After two years of extraordinary and mind-expanding work, Evolver premieres tomorrow at Tribeca Festival in New York, where it is then open for a week. Tickets and further information can be found here. It is a genuinely extraordinary piece, and it has been a great privilege working with Marshmallow Laser Feast, Henrik Oppermann, Daisy Lafarge and Natan Sinigaglia / Imaginary Friends on this journey.
Event: City of Trees
City of Trees by Matthew Rosier is now open, and runs from 5–11pm November 4–10 2021 outside St Mary Aldermary Church in the City of London, England.
”The project seeks to raise awareness of the symbiotic relationship that has always existed between humans and forests in England. Its opening will coincide with COP26 in Glasgow in order to highlight the value of productive, truly sustainable and biodiverse forestry in addressing climate change and restoring our woodland habitat.”
The work features life-size video portraits of Oak, Beech and Hornbeam pollards from Epping Forest projected into the heart of the City, accompanied by spatial soundscapes that I have composed alongside musicians NYX (https://nyx-edc.com/) and Laura Misch (https://lauramisch.bandcamp.com/).
A commission from the City of London Corporation. Further information including a visitor guide here.
Recording session for City of Trees with Nyx and Laura Misch. Photograph: Gregory White (August 2021).
Talk: Enhancing searchability – archiving practice research
I’ll be a panellist at the following discussion surrounding the sharing and preservation of practice research, hosted by the UK Reproducibility Network on Monday 15 November 2021. Link here: https://www.ukrn.org/event/enhancing-searchability/
Here is an outline of what the workshop will be about:
This workshop will deal with some of the challenges and issues involved with documenting and archiving practice research. Some of the questions this panel will aim to address include:
- How can we ensure that practice research is fully searchable and visible in the public domain?
- Are university repositories able to host the research findings of practice research projects run within, or in collaboration with, universities in the UK?
- What kinds of practices can we design and share that allow for the most effective and efficient means of sharing the research findings of work in this area?
- How do we consider the ways in which disciplinary differences warrant different considerations in devising systems (technological or otherwise) for archiving and disseminating practice research?
PanellistsChair: Professor Mark d’Inverno, Goldsmiths, University of London
Professor Oriana Baddeley, Former Dead of Research, University of the Arts London
Dr Lauren Redhead, Senion Lecturer in Music, Goldsmiths, University of London
Professor Bambo Syinka, Professor of Story, Bath Spa University
Dr Scott McLaughlin, Lecturer in Composition and Music Technology, Leeds University
Dr James Bulley, artist and composer, co-author of Bulley-Şahin reports on practice research for Research England (2021)
Interview: 'Still Point' on Relevant Tones
A recent interview with podcast Relevant Tones, where Shiva Feshareki and I discuss the research and work that went into the 2018 world premiere of Daphne Oram’s Still Point at the BBC Proms, is now accessible online here. Thank you to composer and broadcaster Seth Boustead for this.
'Sonic Ray' by Jem Finer
Last night I attended a launch for Jem Finer’s Sonic Ray — it is a mesmerising thing to see a laser beam of sound traversing the river Thames, journeying back and forth across darkened waters beneath it. The work opens to the public from 30 September–21 November 2021 and you can book tickets here.
Sonic Ray – a new installation produced by Artangel, celebrating the 1,000 year-long musical composition Longplayer, created by artist Jem Finer. Originally scheduled for 2020, Sonic Ray was commissioned to mark the 20th anniversary of Longplayer, which began playing from the lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf at midday on 31 December 1999 and will continue to play until 2,999 when it completes its cycle as the longest piece of music in history.
From the lighthouse, a bridge of light is beamed across the river to North Greenwich, encoding and transmitting the sound of Longplayer to a new temporary listening post aboard Richard Wilson’s nautical sculpture Slice of Reality. A short ferry ride will connect the two locations, allowing visitors to experience Longplayer as a bridge of light across the river at both locations.
Built in 1864 the lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf in East London was known as the “Experimental Lighthouse”, a landmark housing the workshop where Faraday conducted his optical tests. It has been the home of Longplayer for 21 years
Sonic Ray transmitting Longplayer from Trinity Buoy Wharf Lighthouse
The receiver at Richard Wilson’s Slice of Reality
Drawings by Jem finer in Richard Wilson’s Slice of Reality
BBC Radio 6 Music - Laura Misch Mix
Event: Pontefract Giants – Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire, 25–26 September 2021
The weekend of the Autumn Equinox (25-26 September 2021) will see the opening of a forthcoming film-sound installation, Pontefract Giants, created with Matthew Rosier and Daisy Lafarge at Pontefract Castle, Pontefract, West Yorkshire:
Pontefract Giants will transform the castle into an immersive landscape where the ancestors of past residents of Pontefract will greet you and transport you on an expansive and poetic journey through time from the first inhabitants of the area some 300,000 years ago.
