My piece Matchine has been programmed in the upcoming Inventionen 2010 music festival in Berlin, Germany. Jonty Harrison and his crew of postgrads are touring the BEAST system for a series of 7 concerts from 29.07.10 - 01.08.10. My piece is being played in concert 7, 14:00 on 01.08.10 at Kirche St Elisabeth.
I’ve just completed another couple of Creative Partnerships projects that I’ve been working on over the summer term.
I was working with a Yr3/4 class at St Bartholomew’s Primary in Wolverhampton to create some podcasts and a project blog. This was one of the youngest groups I’ve worked with on a project of this sort and they coped really well. They wrote some fantastic scripts and managed to get to grips with recording using portable recorders. They also mastered basic editing and mixing using Audacity. We also did a little bit of work using Garage Band on the school mac.
The other project was at Penn Hall SEN School also in Wolverhampton. I worked with the whole school to create a sound trail around the school grounds with imaginary soundtracks for each of the six locations. Participants followed a map and listened to directions and the soundtracks on mp3 players. I collaborated with graphic designer Nick Smith to create the map and we also produced an interactive CD Rom to document the project.
More info and examples of the work on the updated ‘Creative Partnerships’ page.
This is a dawn recording of the Islamic call to prayer on the island of Gili Trawangan, Indonesia. The Gili Islands consist of three tiny islands Gili Meno, Gili Air and Gili Trawangan situated just off the coast of Lombok, Indonesia. Unfortunately the PA system doesn’t quite do justice to the quality of the singing but I quite like the recording, especially the faint sound of cockerels (of which there are many on Gili Trawangan!), the nearby shore and our resident geko.
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© Iain Armstrong
I’ve just finished a Creative Partnerships project in Bearwood Primary school, Smethwick. I was working with rap artist Prof. D and a class of lively Yr5 children. We were looking at providing a creative stimulus for writing. The children wrote and performed raps and we created a project blog on which they posted their raps and updates about the project. You can see for youself at
Mani walls are a common site on the outskirts of villages in the northern sections of the Annapurna circuit where the local villagers practice Tibetan Buddhism. The stone built walls usually contain a series of prayer wheels that the traveller can spin as they pass by (always on the left hand side) releasing the prayers as if they had been recited by the person. Many of the walls are also adorned with Mani stones beautifully engraved with the mantra ‘Om madi padme hum’. The walls can range in size up to several hundred meters long. In this recording you can hear me spinning the prayer wheels as I pass.
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© Iain Armstrong
Anvil & Stirrup’s ThousandUnfold has been selected for inclusion in SoundLAB VII part of the NMF - New Media Festival 2010, Cologne.
Pack mules are still a common means of transporting supplies between villages on the Annapurna Circuit, a 300km trek around the Annapurna massif. Particularly in the more remote areas not yet connected by roads. Sporting neck bells of various sizes and pitches, the sound of passing mule trains makes a welcome musical addition to the soundscape. There is usually a lead mule with a larger bell that sometimes wears an elaborate headdress. Using calls or whistles the owner communicates with the lead mule to control the speed and direction of the mule train.
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© Iain Armstrong
Anvil & Stirrup’s first track ThousandUnfold premiered at Noise Floor 2010 festival on Sunday 17.01.10 at Staffordshire University, Stafford, UK.
I have been invited to present some music at the first Noise Floor festival being held at Staffordshire University on 16th and 17th January 2010. I will be playing Matchine and a new piece reworking some material from a laptop set I played at the ProjectXPresents, Digital Dystopia event in 2008.
A few months ago I began working on a new project with fellow composer Antti Saario. Working under the moniker Anvil & Stirrup we have produced our first track entitled ThousandUnfold.
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© Anvil & Stirrup 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.