This Friday FTS will take over the Film and Music Stage between 3.30 and 6.30pm for a unique showcase. For this year's Latitude, we have put together a special showcase which presents FTS pioneering work on the festival stage, featuring some of the most exciting talent in contemporary classical and electronic music. Expect classic contemporary pieces and exclusive world premiers. The London Contemporary Orchestra draws together London's brightest young talent to explore and promote contemporary music to an increasingly wide audience, making them the perfect choice for this special festival programme. At Latitude they will join forces with acclaimed composer Simon Fisher Turner, renowned for his work with Derek Jarman, to perform a 20 minute set created for strings and electronics. Simon Fisher Turner’s piece sits within a special score-based set which will form the centerpiece of the showcase, including works by John Woolrich (Associate Director, Aldeburgh Festival), Claude Vivier and John Adams, performed by the LCO conducted by Hugh Brunt.
The ensemble will also premiere two new Faster Than Sound co-commissioned works by composers Mira Calix and Larry Goves as part of their “exchange and return” project, which develops electronic artists’ skills in orchestration in collaboration with composers. A set of lyrical love songs by Emily Hall and long-time collaborator and writer Toby Litt, recently premiered in May, provides the final set, performed by the LCO featuring acclaimed singer-songwriter Mara Carlyle with John Reid and Oliver Coates. Also being screened is 2008 FTS comissioned collaboration between visual artist Quayola and Mira Calix with Oliver Coates.
London Contemporary Orchestra at Faster Than Sound
The London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO) make their Faster Than Sound debut in a programme of new music from some of the UK’s most engaging young voices, plus Faster Than Sound showcase is confirmed for Latitude festival.
The LCO draws together London's brightest young talent to explore and promote contemporary music to an increasingly wide audience. A set of lyrical love songs by Emily Hall and long-time collaborator and writer Toby Litt forms the centrepiece of the programme performed by the LCO featuring acclaimed singer-songwriter Mara Carlyle and other special guests. The evening also showcases new works by Jonathan Cole and Tristan Brookes, plus a performance of Jonny Greenwood’s beautifully creepy smear, scored for ensemble and two ondes martenot featuring Cynthia Millar. An immersive audio visual installation inspired by Aldeburgh will be presented in the Jerwood Kiln throughout the evening produced by Birmingham based Juneau Projects.
LCO’s aim is to stimulate and enlighten through its fresh approach and dynamic performances, championing the work of young, UK-based composers. Formed in 2008, the ensemble has worked alongside distinguished artists such as Matmos, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, Biosphere, Sound Intermedia, choreographer Darren Johnston, Mark-Anthony Turnage and United Visual Artists, and commissioned music from emerging composers, Emily Hall, Shiva Feshareki and Anna Meredith. Recent highlights include sellout performances at the Roundhouse and Village Underground.
Award winning composer Emily Hall and writer Toby Litt began working together in 2007. Together they create lyrical and direct songs inspired by the tradition of the art song performed by non-classically trained voices. For Faster Than Sound, they will create a new set of songs in collaboration with acclaimed singer-songwriter Mara Carlyle, pianist John Reid, and cellist Oliver Coates with supporting electronics from David Sheppard from Sound Intermedia.
burburbabbar za by Jonathan Cole will be reworked especially for the space of the Britten Studio, with the musicians surrounding the audience, and environmental sounds incorporated into the musical fabric of the work. Tristan Brooke’s piece, Ur, features an ensemble of nine players and live-relayed sounds.
To complement the performances in the Britten Studio, Juneau Projects will construct a bold and immersive music and video installation in the Jerwood Kiln Studio, incorporating custom-made sculptural instruments and sound reactive visuals inspired by the Aldeburgh area.
Aldeburgh Music’s Faster Than Sound featuring Mira Calix, Larry Goves, Simon Fisher Turner and the London Contemporary Orchestra.
