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NOMAD (Music That Moves) is a prize-winning, shape-shifting ensemble, founded by three classically trained musicians, Ailsa Burns, Iona Kaye and Elena Orsi. With storytelling at the heart of their process, they curate and create intimate multi-media and immersive experiences, with a bold commitment to experimentation, improvisation and themes of nature.

They have recently taken part in a collaboration with Senegalese percussionist Dudu Kouate as part of the Vibrant Sound residency programme, in conjunction with Creative Peaks and L'Espace Sauvanie in France. They'll be sharing some music from the residency alongside some of their repertoire which includes pieces commissioned for them with roots in folk and contemporary classical music.

NOMAD
+ JULIANA DAY

Saturday
12th October

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Juliana Day (who you may have seen performing with the amazing Emergence Collective for Vibrant Sound back in December) will be performing music from her upcoming album, Lull. In her own words...

 

"When I was asked to record an album for the interludes between performances at the Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music, I thought about the word “interlude” in a more general sense- periods of rest and stillness, but also periods of change, uncertainty and transition. The album draws upon these ideas, exploring things that serve these “in between” functions- places, periods of time, journeys, dreams and stages of life. 

 

The album was recorded live at Highfield Trinity Church, Sheffield in one four hour session. Manon McCoy and Zebedee Budworth are featured on two tracks, in two completely unplanned improvisations. 

 

Responding to the space’s reverb and the busy traffic outside, these improvisations use the lower family of recorders, whistles, vocalisations, loops, found sounds and field recordings. The album takes influence from choral music, folk, minimalism and artists such as Brian Eno, Tim Hecker, Mary Lattimore, Kali Malone, Hatis Noit, Steve Reich, Ichiko Aoba, William Basinski and Pauline Oliveros.

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Past Events

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Formed in Bristol in 2016, Spindle Ensemble led by composer and pianist Daniel Inzani and featuring tuned percussionist Harriet Riley, cellist Jo Silverston and violinist Caelia Lunniss,  perform an innovative take on contemporary classical music. Rooted in spontaneity and improvisation with deft musicianship and unique instrumentation, their pieces are imbued with a unique narrative style which transports listeners into their own inner-realm of imagery and storytelling.

Live performances are often accompanied by stunning visuals from various visual artists. The quartet are equally at home performing in concert halls such as the Union Chapel, the Southbank Centre, Bristol Beacon, St Georges Bristol and festivals including Shambala and Hidden Notes to churches, art centres, record shops and independent venues across the UK.

SPINDLE ENSEMBLE
+ SUNSCURO

Wednesday 28th August

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Sunscuro welcome you to explore, find and feel. Technology and myth collide in a journey of separation bridging experimental, electronic and contemporary classical sounds. A meeting of two worlds, painting swathes of cues for the emotional completist.

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ME LOST ME
+ ROSIE TEE

Friday, 19th July

Me Lost Me delights in experimenting with songwriting, creating a beguiling mix of soaring vocals and atmospheric electronics that playfully push the boundaries of genre. The Project of Newcastle-based artist Jayne Dent who takes influence from folk, art pop, noise, ambient and improvised music, her work has been described in The Guardian as "stripping folk back to its bones while letting its future echoes bleed out". Me Lost Me explores the idea of songwriting as a role-playing game, inviting the listener in to a strange new world of fantasy pastoral lands, sleepless unreality, and the joy of losing yourself in stories.

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Composer Rosie Tee's innovative, atmospheric blend of electronica, psych and avant-pop emerged from the industrial backdrop of the UK's second city, Birmingham. Her immersive and experimental synth-heavy sound uses  manipulated vocals, pedals and glockenspiel, whilst colourful, folkloric lyrics float above these hypnotic electronic sound worlds.

 

Since 2018, she's collaborated closely with her quartet, touring across the UK with a line-up of offkilter synths (Piera Onacko), swarming bass (Dan Cippico) and textural drums (Kai Chareunsy). Together, they ebb and flow between digital and analogue worlds, and have supported artists including Stealing Sheep, Submotion Orchestra, Flamingods and The Orielles.

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Manchester’s latest complex synth-routed and mechanised robotic percussion jazz and electronic duo.  Comprised of Liviu Gheorghe (formerly of Matthew Halsall) and Rob Turner (formerly of GoGo Penguin), their sound has been described as a 'sonic exploration of the universe', incorporating high-energy breakbeats, psychedelic synth textures, acid bass lines, and explosive jazz-infused virtuosic improvisation.  With echoes of electronic wizards Fourtet, Aphex Twin, and Square Pusher, as well as nods to the explorative free spirit of Pharaoh Sanders and Herbie Hancock, ELF Traps' live show is a voyage through melanphoric, manga-tinged ambient-synth textures and fiery jungle-inspired bassline grooves.  Their unique blend of electronic and jazz elements creates a soundscape that is both otherworldly, mesmerizing, playful, and spiritually uplifting.

