murmuration # 5 - transmit
31st May - 7th June*
Glenshee, Scotland
curated by
JEZ RILEY FRENCH
PHEOBE RILEY LAW
ELIZA BOZEK
DAWN SCARFE
JENNY SUNESSON
KARO JEDRZEJCZYK
full booked
TO BOOK or BE PLACED ON THE WAITING LIST DO EMAIL tempjez (at) hotmail.com
listening, making, composing, interacting
The 5th in a series of unique trips curated to ensure both a sharing of diverse experience and knowledge of sound, situation and place, and an atmosphere that is relaxed, inspiring, inclusive and open. Each trip is led by artists working at the forefront of their respective fields, to compliment our always fascinating group of participants.
Alongside our explorations of the locale, our theme for the 2024 trip is transmit; listening to, thinking about, discussing sounding networks; moss-pools, botanics, soil horizons, resonant objects, community, transmission methodologies, correcting histories, ecological shifts, micro-landscapes, place
Our trips build communities of listeners in a flexible week together. Doing this differently, we react, individually and as a group, to the ever changing environment at the time. Each invited artist will lead practical sessions alongside talks and multiple additional discussions and skill sharing sessions that develop to fit the needs of the group.
Unique gatherings of listeners in this area of stunning Scottish landscapes and diverse recording opportunities. Geographically Glenshee offers Munro's (mountains over 3000 feet), loch’s, rivers and glens. The trips promise to be a rich source of inspiration, listening and recording possibilities and a chance to discuss and share knowledge around the subjects of located sound (field recording, situated listening, performing place), acoustic ecology and contemporary sound practice in its varied forms.
cost: £899
includes 7 nights* accommodation in shared rooms, with full catering for 6 days* by our private chef & access to all group activities, talks and practical demonstrations.
May 31st - June 7th*
*we're adding an extra night to the trips, for more time to listen, relax, swim in the river etc. This is a 'bonus' day to allow us to have some extra time listening, talking, swimming in the river (weather permitting) & perhaps a wee dram in the evening. Our caterer will supply food on the usual 6 days of the trip & for the bonus day the idea is that participants can cook together or grab some food out & about, perhaps in Braemar. A trip to The Fife Arms there is always good & we know lots of folks wanted to try their food.
funding: we are aware of course that the cost of trips like this can be a barrier for some and we want to do our best to ensure access for all whilst maintaining the experience, and the ability of such trips to operate outside of dwindling national funding sources for independent organisations. Individual funding applications by artists wishing to attend are encouraged and we are happy to assist with advice and letters of invitation if needed.
Aside from any country specific funders in your own location, such as;
Arts Council England (uk)
Creative Scotland (uk)
Jerwood Arts (uk)
there are cross border organisations who might be able to assist such as;
https://www.transartists.org/article/funding-europe
https://www.transartists.org/article/funding-worldwide
The week is intended for those with some experience of working with located sound / field recording & other areas of experiential site-specific work as it will be in the format of a field trip / gathering rather than a series of formal, instructional steps for beginners. That said we of course welcome participants at all stages of experience and the lead artists will be on hand throughout to offer guidance, support and deliver talks on various aspects of the act & art of listening. Each of the guest artists joining us will provide additional content (talks, playback, screenings etc). Full details will be announced, as usual, in stages in the coming weeks.
During the week we’ll also have the opportunity to hold screenings of films with a strong connection to located sound.
Accommodation for this unique trip will be in Glenshee, Highland Perthshire, in shared rooms, which have between 2 and 6 beds. The lodge itself can sleep a total of 37 people however places available for participants are limited to well below capacity. Bed linen is provided but you do need to bring your own towels. We have booked the entire site to ensure we can come & go as we please at all hours.
Our private chef will be on hand to cook our meals, including locally sourced ingredients and catering for all needs.
We’ll have full catering on the main 6 days of the trip; breakfast, lunch (packed as we’ll no doubt be out during the day) & evening meals. Details of the bonus day will be added soon. Our chefs will be sourcing local ingredients and we’ll be working with them in the months leading up to the trip to devise a menu that will both nourish and provide for all dietary needs.
Above all the trip will be a chance for us to gather together & spend several days listening, recording, sharing our experience and generally having a great time meeting good folks. So do join us & be part of this murmuration of listeners!
terms of booking can be found below, & do read some of the feedback from previous murmuration trips - they were indeed special .
about the artists # 1 - Jez riley French
Jez's work with extended recording techniques, and his approach to listening in general, have had a significant influence on many areas of sound culture, from film sound design to contemporary installation practice & his work expanding and re-thinking the practice of plant and soil recording is recognised as an important aspect of ecoacoustics.
Using intuitive composition, field recording, improvisation and photography, Jez has been exploring his enjoyment of and interest in detail, simplicity and his emotive response to places and situations for almost 4 decades.
Alongside performances, exhibitions, installations, JrF lectures and runs workshops around the world and his range of specialist microphones are widely used by recordists, sound artists, musicians, sound designers and cultural organisations. He also works as a curator of live events, a record label, of sound installations and an arts zine ‘verdure engraved’.
In recent years he has been working extensively on recordings of surfaces, spaces and situations and developing the concept of photographic scores and ‘scores for listening’, which have featured widely in publications and exhibitions.
His work has been exhibited in shows and installations alongside that of Yoko Ono, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Watson, Jana Winderen, Alvin Lucier, Annea Lockwood, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Stars of the Lid, Jeremy Deller, Sarah Lucas, Brian Eno, Signe Liden etc, at galleries including The Whitworth Gallery (Manchester), Tate Modern and Tate Britain, MOT - Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (Japan), Artisphere (USA).
