Reading:
Daphne Oram – An Individual Note: Of Music Sound and Electronics
J. R. R. Tolkien – LOTR Triology
Listening to:
Anna Von Hausswolff – Dead Magic (particularly Ugly And Vengeful)
Fever Ray – Live at Troxy
Watching:
Young Women’s Music Project Bedroom Concerts, weekly livestreamed fundraiser gigs.
Work/thoughts:
It’s sadly been very hard to keep motivated or find the mental space/energy to create during all of this (there’s been a sort of weird pressure to have to make lots of work through quarantine – which personally has had more of the opposite effect)… Amongst other things, lockdown has also meant moving back into my old family home to give care + is a place that has unfortunately become all too haunted over the years. I did however manage to record/release ‘Lung Toy’ on a whim after finding a fantastically horrid toy accordion + have been savouring any time out in this lush yet surreal Spring making field recordings (Ohh the birdsong at the moment!). Now, I’m trying to use the opportunity to disentomb the family archive of photos/videos – with hopes of using material/write/sample in an attempt to exorcise some of the many ghosts that live here in lockdown too.
Beth Shearsby is an experimental artist based in Oxford. Exploring sound as a vessel for introspection + release throughout live improvisation + performances. Using synthesisers, tape loops, D.I.Y circuits + other materials to build evolving soundscapes, drones + instances.
She is also an active member turned Session Assistant with Young Women’s Music Project: an educational feminist charity that aims to build a sisterhood of creatives by providing an inclusive, non-judgemental, safe space for musical expression. Through free weekly workshops, events, opportunities + more.