum 

10/3/18 at 7.30pm

Japanese works from Aberystwyth University’s renowned ceramics collection are set to provide the inspiration for an experimental music project led by a leading Japanese sound artist.

Toshimaru Nakamura, described as one of the most important electronic composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, will spend a week working in Aberystwyth at the beginning of March 2018.

The ceramics collection at the School of Art features works from contemporary Japanese ceramicists, along with earlier medieval works of mythological figures.

Working with experimental musicians Jenn Kirby, Dafydd Roberts, Ed Wright, Andrew Leslie Hooker and Aberystwyth born harpist Rhodri Davies, Nakamura will use these pieces to develop an object score as a basis for an improvised musical performance.

An additional dimension to the sonic recipe will be provided by Dr Fred Labrosse from the Department of Computer Science who will scan the selected ceramics.

The data gleaned from the scans will be fed into software that will convert their physical attributes into a series of sounds for making music.

Through this process, ceramic glaze, depth and luminosity can give rise to unexpected tonalities affecting pitch, amplitude and timbre.

The group will also spend time working in a recording-studio.

This part of the project will be documented by film maker Dr Greg Bevan from the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies and shown at the 2019 Aberystwyth International Ceramics Festival.

The ceramics chosen by Nakamura and his collaborators will also go on show in the Arts Centre’s ceramics gallery in March 2018.

The project will culminate with Nakamura’s Welsh debut performance – Listen to the Voice of Fire at Ceredigion Museum on Saturday 10 March 2018 at 7.30pm.

The public performance will follow a project workshop with Nakamura at the Foundry Studio in the Parry Williams Building on Friday 9 March 11am - 1pm (free admission).

Open to students and the wider community, this will be a rare opportunity to see Nakamura’s approach at close hand. Anyone with an interest in contemporary electronic music is warmly encouraged to attend this free event.

“Presenting a premier Japanese experimental sound artist to new audiences in mid and west Wales will be thrilling,” said Dr Roberts, “and give confidence to the emerging Wales Sound Network to develop international links with Japan, a country with longstanding dynamism in experimental music.

“We have an opportunity now to develop new links with Japanese artists and academic and arts worlds and potential in future to develop this into funded projects to extend mutual understanding and activity.”

Nakamura’s visit to Wales has been made possible through financial support from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and the Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation.

Dr Roberts added: “Both these funders recognise how hard it is to bring stellar performers to centres outside of large conurbations.”

Listen to the Voice of Fire works is staged in partnership with Ceredigion Museum.

Toshimaru Nakamura
Nakamura’s instrument is the no-input mixing board, which describes a way of using a standard mixing board as an electronic music instrument, producing sound without any external audio input.

Nakamura pioneered this approach to the use of the mixing board in the mid 1990's and has since then appeared on over one hundred audio publications, including nine solo CD's.

He has performed throughout Europe, North America, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Korea, China, Singapore and Malaysia, performing and recording both as a soloist and in collaboration with numerous other musicians.

As an active organizer of concerts in Tokyo, Nakamura has helped many musicians to travel to Japan and find places to perform, both with himself and with others.

From 1998 to 2003 Nakamura and Tetuzi Akiyama ran the concert series Improvisation Series at Bar Aoyama and then later the Meeting at Off Site series of concerts.

 

Mor a Mynydd Mountains and Molehills

Balaclafa Galery Caernarfon LL55 1TG

2/3/18 7:00pm

Solo gallery set interpreting the visual works of Mike Murray and Andrew Cooper.

OscilloScope

Club dB Bangor Gywnedd

27/2/18 6:00pm

An experimental elctronic live improv set as one third of Accretion Entropy.

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Bangor Music Festival - Dark Matter

Theatr Bryn Terfel, Pontio

3/2/18 7:30pm

 

An archive of previous events can seen on the PAST EVENTS page.

 

Venues: Wales, England, Ireland, Scotland, Mainland Europe , USA & Canada