About
Iain Armstrong is a Scottish composer and sound artist who has been based in Birmingham, UK since 1998. Iain currently works as a freelance artist and creative practitioner/workshop leader in schools and other community settings. He is a co-director of SOUNDkitchen a non-profit company dedicated to the promotion of artists working in the field of sound. He performs laptop solo, as one half of Anvil & Stirrup and is a member of BiLE.
Composition & Sound Art
Iain studied electroacoustic composition with Dr. Alistair MacDonald as part of a BA in music at the RSAMD in Glasgow. He subsequently moved to Birmingham to complete a PhD in electroacoustic composition at Birmingham University under the supervision of Prof. Jonty Harrison. As a member of BEAST (Birmingham Electro Acoustic Sound Theatre) he was involved in the public presentation of electroacoustic music at various venues in the UK and abroad, regularly diffusing his own and other composers’ work.
Working with ‘found’ sounds, recorded from the sound environment, Iain’s work aims to exploit the inherent musicality of this material through digital analysis, manipulation and transformation. This sound deconstruction/reconstruction frequently results in organic structures and soundscapes that explore familiar and abstract sound objects and their interactions.
Iain’s electroacoustic compositions have received numerous performances in the UK and abroad including: Nuit Bleue - Saline Royale D’Arc et Sanans, France; Pointe D’Ecoute Montreal, Canada; Musiques et Recherches - Brussels; International Computer Music Conference - New Orleans; Inventionen - Berlin; EuCue - Canada; Confluencias - Andalucia; Aldeburgh Contemporary Music Festival; Royal Musicological Association Conference - Huddersfield; Ung Nordisk Musik Festival - Denmark.
In addition to fixed media music for concert or home listening he has produced work for installation, film, theatre and animation. In his installation projects Iain has developed an interest in participatory practice where a direct engagement with others, often from minority communities, has been essential for the realisation of the work.
Please visit the Performances page for listings of performances and exhibitions.
Iain performs solo laptop sets having played ea/electronica mixes in a range of venues from rugby clubs in Cardiff to squats in Zurich. More recently he has presented some of his own original material in Birmingham at events produced by projectXpresents and SOUNDkitchen.
He is one half of music production and performance duo Anvil & Stirrup in collaboration with composer Antti Saario.
Creative Practitioner in Education
Alongside his artistic practice Iain has, for several years, been teaching and leading workshops; initially a part-time music and composition lecturer at the universities of Birmingham and Northampton and more recently as a practitioner in schools. In line with his own practice, Iain explores listening, recording and composition as a means to creatively engage with the school curriculum.
He has been a regular workshop leader on the Sonic Postcards project run by the Sonic Arts Network, awarded the New Statesman New Media Award for Education 2006. He was also a lead artist on numerous Creative Partnerships projects around the Midlands.
Creative Consultancy
From 2008-11 Iain was a Creative Agent on the Black Country Creative Partnerships team implementing creative learning programmes in a range of schools around the Black Country, Teflord and Shropshire. In 2010 he joined Bright Space, also as a Creative Agent, delivering the Creative Partnerships programme in the Birmingham area.
More information about much of Iain’s work can be found on this site.
Please email to request a current CV.
