Cultures of Sound - March

Electric Sufi is a new project by singer Satnam Galsian, instrumentalist Mina Salama, and producer Professor Chill. It draws up on ancient spiritual traditions to create music that aims to inspire audiences to engage with environmental issues. The musicians call on a wide range of influences, including Sufi poetry, Coptic Christianity, Arabic music, ancient chant, and electronica, to create a syncretic mysticism that focuses on common ground within the ice flows and firestorms of climate change.

On Thursday 16th March 2023 Electric Sufi performed a concert at Phipp's Hall for members of the public, this was followed by a masterclass workshop which would usually only be open to University of Huddersfield students.

Click here to listen to Electric Sufi, and check out their Youtube channel for performances.

Nobody speaks in exactly the same way all of the time. Think about how you change the way you speak in an interview, when chatting with friends and family, or when you’re talking over the telephone with someone you’ve never met. Why, then, should singing be any different?

Singers of all ability levels were invited to take part in this workshop, run by Linguistics PhD candidate Ryan Gibson, designed to measure how we make subtle stylistic choices when we sing. The questions of identity and authenticity were explored, and those who take part were encouraged to reflect on the nature of their own musical and stylistic expressions.

Participants interacted with karaoke-style music videos (of songs they had never encountered before) in private recording booths at the University of Huddersfield, and had the opportunity to discuss what it truly means to be authentic in the context of popular music.

You can also take part online and contribute to Ryan's research! Click here to find out how.

This project was designed to weave the sound memories and experiences of participants together with the guidance of sonic artist and educator Mia Windsor. Through a process of listening, recording and composing, an original surround sound immersive piece was created collectively by the group.

Across three afternoon workshops on the 5th, 12th & 19th of March 2023 participants learnt techniques for really listening to sound, how to do basic audio recording, and how to compose a soundscape using audio software. No prior experience was needed, indeed we were more interested in experiences and ideas than technical proficiency but hope that participants have learnt skills that will aid future creativity with sound. 

The project culminated in a final composition played as a sound installation. This was on show and open to the public during the second half of May as part of the Cultures of Sound programme.

Drifts Along

by SABIWA

For this new audio-visual installation by SABIWA at the Bath House Galleries the artist spent a week in residence, collecting material from the surrounding area to build a three-channel film and immersive soundscape. SABIWA’s practice deals with the porosity of bodies and spaces, partly inspired by personal experiences of physical exertion and the changes to how one experiences time and the self during injury, sickness and recovery. Drifts Along explores what SABIWA refers to as ‘micro space’; a personal reality derived from past experiences, where the artistic process investigates a poetic relationship between this perceived reality and belief.

 
Drifts Along was a collage created from the artist’s previous work and new material, and in turn this material has been taken forward into future work in other places. Coincidentally during SABIWA’s week in residence the artist was able to document the momentous spectacle of Huddersfield Technical College being demolished, and as such the work is both rooted in time and place, but also creates an opportunity for a wider reflection on the cycles of destruction and regeneration that our environments, whether local or global, are subject to.

 
The work was presented across multiple intersecting screens, with the equipment and workings visible as the visitor’s attention was drawn around the space to different points during the installation’s thirty-minute cycle. Contrasting vantage points were invoked, sometimes seeming to be inside a body or underwater, and other times floating above; sometimes microscopic, sometimes massive. Through SABIWA’s careful editing and composition these viewpoints were eventually synthesized into one shifting, undulating whole. Beanbags were provided for visitors to be physically comfortable while they experience the work, and subtle works on paper were dotted around the space to be discovered amidst the light and sound. 

 

Click this link to watch the artist talk by SABIWA that took place on 21st March, part way through her residency.

Through public cultural programmes, the arts and humanities research taking place across our subject areas can interact with and feed into the grass roots cultural activity taking place in Huddersfield and the wider Kirklees area. As an organisation, ame are nationally recognised for their support of contemporary classical, sound art and improvisational practices, with a programme of performances and exhibitions that brings highly regarded practitioners to Huddersfield audiences.

 
SABIWA is an experimental electronic producer and performer from Taiwan, residing in Berlin. She produces, records and dissects sounds and images from natural and synthetic sources, making them interact with complex texture and abstract patterns, also using her voice processed as guiding path in her compositions.