live performance with Maya chowdhry and Chris Gladwin.  “This 30min live electronic music performance will feature organic components (mushrooms, moss, terrariums, water) being brought into contact with the ecstatic technology of dance music.”

I have recently returned to performing live and reawakened a part of my brain that had been dormant for a while. I’d forgotten how much I absolutely love the focus and intensity. The excitement of not knowing what’s going to happen, or indeed sometimes wondering what is happening when something completely new emerges. Working with new collaborators has pushed me to explore new methods, leading to a number of fresh works in progress.

Last month, I performed with Chris Gladwin and Maya Chowdhry
at DVRK MASS II | Sonic Transformations: Ecosystems (organised by Susan O’Shea of Music and Sonic Studies Manchester (MASSmcr) in collaboration with Dark research collective School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University). Along side a fantastic line up. The intention of our set, entitled “Biokinetic Mantra for the Evocation of the Animistic Matrix” was, loosely speaking, to amalgamate a range of bioacoustics and electronic sounds with a backdrop of dark techno.

I drew as always from live electro acoustic sounds and an archive of field recordings that span hydrophone recordings of ice, electrical organ discharge signals from several species of electrogenic fish (Elephant and Knife fish), newer recordings of bats, flying insects, and birds, to soil recordings, compost heaps, forests, under leaves and moss. I used live sounds of moss rehydrating—using specially prepared living moss hydrophones activated by water vapour. Chris thoroughly overlaid techno-inspired beats while we provided an undercurrent of sonic textures.

We performed a similar set with the @soda electronic music ensemble Chorlton Arts festival (thanks to Neil Bruce organising). This time, without Chris —just me and Maya. In both sets, Maya used her mushroom ‘biodata sonification device’ and watery sounds while I experimented with beats and rhythms generated from bioacoustics audio-to-MIDI conversion. I’m looking forward to doing more in the future.