Faster Than Sound continues a long tradition at Aldeburgh of giving artists the space and opportunity to experiment and work in new ways. It explores possibilities for forging innovative collaborations between the worlds of classical and electronic music, players and composers and new technologies. For Latitude Faster Than Sound have put together a unique showcase with some of the most exciting talent in contemporary classical and electronic music. London Contemporary Orchestra will collaborate with Simon Fisher Turner, a self-confessed ‘extreme sound freak’ and acclaimed composer. The set will also premiere two Faster Than Sound co-commissioned works written in collaboration by composers Mira Calix and Larry Goves as part of their “exchange and return” project performed by players from LCO. A unique score-based programme including John Woolrich, Claude Vivier and John Adams performed by the LCO conducted by Hugh Brunt will form the centerpiece of this performance. The groundbreaking 2008 commissioned AV piece “Natures” by Quayola and Mira Calix will be screened throughout the event.
Curated by Wire magazine, Faster Than Sound’s Parallel Lives brings together Norwegian vocalist and electronic improviser and composer Maja Ratkje, independent artist Kathy Hinde and New York-based artist and composer Marina Rosenfeld. They will embark on parallel journeys to Suffolk where they will create brand new works for Aldeburgh Music’s multiple venues at Snape Maltings. Travelling across the globe four women artists from different backgrounds will explore the sights and sounds of Suffolk, from architecture to the local bird population, working with local collaborators ranging from school children to musicians to engineering firms. Across the same weekend Hush House, a site-specific sound installation by Kathrine Sandys, comes to the de-commissioned Cold War airbase, RAF Bentwaters, near Woodbridge. Located in the Hush House aircraft hanger, the previous home of Faster Than Sound, it integrates the experience of journey to and through the site and landscape, as part of the work. These projects will be assembled during a week long residency building up to a unique and brand new Faster Than Sound performance.
Marina Rosenfeld’s Cannons continues her investigation of forms of public address, amplification, and the social architecture of performance. Deploying both live players and customized resonating objects, including bass cannons and horns, Rosenfeld’s new work will be developed in situ at Aldeburgh and will bring her composition and live turntablism into confrontation with classical players from the London Contemporary Orchestra.
Maja Ratkje and Kathy Hinde’s piece Birds and Traces draws on the long and borderless migration of birds as inspiration. Using themes of spring, birds and the effects of climate change, their residency will involve local children re-interpreting Norwegian songs and featuring in the piece on many levels. The resulting work will be presented as a concert performance including acclaimed Norwegian accordionist Frøde Haltli, three installation rooms as well as facts on bird migration.
Kathrine Sandys Hush House captures the ghostly and invisible past of the Cold War in the UK through a compelling site specific sound installation. The journey to and across the site sets the scene for audiences experiencing the work and, upon entering the Hush House, there will be no ‘object’ to experience. Instead what will fill the space is a set of low sound frequencies selected from those that would have been generated by the jets originally tested in the space, creating a ghostly trace of the presence of technology. On the way out, in the original Control Room, a series of images, text and drawings outline the work and the site will be presented along with the opportunity for informal discussion. What Kathrine hopes the audience takes with them is a combination of a limited introduction to the history of the site, their own concept of Cold War military sites and technology and a sense of experiencing something – an ambiguous something.
An English Journey Re-Imagined. Iain Sinclair / Alan Moore / Shirley Collins / Susan Stenger / F. M. Einheit / Graham Dolphin
Authors and psycho-geographers Iain Sinclair and Alan Moore re-imagine J.B. Priestley’s timeless classic An English Journey and undertake their own journeys across England in a first time collaboration. The project starts at Faster Than Sound in Aldeburgh with a collaboration between Sinclair, Moore and song collector Shirley Collins, composer/musician Susan Stenger and F. M. Einheit and visual artist Graham Dolphin, to communicate a special journey through the Suffolk countryside.
An English Journey Re-Imagined brings together this esteemed collection of artists from across disciplines to collaborate on a highly distinctive project which will present a mapping of place in the here and now, electronic graffiti, folk music and unique writing styles intertwining with voices set in a haunted filmic soundscape.
Faster Than Sound is the first chapter in this imaginative, yet to be written book, with other chapters taking place at Newcastle’s AV festival and beyond.
