See the sound - Cryptic announces Sonica, a new programme of sonic arts to ravish the senses

Posted: Thursday 7 June 2012

Sonica will produce high quality, cutting edge work by established international artists, provide a UK platform for further performances of exceptional and rarely-seen work, and act as a showcase for the best emerging local and international talent.

Still from Piano Migrations, Kathy Hinde

 

 

 

Still from Piano Migrations, Kathy Hinde

The programme will launch with a ten-day showcase event in Glasgow, Sonica 2012, as part of The Year of Creative Scotland, 8-18 November 2012. What sets Sonica 2012 apart from other sound art events is that all the works include a strong visual element.

Highlights will include a new commission by UK sound artist and composer Claudia Molitor; Netherlands-based 33 1/3 Collective with the UK Premiere of their extraordinary digital interpretation of Bartok’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle; an awe-inspiring, synesthetic laser experience by Australian audio-visual performance artist, Robin Fox; and a breathtaking living musical installation for four cellos, by Lithuanian composer Justé Janulyté, performed by the Gaida Ensemble.

The Sonica programme deliberately sets out to open up the genre, and make it accessible to wider audiences. It combines aspects of live music, visual art, opera, film, theatre and multi-media, blurring the boundaries between the different art forms and presenting innovative work by some of today’s most exciting upcoming UK and international sound artists.

Claudia Molitor’s Remember Me is an intimate, miniature, multi-media opera, staged in a desk. Inspired by Dido and Eurydice, Molitor’s pocket-sized opera re-imagines the dramatic extravagance of the large-scale operatic production to create this minute performance in a desk, complete with film projections, orchestral pit, visits, live composition, interval refreshments and a “Cinderella” ending. The opera will premiere at Sound Festival before travelling to Glasgow for a unique site-specific staging in the evocative venue of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed Scotland Street School Museum.

In Tales of Magical Realism, Part 2, Cryptic Associate Artist, Sven Werner, invites the audience to experience his movie “from within”. This highly immersive installation work is an individual sonic experience composed like a film scene. Participants will receive instructions through individual headsets and move between a series of miniature scenes to experience a hypnotic and illusory world in which the viewer becomes a participant.

Netherlands-based 33 1/3 Collective have created an extraordinary digital visualization based on Bartok’s fairytale opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. Working around a cube, the artists subvert opera’s classical theatrical set-up using projected images, atmospheres and theatrical scenes to tell the story and catapult opera into the digital age. The UK premiere of this work includes an original score improvised by ten musicians. 

Sonica audiences will be treated to performances of Our Contemporaries, a hypnotic kinetic installation of 480 tapping fingers by South Korean artist Mookyoung Shin; Palimpsest, the UK Premiere by audio-visual artists Kathy Hinde and Daniel Skoglund; a new commission by Glasgow-based artist Robbie Thomson for Cryptic Nights; and the award-winning installation Extended Play by Janek Schaefer.

At Digital Design Studio, families will be able to experience a new version of the groundbreaking intimate sound installation, Sonic Dreams, a fantastic sound world for children and adults alike, produced by Cryptic and ARUP and first presented at Edinburgh Science Festival in 2010.  

From 18 October, Kathy Hinde’s magical Piano Migrations will trail the full Sonica programme, captivating passers-by with a surprise sonic encounter at a secret venue. Dozens of small birds will appear to flutter and settle on the strings of an old upright piano, producing an ever-changing soundscape.

Sonica will take place 8-18 November at several venues around Glasgow, including Tramway, Scotland Street Museum, The Glue Factory, Centre for Contemporary Art amongst others, as well as HCMF//, Sound Festival in Aberdeen, and November Music, Netherlands.

Sonica is directed by three UK curators – Cryptic’s Artistic Director, Cathie Boyd, hcmf//’s Artistic Director, Graham McKenzie and Producer Patrick Dickie.

Cathie Boyd, Artistic Director of Cryptic said: “I’m thrilled that we have been able to develop the Sonica brand as a way to further sonic art both nationally and internationally. Cryptic has a proven track record of producing music to be looked at, not just listened to. Sonica will lead the way in changing preconceptions about the art form, and give audiences in Scotland and beyond a rare opportunity to experience the best in new international sonic performance”.

Graham McKenzie, Artistic Director of hcmf// said: “The thing that is really important about Sonica is that it's not only providing opportunity to produce exciting and radical new work of the highest international standard, such as Claudia Molitor's opera Remember Me, but that equally the focus is on facilitating further performances of existing work that has perhaps only previously been given a single performance in the UK. Juste Janulyte's Sandglasses is an ideal example where this work has been performed and acclaimed throughout Europe - yet to date the only chance UK audiences have had to engage with the piece is a single performance at hcmf//”.

Sonica has been made possible through significant funding from Creative Scotland, The National Lottery through Creative Scotland and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive, Creative Scotland said: “Sonica promises to be another excellent programme from the team at Cryptic and a stylish addition to the Year of Creative Scotland”.

For more information please visit: http://sonic-a.co.uk/2012/ 


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