Sound Junction Main Programme

Sound Junction - for all venue information and ticketing

Sound Junction, Friday 31 March 2023

19:30 - As part of a week of new music Sound Junction continues with a twist on the regular Sound Junction format. In addition to the usual fare, we’ll exploring the wealth of artists who use samples and pre-recorded audio with some special live performances. Venue: Firth Hall

Three local sound artists will be performing live with found sounds, live manipulation, synthesis, field recordings and fixed media.

• Lorenzo Prati: amplified Arts Tower instrument, field recordings
• Ross Davidson: Objects, Synths
• Hervé Perez: Improvisation with field recordings

Sound Junction, Saturday 01 April 2023

19:30 - As part of a week of new music Sound Junction continues with a twist on the regular Sound Junction format. In addition to the usual fare, we’ll exploring the wealth of artists who use samples and pre-recorded audio with some special live performances. Venue: Firth Hall

Saturday will see a performance from UK based artist, composer and musician Bredbeddle, aka, Rebecca Lee. Rebecca uses found sounds, recordings and loops to create sonic collages. 

Bredbeddle on SoundCloud

Sound Junction, Saturday 06 May 2023 - Martyn Ware/BEF presents...Music for Total 3D Sonic Immersion

The constantly-evolving relationship between humans and technology is the inspiration for this event’s triptych of works curated and performed by Martyn Ware (Heaven 17) and some special guests. The performances will feature a unique three-dimensional sound array configured especially for this concert – this allows for different elements of the compositions to be distributed around the auditorium in a multitude of three dimensional soundstreams.

Featuring guest stars The Utopia Strong and Richard Norris (The Grid) with many surprise guests

N.b. Venue: Octagon Centre.

Sound Junction, Saturday 10th December 2022

Tickets (£5 per concert) available here

Concert 1: 18:30 - 19:30 featuring USSS composers, alumni and special guest Brona Martin

• If Only I Could Get In The Habit Of It - Ross Davidson
• Tick Crock - Yuqi Zhou 
• Grains of Temporality - Berk Yağlı
• Ephemerality - Henry Eady 
• Breaking the Chains - Brona Martin
• Young Sirs - Mario Cáceres
• Myself - Mario Cáceres

CD launch: 19:45 Adam Stanović launches his new CD Hymnes sans paroles (Chancellors Room) 

Installation: 14:00 - 22:00 Lorenzo Prati presents his Arts Tower site-specific mixed-media piece, Melting Buildings, 2022 (Council Room)

Concert 2: 20:30 - 21:30 featuring USSS composers, alumni and special guest Brona Martin

• Béton Brut - Matt Pinker
• thalassophile - Aikaterini Ilia
• Helix - Adam Stanović
• Parque Urbano El Bosque to Curiñanco Beach - Brona Martin
• Margaret’s Story - Brona Martin

Sound Junction, Friday 31st March, Saturday 1st April 2023

Sound Junction, Saturday 6th May 2023

feat. very special guest. 

Sound Junction, Thursday - Friday 12/13 May 2022

Sound Junction May2022

Foyer Installation: An Artist at Work

A portrait of artist Alison Churchill and how the waters of Sheffield drive her work. Keshia Saunders (Director); Music and Sound (Richard McCormick); Cinematography (Harry Moore); 

Thursday 12th May 5:30 - 6:30 - USSS composers on the MA composition

Thursday 12th May 7:30 - 9:30 - with special guest Jason Sharp

Friday 13th May 5:30 - 6:30 - with special guest Alistair MacDonald 

Friday 13th May 7:30 - 9:30 - with special guest Jonty Harrison

Tickets here. (n.b. weekend pass should read festival pass)

Jason Sharp: The Turning Centre Of A Still World

Montréal saxophonist and electroacoustic composer Jason Sharp presents his third album. The Turning Centre Of A Still World is Sharp’s first purely solo record and his most lucid, poignant, integral work to date. Following two acclaimed albums composed around particular collaborators and guest players, Sharp conceived his third as an interplay strictly bounded by his own body, his acoustic instrument, and his evolving bespoke electronic system. The Turning Centre... is a singular sonic exploration of human-machine calibration, interaction, expression and biofeedback. Using saxophones, foot-controlled bass pedals, and his own pulse – patched through a heart monitor routed to variegated signal paths that trigger modular synthesizers and samplers – Sharp paints with organic waves of glistening synthesis, pink noise and digitalia. Melodic strokes and harmonic shapes ripple and crest across ever-shifting seas, through an inclement cycle from dawn to dusk. The album’s six main movements navigate a world where placid surfaces are always roiled and disquieted by a deeper inexorable gyre: the gravitational pull and tidal perpetuity of our bodies made of water, buffeted by terrestrial atmospheric pressures, wrung out by emotions, coursing with blood, sustained by breath, inescapably yearning for and returning to ground again and again. Sharp’s heartbeat literally courses through these compositions – while only occasionally surfacing as a clearly audible pulse or rhythm, it physically feeds into a spectrum of generative synthetic processes that help constitute and conduct the music.