ELECTRIC DAISY
X VIBRANT SOUND

Sunday,
7th July
3pm-10:30pm

Monzanto Sound fuse together styles from the African Diaspora with a hypnotic, psychedelic edge. They are a high energy, rhythmic group with an ear for space and simplicity, capable of getting any crowd moving. Their carefully considered sonic aesthetic incorporates synths and effects inspired by 90s dance and electronic music. Dubby off kilter funk grooves with influences including Can, Fela Kuti and Sade.

MONZANTO SOUND

ELF TRAPS

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Down To Earth explore radical ideas to help reimagine our cities giving new life to broken spaces and providing  urban communities with opportunities to connect with nature.

On Sunday 7th July, we'll be bringing you an all day event at Electric Daisy, the communal green space created by Down To Earth, with live music, craft stalls and delicious food and drink

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ARAYA

'Araya' is Thai word for sunshine and good luck. She is a young British-Thai singer-songwriter who fuses her confessional emotive vocals with a topical and poetic imagery. She blends a unique and contemporary take on 90s inspired folk, grunge and alternative rock with elements of trip-hop and latin jazz. Her sophisticated and eclectic palette of inspirations includes Elliot Smith, Nick Drake , King Krule and Chet Baker.
 

LINE UP:

Sweet soul and reggae flavours with earthy roots. The Soul Rebels inhabit the conscious thoughts of their reggae heroes, performing their own interpretations of the music of Bob Marley and the Wailers.

 

"We believe his message is as relevant today as it was during his lifetime. We want to bring light to the teachings of Rastafari, a progressive people who began by moving away from their oppressors in their society and beginning a new way of life. We as a group, named 'The Soul Rebels' in tribute to Bob Marley and the Wailers, feel a deep connection to the music and we invite you to share the vibrations and help Bob sing his songs of freedom, as he himself requested."

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THE SOUL REBELS

Jimsun aka Jaime Gonzales, will be cooking up a semi-improvised lo-fi set with hip hop, folk, Latin, soul and dub flavours. Silky smooth vocals merge with kooky loops, twisted effects, filters and time-stretched samples to create his signature sun-drenched soundscapes.

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JIMSUN

@imagebyjt

@imagebyjt

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Elsa Hewitt emerged as a producer of experimental and individualistic electronic, ambient, dance, modern classical and pop music, following her formative years spent as a prolific songwriter and band leader. 

With a natural sensibility for composition and writing, her relationship to music has always been of an intimate, devotional and mystical nature, with a leaning towards the philosophical, the truthful and the beautiful. In her intuitively-composed songs, beats and soundscapes she expresses the subtle and ineffable currents of life, with a distinctive flavour of musicality, texture and atmosphere. 

In 2016, she won the Lynsey de Paul Prize, as well as being selected for Gilles Peterson’s Future Bubblers talent development initiative. Since then she has released eight albums, as well as delivering several commissioned pieces, collaborations and many remixes.

ELSA HEWITT
+ DAPHLELLC

Friday, 21st June

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s8jfou + Pale Stranger

Friday, 17th May

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In 2017 French producer s8jfou (shorthand for ‘suis-je-vous’ or  ‘am I mad?’) bought some land in the mountains to flee from the big city civilisation. He spent 8 months building an off-grid cabin and this is where he composes his music, using just a laptop with Ableton Live, heating and cooking with a wood stove, drinking the natural spring water and eating mushrooms from the forest. He’s drawn to the idea that digital music tools can be totally free and open source, without the need to spend money or produce wasteful rare metal or plastic garbage. He’ll be coming to England for the first time, travelling to the festival by ferry and overland. Moody electronica in the vein of Aphex Twin, Rival Consoles, Holly Hearndon, Floating Points.

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Raoul Vignal

Sunday, 5th May

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Raoul Vignal plays authentic, modern folk music. His trademark delicate and earthy fingerpicking, alternate tunings and hushed and gentle vocals are formed in rural kitchens and scenes of pastoral contemplation. In these isolated places where time stands still and the incessant urges of the urban bustle disappear, he weaves captivating compositions with subtle shades of melancholy and entrancing, spirited arpeggios. Raoul Vignal’s music is both timeless and deeply embedded in the aura of contemporary life.

Jose Gonzales meets Nick Drake, Sun Kil Moon and Kings of Convenience

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Born in Beijing and formerly a pipa soloist with the Central Orchestra of Chinese Music in China, Cheng Yu is a renowned pipa lute and guqin zither virtuoso, ethnomusicologist and specialist in Chinese music. She studied the pipa from the age of 7 from her father (a Pudong pipa master) and the guqin zither from the age of 14, graduated with distinction from the Xi'an Conservatory of Music and won several top prizes for her pipa performances. Based in London since the 1990s, she is a co-founder of the UK Chinese Music Ensemble (1998), the London Youlan Qin Society (2003) and the award-winning Silk String Quartet (2007).

CHENG YU + THE SEEKERS + ROSIE BROWNHILL

Friday, 12th April

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Cheng Yu has been actively involved in contemporary and cross-culture/genre music collaborations with musicians such as pianist Lang Lang, Cellist Matthew Barley, Damon Albarn and composers including Tan Dun, Zhou Long, Philip Glass, Peter Wiegold and Gabriel Prokofiev.

