This is a recording of a live laptop performance I gave on 3rd May at the NoiseFloor festival in Stafford, UK. It utilises raw and manipulated field recordings, live mixing and processing. My set was part of a continuous performance by members of SOUNDkitchen and for the first 5 minutes I was improvising with Annie Mahtani and Julien Guillamat. In this version the opening has been edited to include only my material and create a self contained recording. The complete, original version with the additional performances will no doubt be available at some point via the SOUNDkitchen website.

Photo: Ernst Vikne via Wikipedia

I have recently been enjoying the sight of a pair of nesting robins (Erithacus rubecula) who chose to build their nest amongst the ivy and honeysuckle on a fence directly outside my studio. The glass panelled door and position of my desk meant that the dutiful feeding trips of the male returning to the sitting female frequently caught my eye. I eargerly awaited the hatching of the chicks as their nesting position was conveniently situated for me to gain easy access with my microphones. A week or so later the increased frequency of the parents darting in and out of the nest, accompanied by a distinct, high pitched chattering sound on each visit signalled my time for action.

Using a pair of small, lightweight omnidirectional microphones I was able to clip these to the shrubbery just outside the entrance to the nest.  This recording captures the sound of the adult birds’ wings as they enter the nest, the excited chattering of the babies as they call out to be fed followed by some satisfied chirps. In this particular excerpt the background ambiance reveals the urban location, the slightly inclement weather and the unexpected, mid-week peal of bells from the local church.

While the position of the nest, barely 1.5m up the fence, was ideal for my field recording pleasure, since their arrival I had been concerned about the security of this location. There are neighbourhood cats that also appear at my window. Inevitably, after only a few precious days of life the robins were conspicuous by their absence and a quick look revealed one of the chicks, floating lifeless in a bucket of rainwater by the back door. Life is harsh in the urban jungle.  So this turn of events lends a particular poignancy to this recording.

My next performance will be at NoiseFloor festival in Stafford on 3rd May.

SOUNDkitchen have been invited to play and we are busy preparing a continuous relay style set (very Olympics) that includes solos from Shelly Knotts and me and a duo from Annie Mahtani and Julien Guillamat. Each performer segues into the next via a short improvised duet, by way of a handover. I’ll be playing a laptop set of around 20 mins using field recordings and some live processing. The entire performance will be diffused by James Carpenter over the festival’s multichannel system.

The gig is at 17:45, Staffordshire University campus. The festival runs from 1st - 4th May and is presenting work from over 50 artists in 9 concerts, talks and installations.

more info at www.noisefloor.co.uk

This recording contrasts ‘Below the River Wye’, being made in a small, thin stretch of woodland running along the bank above the river. The wood was flanked by fields and so, in it’s isolation, was accommodating a relatively concentrated number of birds. The microphone was set at ground level, well placed to capture the sounds of flies and other insects which are also prominent.  The flowing river is omnipresent and the soundscape as rich and dense as that below the water.

The first of two recordings that contrast the soundscape of the River Wye above and below the water line. Recorded on a glorious day in early June, where the Wye river runs past the small village of Fownhope, just south of Hereford, UK.

The banks of the river are steep at this point, and the water surface considerably lower, however I managed to descend to a small stretch where a conveniently placed log allowed me just enough access to submerge the microphones. This hydrophone recording demonstrates the richness of the soundscape underneath the water.

I’m frequently surprised by the density of sounds created by aquatic life, this particular example reminds me of the rhythmic songs of cicadas.

I made this recording using hydrophones from Jez Riley French. I can recommend his products (I have some of his contact mics too), they’re well made, competitively priced and produce great results. I have the ‘basic’ models but understand he has since improved the design with his ‘C’ series.

This recording features with other field recordings and processed material in a live laptop set I performed last year.

A couple of the frogs survived to return and spawn in the pond this year. It looks like the tadpoles have begun to hatch. I’ll be making some more recordings in the coming months.

Pippa worked with game designers Hide & Seek to create a game called Resonate The Minotaur. The members of the public had to negotiate the labyrinth whilst trying to avoid being seen moving by the Minotaur. If they successfully made it to the centre of the labyrinth they had to try and snatch a ribbon from the Minotaur. This was one of four games that the public played in order to collect tokens for their team. The event ended with a final team game in the Grassmarket where the winners were announced.

This short film gives a flavour of the event. It was filmed by Ian McCormick and I did the edit.

Resonate The Minotaur from Iain Armstrong on Vimeo.

Image: Antonio Roberts

I’ll be performing with BiLE on 27.01.12 (28.01.12 rescheduled) at Birmingham’s first Network Music Festival. This is set to be a fantastic 3 day festival of international artists discussing, presenting and performing new musical forms and ideas where networking is central to the aesthetics, creation or performance practice of the work. The programme includes Benoit and The Mandelbrots, Barcelona Laptop Orchestra, Glitchlich, Jack Harris and Samuel Rogers and more.

Also look out for the first SOUNDkitchen event of the year on 26.01.12 where we’ll be launching the Network Music Fetival with a selection of Brimingham based electronic acts including Juneau Brothers, Lash Frenzy and Freecode. There is also another opportunity to hear the SOUNDKitchen multichannel radio installation that I composed called Theatre of the Mind.

I will be playing with Antti Saario as Anvil & Stirrup at two events in the coming months.

The first gig is at Falmouth’s School of Noises on Thursday 19th January at the Jacob’s Ladder Inn where we’ll playing a live laptop set and a live electronics improv with double bass player Thanos Polymeneas who’s also performing on the night.

The second is Audiograft 2012, Oxford’s festival of sound art and experimental music. We’ll be playing a live laptop set at the Jaqueline Du Pré Concert Hall on 2nd March at 7.30pm. Also on the bill is our friend and ex BEAST composer David Prior and the fantastic Trevor Wishart.

The Audiograft festival runs from Monday 27th February to Sunday 4th March and includes sound installations and performances from the likes of Lee Patterson and Robert Curgenven, ParkinsonSaunders, Paul Whitty, Max Eastley, Jason Kahn and Patrick Farmer.

I was working with field recordings and prepared material that was predominantly noise based and experimented for the first time with presenting this material over multiple channels live. Running Ableton Live I had 8 independent outputs mapped onto a circle of 8 speakers in the space and an additional stereo submix on another two channels going to the desk to be diffused over the whole system by SOUNDkitchen’s Annie Mahtani. It was quite an effective and manageable way of working, allowing me some control of the spatialisation of material in addition to the structure.

This is a stereo reduction of the 10 channel set that was played over a multi-channel speaker system courtesy of BEAST.

Live at Supersonic by Iain Armstrong