Sound Junction, Friday - Saturday 26/27 November 2021

Sound Junction returns to Firth Hall with their 32 channel immersive sound system. In addition to premieres of works by USSS students and staff we will present multimedia works and music for clarinet and computer featuring Sarah Watts.  

The concert on Saturday 27th will celebrate the work of Adam Stanović, an incredible composer who has been with USSS for a decade of music making. 

Friday 26th November 5pm:

Adrian Moore demonstrates the fractured acousmatic using his new work Routes.

Friday 26th November 7:30pm: USSS composers & Sarah Watts 

We are delighted to welcome Clarinet virtuoso Sarah Watts to Sound Junction. Sarah is at the forefront of contemporary clarinet performance and tonight she gives two pieces written especially for her. Please visit http://www.sarahkwatts.co.uk/home/index.html for more information about Sarah’s work.

Wayne Siegel 

• Salamander (2020) - 11:14, Bass clarinet and fixed media (preview a version for baritone saxophone here) 

Sungji Hong

• Ekvallein (2021) - 09:30, Bass clarinet and fixed media (preview here) 

interval (with pop-up bar) - (technical changes)

University of Sheffield Sound Studios presents three composers that have become part of the central team of artists working in and around the Sheffield region. Mario Cáceres is currently pursuing doctoral studies at Sheffield with Adam Stanović. Julia Schauerman completed numerous multi-media collaborative projects during her studies. Chris is completing his doctoral studies: his research has won numerous prizes. Together Mario, Julia and Chris present a contrasting sequence of works.  

Julia Schauerman

• Buzzing City (2021) - 5:34, fixed media (preview here)
• Peat Song (2021) - 5:28, audio-visual

Chris Bevan

• Ceramos (2017) - 13:15, fixed media (preview here)

Mario Cáceres

• Bricks and sticks (2021), - 6:10, stereo fixed media
• None of this is my fault (2021) - 3:50, stereo fixed media

Saturday 27th November 7:30pm: USSS composers & Adam Stanović

After a decade at USSS Adam Stanović is moving to direct the studios at the University of the Arts, London. Adam has driven Sound Junction towards bolder, more dramatic and more diverse programmes. His prize-winning musical works push boundaries and continue to define and reaffirm the tradition of acousmatic music composition and sound diffusion. In a celebratory concert, Adam will diffuse three works by graduating USSS Master's composers before presenting his own works.   

Zhaoxin Jin

• COVID-19 (2021) - 7:00, stereo fixed media

Haocheng Qu

• Deep Forest (2021) - 8:00, stereo fixed media

Berk Yagli

• A Hybrid Mind (2021) - 15:23, stereo fixed media

interval (with pop-up bar)

Adam Stanović

• Foundry Flux (2015) - 12:13, stereo fixed media
• Inja (2018) - 10:16, stereo fixed media
• Goodnight, Tin Hau (2021) - 25:00, stereo fixed media 

If you are interested in acousmatic music, sound diffusion and music technology at The University of Sheffield please get in touch with Adrian Moore (a.j.moore@shef.ac.uk) and please do come along to our after-party and say hello. 

Sound Junction, Friday April 30th, 2021

Sound Junction remains online in April (but watch out for our November 'live' event, currently slated for 26,27 November). For our April event we are delighted to present new work from USSS, and welcome two very special guests who will curate a short programme of their music. João Pedro Oliveira and Elainie Lillios will join us as they present new music for computer, instruments and video. 

Sound Junction special guests April 30

Elainie Lillios	João Pedro Oliveira

Sound Junction November 21st, 2020 (link to concerts pages for sign up and free ticket)

Five World Premieres - join the Facebook page

Sound Junction uses a purpose-built, multi-speaker sound system and darkness to create the ideal listening conditions (just not tonight :). Surrounded by strange yet familiar sounds, this setting gives your mind the space and your imagination the freedom to take you on a personal journey through 3D soundscapes familiar and new.

We are delighted to welcome music from two special guests, Professor Dale Perkins who has drawn from his beginnings as a visual artist and classical musician to create a hybrid music that resides at the vanguard of computer music, Rick Nance; an acousmatic composer and a free improvisation trumpet and guitar player. We are also thrilled to welcome back Louise Rossiter, with her incredible project creating a sonic journey through Fritz Kahn’s pioneering infographics of the human body. Also including pieces from the University of Sheffield Sound Studios composers, Julia Schauerman and Mario Caceres. Please do join us in the chat room after the concert for a quick Q+A. 