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Led by singer and poet Rubaya Saaz, experimental, multicultural explorers The Seekers are digging for meaning in the sound patterns of the universe, bridging sufi music, the poetic expressions of the soul and contemplation of the divine essence. In a world full of uncertaintly, the Seekers use music to inspire people towards reflection, contemplation and unity.

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Rosie Brownhill communes with the ghosts and histories that inhabit the the land with her ancient and earthy instrumental folk, conjuring up images of harvests, moors, bees and creatures wild and windy, with a whistle, acoustic guitar and a chord organ.

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Cheng Yu

The Seekers

Rosie Brownhill

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J2Oh are a dream-dnb-jazz duo with Jenny Walinetski on drums and Jemma Freese on synths/piano and vocals. Their heavy use of cross signatures, rhythmical hooks, jazz harmony and vocal soundbites creates a vibrant, energetic sound, a hybrid of hiphop/trap/dnb/electronic and contemporary jazz.

J2OH +
SAD BREAD

Friday, 15th March

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Each composition is rooted in improvisation, which is an essential part of their creative process… the pair met at Key of She, an improvisation night in Sheffield, and have been playing together ever since. Influences include; Floating Points, Gretchen Parlato, Yussef Kamaal, Portico Quartet, Slowly Rolling Camera and Richard Spaven.

With more gadgets, leads and buttons than The Hadron Collider, Sad Bread lays down industrial type electronica designed for dancing and introspection

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An original collaboration between Indian classical and folk trio String Beats (sitar, sarangi and tablas) and multi-instrumentalist and producer Shunya (violin, bass & electronics) . For a selection of pieces they will be joined by vocalist Hannah Jacob-Flynn. In the run up to the concert, the musicians will spend three days improvising, rehearsing and composing together to create a body of work to perform at the concert, a fusion of western and eastern music, traditional instruments and modern technology. The compositional process, rehearsals and performances will be filmed and recorded with a short film documenting the process to be released later in the year.

Artist Residency 2 

SHUNYA +
STRING BEATS

Friday, 8th March

The artists have never met before, so who knows what to expect? We’re super excited to see what they’ll come up with and we want you to be a part of it. Come and experience the start of this innovative new project!

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Past Events

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…with master percussionist Dudu Kouate in the Geodome for Creative Peaks in August 23

Check out this performance with Abel Saloacoe on Jools Holland

Shunya (aka Alan Keary)  is a multi-instrumentalist and producer, with a strong musical heritage, writing and producing music from the age of fourteen. His sound is a contortion of influences, stemming from his background in classical violin and jazz bass, and growing with the sounds of Manchester's electronic music scene.

SHUNYA

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…and headlining the first Lost in the Hills festival in September 22…

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Check out their stunning performance at Lost in the Hills festival in September 22

String Beats will be performing a selection of Indian classical and folk music. The trio consists of Harminder Sahota (sitar), Sandeep Kandola (sarangi) and Harkiran Sahota (tabla).

STRING BEATS

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Past Events

Sentido Andino (‘Feelings of the Andes’) will be performing a collection of traditional Andean folk songs and South American laments. Their music will transport you to the Andean mountains with mesmerising and intricate arpeggios and soaring passionate vocal melodies, imbued with the spirit of the Incas. Instruments include the charango, cuatro venezolano, ronroco boliviano and the bombo andino.

Sheffield's Emergence Collective create a hypnotic kaleidoscope of sound through an intuitive and democratic process and approach to music-making. Eclectic improvised minimalism, drawing on folk, jazz, early, and contemporary classical music.

There will also be a showcase of exclusive original music from our first A Vibrant Sound Artist Residency, featuring Rubaya Saaz, Pato Espinosa, Jemma Freese Efrain Enriquez and Nick Tonizzo. These residencies will explore the meeting points between different cultures. This time round we're mixing together the sounds, instruments and influences from Pakistan, Italy, Ecuador and the UK. Watch this space for films and recordings in 2024.

Artist Residency 1

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Paltin are a Manchester based Jazz/Electronic trio blending improvisation with analogue and digital electronics. Ethereal modular synth patterns meet free jazz, broken beats, dub and dance infused basslines, and glitchy, cinematic textures. Intricate compositions of Romanian born Liviu Gheorge (Keys & Synths) with Ruben Sheridan (Drums) and Andy Patterson (Bass).Free flowing jazz electronic fusion from Manchester based headliners Paltin. Human infused wiring pulsates through shifting and shuttering drums whilst dub wise bass lines fill in the spaces. In form patterns infiltrate and consolidate anti-cultural shapes and graphs.

Vikasati are a Midlands-based keys and drums duo, combining jazz and improvisation with fluid polyrhythmic grooves to paint a captivating ambiance within the jazz and progressive music scene.

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Jimsun aka Jaime Gonzales will be cooking up a semi-improvised lo-fi set with hip hop, folk, Latin, soul and dub flavours. Silky smooth vocals merge with kooky loops, twisted effects, filters and time-stretched samples to create his signature sun-drenched soundscapes.

Past Events

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6 Becket Street
Derby DE1 1HT

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