Featuring projections of current residents representing the towns ancestors, an immersive soundscape and musical score, this light and sound show will allow you to appreciate the site and history of our town like never before.
(Pontefract Castle website)
More information and tickets here.
'A Thousand Fires' by Saeed Taji Farouky
I’ve recently finished the sound design for a new film, A Thousand Fires — by director Saeed Taji Farouky. It is a visceral, temporal portrayal of life in the Magway region of Myanmar — I have loved working with Saeed on it.
Here is a short excerpt from an article written by The Film Stage about the film following a viewing at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Marco Zucchi Award.
What makes A Thousand Fires stand out is Farouky’s ability to yoke the drama to the substance around which their lives gravitate. Underpinning the film is a Herzogian interest in the way oil drilling works, warts and all; time and again we watch Thein Shwe operate his makeshift derrick, scavenging for crude sixteen meters underground. In Farouky’s hands, the act itself acquires a certain nobility, a sacred beauty that’s amplified by Fatima Dunn’s score and Maxence Ciekawy and James Bulley’s sound design. Watching Thein Shwe pound the ground with his pole, I wondered if what I was looking at wasn’t a man digging, but plugging cables to a beating heart chugging somewhere below the Earth’s surface. Forsaking any vague, abstract statements on “the industry,” A Thousand Fires stays small, focusing instead on the connection between oil and the human body—the tactile, painful efforts to dig up the remnants of millions of years of sedimented histories. It’s a beguiling, epic journey.
More information will be available on the public release of A Thousand Fires soon.
'George III: The Man Behind the Myth' exhibition soundtrack at Kew Palace
Kew Palace, London
A recent composition project that has just seen the light of day is a four room spatial soundtrack for the top floors of the Kew Palace exhibition George III: The Mind Behind the Myth. The composition is based on George Frideric Handel’s Keyboard suite in D minor ( HWV 437), which was a favourite of King George III. The work for Kew Palace unfolds across four rooms, with the audience progressing through the composition as they move through the exhibition.
The exhibition overall is a reconsideration of the story of George III’s mental illness from a contemporary standpoint, and asks how much attitudes to mental health have changed over the last two centuries – or more importantly, how much they haven’t.
Tickets are available online here and the exhibition runs from 10th June to 26 September 2021.
Thank you to Simon Hendry and Gregory White for their work on the sound system design and installation of this piece. Further thanks to KEF UK.
'George III: The Man Behind the Myth' exhibition at Kew Palace
'Unseen Being' interview on Soho Radio with Kinda Studios
A recent interview with Robyn Landau and Katehrine Templar Lewis at Kinda Studios for their Soho Radio show Unseen Being, where we discuss sound, science, our bodies and space, also featuring the brilliant Dr. Yewande Pearse. Listen here.
A soundscape to celebrate the launch of BFTK#4
I’ve put together a soundscape to celebrate the launch of Bricks from the Kiln #4. It’s now streaming on Wax Radio.
Bricks from the Kiln #4 Launch
Featuring: A soundscape / broadcast / playlist, compiled by BFTK and mixed by artist and composer James Bulley, to (belatedly) accompany / announce the release of Bricks from the Kiln #4: On Translation, Transmission & Transposition.Fifty-four minutes of sounds, voices, readings and compositions from Hildegard of Bingen, Ursula K. Le Guin and Caroline Bergvall; through green hues of Hiroshi Yoshimura, Pink Floyd BBC sessions and Vangelis; to James Joyce and Hazel Felman in oral / aural translation, a 1960s Joy dishwashing liquid television commercial and Slapp Happy with Faust as a backing band.
BFTK#4 is edited by Natalie Ferris, Bryony Quinn, Matthew Stuart and Andrew Walsh-Lister, and published as event / publication, after programming in London, Chicago & Edinburgh. Printed in a green of ‘perpetual unrest’, it features contributions from: Helen Marten, Sophie Collins, Don Mee Choi, Kate Briggs, Phil Baber, Joyce Dixon, Florian Roithmayr, Jen Calleja, J.R. Carpenter, Edgar Wind, Rebecca Collins, Naomi Pearce, Karen Di Franco, James Bulley, Saki Mafundikwa, Natalie Ferris, Matthew Stuart, James Langdon, Bryony Quinn, Peter Nencini, Sophie Seita, Caroline Bergvall, Seb McLauchlan and Maria Fusco.
BFTK#4 is available to order at: www.b-f-t-k.info
Research: practice research in England – reports publication
Today marks the publication date, after nearly three years of work, of two reports, written as part of a collaborative post-doctorate with Dr Özden Şahin, on the subject of practice research in England, commissioned by the Practice Research Advisory Group UK (PRAG-UK) and funded by Research England. Published by PRAG-UK and the British Library.
