Festival fuses electronic and classical sounds in Salford
Carter Tutti
The University of Salford’s Music Directorate is to host a festival next month celebrating the crossover between avant-garde classical and experimental electronic popular music with a wide range of performances, including many UK and world premieres.
Running from Thursday 21 until Sunday 24 March, the Salford Sonic Fusion Festival will feature live recitals from international performers, new commissions and sound and audio-visual installations across the University’s MediaCityUK and Peel campuses.
Among the concert highlights will be Flutes and Electronics by Roberto Fabbriciani, who has been credited with reinventing flute music during the late 20th Century and who has worked with composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage and Luigi Nono. The performance, in the Digital Performance Lab at the University’s MediaCityUK facility on Friday 22 March, is to be recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast later in the year. Roberto Fabbriciani will be joined by Loscil, an electronic ambient music project by internationally renowned Canadian sound artist Scott Morgan.
The previous evening, a UK audience will for the first time experience a live performance of Harmonic Coaction by Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, former members of industrial music and visual arts group Throbbing Gristle, performing as Carter Tutti. The piece comprises an improvised series of manipulated audio recordings and imagery inspired by the performance space itself.
Two new audio-visual art installations have been commissioned specifically for Salford Sonic Fusion making the most of the Department of Acoustics’ advanced sound technologies and facilities. Multidisciplinary artist Mark Fell’s work will allow visitors to experience an acoustic environment using Wave Field Synthesis, a technique using an array of speakers to produce virtual sound sources, while composer and performer Graeme Truslove will use an ambisonic audio system to create a unique 3D surround sound experience for the listener.
Salford Sonic Fusion will also incorporate works from Listening Cities, an EU-funded research project involving the University and European partner institutions which promotes awareness of acoustic communication in urban environments, and pieces written or performed by the University’s Music Directorate students and staff, plus many other local and international artists.
Professor Steve Davismoon, Director of Music at the University of Salford, said: “The festival promises to deliver a vibrant and exhilarating global mix of the ‘new’ in music. I am really excited by the way in which the programming of established avant-garde classical artists alongside acclaimed experimental electronic music performers has come together to break down barriers and create new synergies.”
For full details of the Salford Sonic Fusion Festival programme visit http://www.salford.ac.uk/sonicfusion.