Currently Jez is working on several major projects inc. one focused on the design & detail of spaces between buildings in Japan and further works exploring plant, mineral & soil listening, & structures resonated by compositions and their locales . He is also working with his daughter, the artist Pheobe riley Law, on a series of performative collaborations.
Key works are pieces capturing the sound of the dolomites dissolving, ants consuming fallen fruit, buildings vibrating, teleferica’s interacting with locales, the infrasound of domestic spaces around the world, glaciers melting in Iceland and the tonal resonances of natural and human objects in the landscape.
about the artists #2 - Pheobe riley Law
we'll also be joined by Pheobe riley Law, to assist on day to day logistics and contribute to our explorations.
Pheobe's work often explores the documentation and transformation of materials including sound, text, fabric, movement, film and reformatted objects. Her interest is in reframing and dismantling narrative, subverting perceived normalities alongside the construction of personal or social behaviours and the inherent patterns of experience. Recent pieces using sound as a key element have been commissioned by / shown at; The Baltic & Hatton Galleries (UK), Spikersuppa Lydgalleri (Oslo), Funen Art Academy Odense (Denmark), LevelOne Gallery Hamburg (Germany), Paradise Air (Japan), MUSICITY (online), Fabrica (Italy), LCMF / Whitechapel Gallery (UK), Steklenik (Ljubljana), Detroit Gallery (Stockholm), Ftarri (Tokyo), Fort Process (UK) & for BBC radio 3.
In collaboration with JrF, Pheobe has also co-curated the 'over borders' series of PDF score collections, featuring the work of artists from around the world.
http://www.pheoberileylaw.yolasite.com/
about the artists #3 - Eliza Bozek (moltamole)
CPH (Copenhagen) based artist with a background in electronic music and performing arts - oriented sound design, working within the field of composition, installation, dance, theatre and digital art.
Sound poses a medium via which moltamole lets herself explore and absorb external environments, as well as sonify inner, emotional landscapes. The intimacy of her sonic meandering is often imbued with field recordings, voice, noise, ASMR or poetry. Preoccupied by sonic tactility, she often weaves textural compositions and abstract soundscapes. She believes that sound and listening can pose a primary tool for empathising with other humans and non-humans. A lot of her current work is conceptual, evolving around creating scores for composition and room sound design. At this point of her music journey, seasons and universes occur simultaneously, with the sound palette flickering anywhere between underwater recordings of coral reefs or melting glaciers to sentimental Hatsune Miku melodies and repetitive poetry read by moltamole’s voice clones.
Graduated from ‘DDSKS' in CPH, studied at dBs Berlin. Some of the projects she has been involved in are: MINOTAUR GRL, Watery Bodies by Giemaš, ENTANGLED, TRAGISKE MÅDER AT SLÅ EN KVINDE IHJEL PÅ or SCINITLLAE.
about the artists #4 - Dawn Scarfe
Dawn's work involves tuning into things. She uses resonating instruments, off grid broadcasts and bivvying to explore communications between intimate and remote situations.
Her compositions have been aired on BBC Radio 3 and Resonance FM. She has shown work at Café Oto and Union Chapel London, Q02 Brussels, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, La Casa Encendida Madrid, Museumquartier Vienna, New Mart Seoul and Videotage Hong Kong. Residencies include an 'Embedded' programme with Sound and Music and Forestry Commission England. She has contributed texts to Performance Research, Uniformbooks, Leonardo, Soundscape, and Environmental Sound Artists (Oxford University Press).
Collaborations include an annual festival of sound and ecology with a base at Stave Hill in Rotherhithe (Soundcamp); a live, 24hr broadcast of daybreak sound (Reveil); electronic bow improvisations with Lucia H Chung (lu:wn) and glass harp experiments with Jem Finer, Dominic Lash and Aleks Kolkowski. She is an Associate Lecturer in Sound Art at London College of Communication.
about the artists #5 - Jenny Sunesson
Jenny is a Swedish artist, operating within the intersection of art, research and remix culture. She predominantly works with sound and field recording, but her practice ranges from installations and live collages, to participatory projects and video. She often explores auto ethnography and site-specific modes to examine the norms and structures of modern society and its exclusions through the lens of domestic life. Research, interviews and digital traces are reconfigured into worlds where alternate speculations of political tendencies and fictions may surface.
Her work has been regularly commissioned and exhibited both in Sweden and internationally. She is currently Assistant Professor of Sonic Practice at Stockholm University of the Arts.
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/734269/734270
about the artists #6 - Karo Jedrzejczyk
Karo is a foley artist, recordist, and editor. She currently serves as the Head of Foley/Foley Supervisor at Sound Disposition, bringing with her a wealth of specialist knowledge and skills in this field.
Throughout her career, Karo has contributed to numerous award-winning feature films, TV series, documentaries, animations, and other interactive and multidisciplinary projects. One of her recent projects has been nominated for the prestigious Golden Reel Awards for best sound. She is also an active member of AMPS (the Association of Motion Picture Sound), a British sound industry organisation.
Karo's work has been recognised in the media, with her contributions featured in an article by The Times titled 'Foley artists make it into the spotlight.' She has also appeared in ScreenSkills' educational 360-degree immersive film 'First Day: In Post.'
Besides her daily Foley work, Karo also enjoys sharing her knowledge and inspiring others. She collaborates with Abbey Road Institute as a guest lecturer for their part-time Advanced Diploma for Audio Post Production for Film and TV, where she teaches Foley. Additionally, she delivers Foley workshops for students of the University of West London as well as for young creatives, as part of the BFI Film Academy.