Rick Nance - Tearing up (8:33, 2020, Stereo) - WP new version Julia Schauerman -  MetalWorks (14:17, 2020, stereo) - WP Louise Rossiter - The Iris-Key (8:45, 2020, stereo) - WP Mario Caceres - Muddle (9:44, 2020, stereo) - WP Dale Perkins - Equipoise (parts 1- 3, 18:14, 2020, AudioVisual) - WP  RoundTable Q+A online with composers

Sound Junction November 14th, 2020 (link to concerts pages for sign up and ticketing information)

A live streamed concert featuring the best of live-coding and electroacoustic composition. Starting at 7.30, expect an evening of sound both immersive and frenetic – as performers explore the possibilities in live coded music, and acousmatic composition. We’re especially excited for some binaural live performances from our live-coders – so you’ll be able to experience 3D binaural effects at home. Binaural sound is a way of creating the illusion of 3D sound through stereo audio – it’s a strange but immersive experience, and can be achieved through any pair of headphones. Right now, that might be the closest you get to the real thing, and it should be a lot of fun!

Estimated schedule:

7.30pm to 8.30pm – Live-coded performances from Alex McLean, Gerard Roma and Anna Xambo

8.30pm to 9pm – Discussion of the potential of binaural effects in live coding and a Q & A (access link will be sent out to the audience).

9pm to 9.40pm – Acousmatic pieces from Sound Junction friends and University of Sheffield Sound Studios followed by a preview of the forthcoming concert on the 21st November with Rick Nance, Dale Perkins and Louise Rossiter.

Che Gorka: Octopus: (11:26, 2020, Binaural Mix for headphone listening) Ruaridh Summers: SBADOA - Startled By A Display Of Affection (5:48, 2020, Stereo) Anna Wilson: Ice Organ (5:45 – 2020, Audio-visual) The performances will be followed by a short zoom recording featuring Rick Nance, Dale Perkins and Louise Rossiter in conversation with Adrian Moore and Adam Stanović.

Sound Junction Online April 2020: Thank you to all that tuned in - full event video available. 

After a very successful Sound Junction live stream on Friday 17th at 19:30 GMT with a varied programme of works from the USSS stable, we are delighted to present the concert in its entirety at the following link 

Saturday 4th April 2020

Concert 3: 17:00 USSS

• Julia Schauerman - Take Flight (2020)
• Mario Cáceres – Vanishing (2020)
• Adrian Moore - Audiogentry (2019)

Concert 4: 19:00 with special guest Thierry Miroglio (percussion and electronics).

• Benoît Granier - Imaginem Mundi Per Orbern Sonus Saturatiorbis (Percussion and electronics)
• Tom Williams - A Shadow that Falls (unpitched percussion and fixed media)
• Adam Stanovic - Exchanges of Pace (Electronics and vibraphone)

----------------interval---------------

• Sam Hayden - Le Retour à la Raison (Percussion and live electronics with film by Man Ray)
• Paulo C. Chagas - Sisyphus of the Ear (Percussion, Film and electronics: Film by Johannes Birringer)

(Thierry MIROGLIO, solo Percussion)

Coronavirus thinking as of 04.03.2020. Current thinking from government and TUoS Concerts is that with due care and attention this event is going ahead. However, the situation is clearly volatile. 

Tickets and Pricing

For tickets and pricing visit http://concerts.sheffield.ac.uk/ 

Accommodation

For accommodation information in Sheffield visit  http://www.welcometosheffield.co.uk/visit/stay

What to expect at Sound Junction April 2020

All being well Sound Junction is set to run in April 2020. Electroacoustic Music events are probably never considered as 'mass gatherings' so unless you hear otherwise, we look forward to welcoming you to Sheffield. Diversity is our key driver for this festival and our final concert features the incredible Thierry Miroglio performing on a battery of percussion. Each work is for different forces, both electronic and percussive, and there are video accompaniments to two of the works. Our 5pm concerts on both days are exclusively for local talent (both new and established). For those new to these events, students start working in stereo (2 channel) and produce pieces that are easily consumed over a pair of loudspeakers or headphones. They craft sounds over time and this creates spaces new and / or familiar and takes the listener on a journey of sorts. Therefore in order to do full justice to the physicality of their creations we perform works in concert over 32 loudspeakers that allow for a fully immersive experience. If a sound 'sounds distant' it can be placed in the distance; if a sound is meant to fly overhead it can be placed in loudspeakers above the audience. In many respects this practice of sound diffusion is very much like lighting diffusion. One can spotlight sound and create a wash or flood of sound. The practice demands rehearsal and therefore forms a critical part of the education and development of student composers.