The two Bulley-Şahin reports are published by the Practice Research Advisory Group UK (PRAG-UK) and are available Open Access here.
Writing in the foreword to What is practice research?, Steven Hill, Director of Research at Research England says: “Practice research is a new way of thinking about and engaging in research and so needs new structures and systems to maximise its impact within and outside the academy.”
He adds: “These reports are a seminal contribution that draws together current thinking relating to practice research in all its diversity. They provide consistent language to talk about practice research across multiple disciplinary contexts and clarify the challenges that need to be addressed to ensure the full potential of practice research. Notably, the reports span and provide linkages between the theoretical and practical.”
“This range is essential. If there are to be better tools for hosting and communicating practice research, they need to align with the ways practice researchers conceptualise their work.”
Practice research has a history stretching as far back as the earliest human experiments: practice is a method of discovering and sharing new findings about the world that surrounds us. In recent years, scholarly communication has undergone a series of changes that have led to a broadening of the landscape of academic research, due in part to the emergence of practice research in the academy. The formulation and dissemination of practice research affords an important opportunity for researchers in England across all research disciplines, offering a research field that conveys ways of knowing from practice, operating within, across and beyond disciplines in manners that go far beyond traditional research types. In practice research, forms of sensory, tacit and embodied knowledge can be conveyed, and its sharing presents an opportunity for the modernising and revitalising of research communication, uncovering novel dissemination routes in the digital era.
(from an article about the reports found here)
Bulley, James and Şahin, Özden. 2021. Practice Research - Report 1: What is practice research? and Report 2: How can practice research be shared?. Practice Research Advisory Group UK (PRAG-UK), London. https://doi.org/10.23636/1347
'Ayouni' Guardian Review
A 4 star review for ‘Ayouni’ in the Guardian Newspaper today, written by Peter Bradshaw.
It is good to see the film getting the recognition it deserves:
Director Yasmin Fedda, who is from a Palestinian and Syrian background and lectures in film at Queen Mary University of London, has created a powerful and urgent documentary tribute to those who have been “forcibly disappeared” by the Assad regime in Syria, estimated to be around 150,000 since 2011.
To watch Ayouni please see the official website to find the platforms it is available on: https://ayounifilm.com/watch
'Island' now available online
Island is now available to download via iTunes, Vimeo, Google Play and Amazon Prime Video
Across the water on the island, four individuals experience the year in which their lives will end. Illness progresses, relationships gently shift, and we are witness to rarely seen and intensely private moments. One person shares their acceptance of death, whilst another is surrounded by a community in shock. We observe bedside care and the rhythm of breathing. In a pathology lab, microscopic biopsies in close-up show the interior of bodies, our biology. Filmed over 12 months on the Isle of Wight, Island is a life-affirming reflection on the phenomena of dying, portraying the transition away from personhood and observing the last days and hours of life and the moment of death. Like the ferries cyclically arriving and departing in this an enigmatic landscape, the film appears buoyant, afloat. Death is shown to be natural and everyday but also unspeakable and strange.
★★★★★ – The Sunday Times
★★★★ – The Guardian
“Poetic; disarmingly intimate” – Sight & Sound
“Probes uncharted territory with great intelligence and sensitivity” – Little White Lies
'Ayouni' online launch
Ayouni is now available to watch worldwide at www.ayounifilm.com
It was a great privilege to compose the score and sound design for the film, directed by Yasmin Fedda..
At a time when the dictatorship in Syria is still in power, and its position is being normalised, it feels crucial to respond to the crimes that have been committed in its name, and in the wake of the destruction it has created across the country. Since 2011, government forces, and other armed groups, have forcibly disappeared at least 100,000 people – making them absent, silenced, invisible.
Families and friends of the disappeared still face the difficult tasks of finding answers. In this context, it is essential to build and preserve a portfolio of war crimes that can be used for accountability and for eventual justice. Ayouni is a small contribution to this effort, bringing intimate stories and realities in focus.
'Ness' by Adam Scovell
Recently released is Ness, directed by Adam Scovell with Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood. I loved doing the sound design and soundscore for Adam’s exploration of Orford Ness. The film features the haunted radiophonics of Drew Mulholland.
Orford Ness Lighthouse in 1942
Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1990)
Very pleased to announce that the fully digitised archive of Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1990) is now openly available online, with all articles and issues free to access in perpetuity: https://www.contactjournal.gold.ac.uk/ – a huge thanks to everyone involved in this three year long project, in particular to Dr Fiorenzo Palermo and Gregory White who did so much work on making this all possible.
Island on MUBI, 16 October 2019
Island directed by Steven Eastwood, which I composed the score and sound design for is now up on Mubi for the next 30 days. You can watch the film here: https://mubi.com/films/island-2017-steven-eastwood
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Photographic documentation from a recent trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Interview: dBs music
A recent interview with Chris Mackin at dBs music can be found here.