Kostis Kilymis is a lapsed sound artist and language teacher. He works on electronic and noise music, using live synthesis, rhythm and found sound. In the past he has focused on feedback systems, resonance, and the notions of representation, presence and affect. He has been an improviser, performer and collaborator.
I read lots of books to my children but I get great pleasure from some of them. I really enjoyed Friend or Foe, Pipi and the Sri Lankan auther’s Hoity the fox which we read in Japanese. Some other books are a bit weird like God’s people which is my son’s school main lesson material for this term that raises lots of questions…and Pokemon….but anyway these are a handful of examples including other random things like recipe books, poems and political essays.
The oto fundraising/auction, launching a new label, listening to lots of music, juggling the kids care, homeschooling the kids , playing the piano, playing with the kids, working for oto, making a new album for O YAMA O with Rie and David Cunninghmam, doing a bit of radio and interviews, recording my own materials, attending the hens, baking, foraging, cooking endlessly putting some weight fighting against insomnia and drinking.
(b.1979 Noda, Japon)
Keiko works with people, spaces, songs, texts, images and a bit of dance.
Currently she has a music project called O YAMA O with Rie Nakajima and they have released their first album from Mana Records produced by David Cunningham and the record has beautiful writing by David Toop. The band has played many venues and festivals often accompanied by Billy Steiger and Marie Roux.
In 2008 Keiko co-founded Cafe OTO, London and she now lives in the countryside and recently co-founded Aller Park Studios in Dartington and currently still co-runs Cafe OTO remotely.
When she was younger she graduated from Chelsea College of Art BA (Hons) and studied MFA at Slade School, UCL. She attended a wildlife foraging course and organised many good food and music parties.
I did lots of fixing. Darning socks, coats and trousers, painting walls, repairing chairs etc. Also I picked flower from my daily walk to bring back some nature to my flat as i don’t have a garden, and then i felt sorry to them so i pressed them in books, and i made some collage with them. Then I did some recordings for O YAMA O and some other recordings for new works, and I made a sculpture called ‘seven days bird songs’ from 14-20 May online. Very recently I did a conversation with David Toop over emails on sculpture that we would like to publish sometime somehow.
Rie Nakajima is a Japanese artist working with installations and performances that produce sound. Her works are most often composed in direct response to unique architectural spaces using a combination of kinetic devices and found objects. Fusing sculpture and sound, her artistic practice is open to chance and the influence of others, raising important questions about the definition of art. She has exhibited and performed worldwide. Her first major solo exhibition was held at IKON Gallery in Birmingham in 2018. She has also collaborated with Museo Vostell Malpartida (Cáceres), Tate Modern (London), Serralves Museum (Porto), ShugoArts (Tokyo), Hara Museum (Tokyo), The Hepworthwakefield (Wakefield), Martin Gropius Bau (Berlin) and Cafe OTO (London). Her frequent collaborators includes David Cunningham, Keiko Yamamoto, Pierre Berthet, Marie Roux, Billy Steiger, David Toop, Akira Sakata among others. In 2014 she received Art Foundation Award in the category of Experimental Music.
I make experimental music and spoken word recordings under the name Plastic Moonrise. My latest cassette, Papier Mâché was released in October 2019 by Err Records, a French independent label dedicated to Electronic and Experimental music. I have recently taken part in artist, Barbara Ryan’s latest project, Whispers which is now open for submissions for a second round.
To be honest I haven’t been working on anything during this Lock-down due to two children that are out of school and nursery and my Partner is working from home. I had initial thoughts about what I could achieve over the the next couple months and have managed to not really do any. I am not a major procrastinator, but by the time the children are in bed, I’m equally worn out managing to get a film in or two.
For many years I wanted to dip my foot in the modular synth game to try understand it a bit better, but not had the money to start a set-up that could at least give me some results under £200. I am not interested in going down this route as a practice, However electronic synthesis does have a great influence in my Installations and Performances (within physical processes and image making).
I came across miniMO just before the New Year that is a little square module that can be pre-programmed by an Arduino or done so by miniMO. It is in effect a digital system that can be plugged in many ways between countless other modules, standalone or in its own rack system. I’ve started making my own 6 piece rack set that I will try connecting to mildly electric objects such as coils, dying batteries etc… I like how it is extremely affordable in comparison to a Moog on Steroids.And of course, I’m writing up my thesis, its more of a game of Tortoise and the Hare right now.