We are very fortunate in Sheffield to be well located to other centres of excellence in electroacoustic music. Our 7pm concert on Friday sees a welcome return of composers from Leeds and Leicester that have come to Sound Junction in the past and enjoyed performing and socialising with our group. Louise Rossiter was a special guest back in November and she performed a series of pieces inspired by the infographics of Fritz Kahn. We didn't get to sample her last work in this series but we do now. This work brings pulse to the foreground and is a really spirited addition to the set. Rick Nance's 'Tearing up' encourages us to focus in on the detail of his excellent sound recordings and careful editing. Dale Perkins' music is often quite bold in his use of pulse. 'Equipoise' is no doubt going to rock the room. 

Adrian Moore and Adam Stanovic present recent works from USSS community projects. Over the past two years, USSS composers have taken field recording trips to places of cultural significance. Soundscape recordings have been crafted into new works that act as musical commentaries on place, space, culture and society. The opportunity to develop this practice will hopefully see USSS working with the National Forest and other regional initiatives in the coming months. In a climate of massive change, the ability to record, reflect, listen, remember and learn is a stimulus for artists to create and a golden opportunity to share our auditory experiences. 

Sound Junction 1 - November 2019

Friday 22nd November 2019

17:00 Composers working in University of Sheffield Sound Studios

• Chris Bevan: Salten Drift 
• James Surgenor: Terra Forma
• Che Gorka: Kick
• Julia Schauerman: Ariel Dreams
• Mario Caceres: Lead a Pony
• Ben Felstead: The Origin of Our Species
• Isaac Baggaley: Desert Honey

18:15 CD Launch: Join us for a complimentary glass of wine as Louise Rossiter launches her new CD which features works exploring silence, soundscape, and the first three works of the Music – Bodies – Machines project, based on the infographics of Fritz Kahn. The latest work, Neuronen, comparing the nervous system (impulse and reflex responses) of the human body to the mechanisms of a doorbell, will be a world premiere at Sound Junction.

19:00 USSS + Special guest: Louise Rossiter (listen here). 

• Louise Rossiter: Homo Machina
• Adrian Moore: Audiogentry
• Louise Rossiter: Fairytale Journey

Short interval

• Adam Stanović: Baltazar's Adventure through the Great Machine
• Louise Rossiter: Neuronen (Premiere)

Louise writes:

"The visual crossover between industrialisation and science in Fritz Kahn's artwork demonstrates the means by which human nature became culturally encoded by placing the knowledge of the human anatomy within the context of the modern, industrial world. Kahn produced lots of illustrations that drew a direct functional analogy between human physiology and the operation of modern technologies of the times. Therefore, by illustrating the body as a factory, Kahn was able to relate the body’s complex organic interior to the industrialised space so common in society during the 1920’s."

"Neuronen is the fourth work completed as part of the Der Industriepalast suite – a collection of works based on the infographics of Fritz Kahn. In July 2019, I was invited to present a seminar based on my research at the University of Sheffield, and was challenged to document exactly happens when I respond to Fritz Kahn's infographics in my acousmatic compositions.

This piece was composed in direct response to this challenge and intends to directly describe aurally, over 9:33, what happens in a split second, and and is repeated millions of times a day in the human body. It attempts to achieve through sound, what Fritz Kahn’s infographics do visually - that is, the understanding, or at least, some comprehension of an extremely complicated process." (Louise Rossiter)

Saturday 23rd November 2019

13:00 Special guest Dimitris Savva: Moments of Liberty (complete) - listen here

• Moments of Liberty 1: Outside & Insight
• Moments of Liberty 2: Falling Within
• Moments of Liberty 3: Standing Without
• Moments of Liberty 4: Towards the Sea

This concert will last approximately 1 hour.

17:00 USSS

1. Matt Pinker: Dusk
2. Lorenzo Prati: Acqua Calda
3. Ross Davidson: Industry
4. Adam Stanović: Would be to Seek
5. Adrian Moore: Nebula Sequence

19:00 Special guests: Andreas Weixler and Se-Lien Chuang (piano and electronics) - see their concert link

• Andreas Weixler: Wetterleuchten
• Se-Lien Chuang: ec-lipse
• Andreas Weixler: for Pi
• Se-Lien Chuang: VICC_Variations
• Se-Lien Chuang: for IO

Interval

• Weixler/Chuang: Die Rache der Normalbegabten (Piano and live electronics)
• Andreas Weixler: Broken Bowls - talk
• Se-Lien Chuang: gula huset
• Andreas Weixler: Water Ghosts