Ben Gwilliam an artist whose work spans sound, film, installation & performance. His work explores how the mechanics of sound media reflect & distort human perception, often manipulating the space(s) & moment of experience. His fascination drives a curiosity that forms as durational performances and installations, film & video works and writing. He has exhibited & performed Internationally in spaces such as La casa Encendida Madrid, The Cornerhouse Manchester, Artists Unlimited Bielefeld, Modern Art Oxford, & FACT Liverpool. His performance and composed works have been commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices Festival (UK 2010), Rumilingen new music (CH 2010), University of Salford (UK 2008) & IOU Theatre (UK 2003).
David Lacey is a musician from Dublin, working at the intersection between improvisation and composition. He uses percussion, objects, field recordings, cassettes and crude electronics, as well as making studio constructions. He has performed and recorded with musicians such as Rhodri Davies, Keith Rowe, Annette Krebs and Derek Bailey. Current projects include Rainfear (with David Donohoe), duo collaborations with Patrick Farmer & Andrew Fogarty, groups with Aonghus McEvoy & Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh and the Reception concert series, which he organises with composers Rob Casey & Conal Ryan.
I have just finished a set of sound pieces, Fountains, which will be released on the cassette label Eminent Observer in the next few weeks. And I’m back in my studio, working on drawings in relation to the sounds and the landscapes they were recorded in.
I’ve also been researching and recording my radio show, Sonic Envelopes, that goes out on RTM.FM on the last Wednesday of each month. In the next episode I interview the artist Gabriella Hirst about her sound piece ‘Siren Song/The Winner Takes it All’ and we talk about Greek myths, Eurovision and the practicality of using sea sponges as a windshield.
Hannah Dargavel-Leafe is an artist and researcher based in London. Her practice considers landscape and sound within the expanded field of sculpture.
Pre-lockdown I had been recording sounds in and around Aberdeen for a couple of projects, Audiograft being one of them. Since then I have been trying to create some small tools to help me perform and compose using these recordings. I ended up compiling them and turning them into an app, which i’ve put up for free here.
James is a sound artist, based in Aberdeen, whose work revolves around field recordings and installations that highlight our urban environments. Using audio and visual elements he brings together fragmented elements of our social spaces and engagements, in an attempt to better understand our most immediate surroundings.
Big question! I’ve been able to spend so much more time than usual (for obvious reasons) listening to my existing record collection so the top two things on my huge record pile are…
I’m very excited about the Candyman reboot coming out this summer too.
Working on:
I’m writing a lot of music at the moment with the intention of it all ending up as 2 solo records, one of these projects is more on the noisy side than the other which is more weird song based. I’m also working on new The Slowest Lift material with Julian Bradley, who I have a constant file and text exchange going on with.
I’ve also got some interesting work projects happening as well, I’ve currently mentoring young event planners and passing on the ways of DIY gig organisation, just hope they can put the skills into practice sometime soonish. I’m also working with Yorkshire Sound Women Network developing a new training programme promoting womxn working in audio, it’s fascinating stuff.
Sophie Cooper is a West Yorkshire based musician who enjoys experimenting with the conventions of song writing. Her main instruments are trombone, guitar and vocals and the music made could be described as psychedelic, drone or noise music. The songs have a dreamlike quality, with sounds and vocals drifting in and out of clarity.
In addition to solo performance and compositions, recent projects include a collaboration with French composer Delphine Dora and a distance duo with Julian Bradley of Vibracathedral Orchestra called ‘The Slowest Lift’ commissioned by Supernormal Festival.
Cooper performs regularly throughout the UK and Ireland. She is also the founder of Todmorden’s psyche and drone event ‘Tor Festival’.
I have been working on a durational postal project that documents listening experiences throughout one calendar year. The requirement being that you compose economical text or images in response to sound, and then compose sound from the resultant correspondence. It’s about sharing. It’s about being aware and feeling glad to be here. It’s an enjoyable bureaucracy that situates yourself in flux.
Martin (b. 1981, UK) is an artist with a particular interest in sound and language and their relationship to listening and meaning. His practice centres around experimental composition and improvisation but is demarcated by a more nebulous border, and is defined by the search for it.
