JANE GRANT, JOHN MATTHIAS & NICK RYAN
THE FRAGMENTED ORCHESTRA
WINS NEW MUSIC AWARD 2008
www.prsfoundation.co.uk/newmusicaward
Sound artist Jane Grant, musician and physicist John Matthias and BAFTA winning composer Nick Ryan win the PRS Foundation New Music Award 2008 of £50,000 for the realisation of The Fragmented Orchestra, a visionary new work which will enable us to hear the human brain at work and the sound of the UK as music. Grant, Matthias and Ryan have until September 2009 to create their award-winning new work and present it to the public.
“We are incredibly excited about winning this prestigious Award and turning our living instrument into a reality, which will happen in the 24 sites across the UK and at FACT in Liverpool, European City of Culture” Jane Grant, John Matthias and Nick Ryan.
Winner of the inaugural New Music Award 2005, Jem Finer presented Jane Grant, John Matthias and Nick Ryan with this prestigious and ground-breaking award for contemporary British music in front of an invited audience at Shoreditch Town Hall last night.
An esteemed panel of judges – that included Marcus Davey (Chief Executive, The Roundhouse), Jenny Abramsky (Director of BBC Audio and Music), Jem Finer (composer), Eric Nicoli (former-CEO, EMI Group), Nitin Sawhney (composer) and Errollyn Wallen (composer) – met beforehand to decide which of the six short-listed ideas should receive the New Music Award for the creation of an adventurous and challenging new musical work. Heralded as music’s equivalent to the Turner Prize, the New Music Award is also the most financially significant award for music in the UK.
“This is a truly intriguing musical adventure. These are outstanding creative musicians using technology to its fullest and exploring the sound of our own consciousness. It’s an exciting prospect that people all over the UK will be able to be involved in this unique score. It was a unanimous decision.” Marcus Davey, Chairman, New Music Award judges.
To watch a short film about The Fragmented Orchestra please visit the PRS Foundation website: www.prsfoundation.co.uk/newmusicaward
The Fragmented Orchestra is a pioneering composition that will mirror the function of the human brain and the way it processes sound. At the heart of this pioneering new work are 24 ‘neuron units’ placed across the UK in locations chosen for their inherent sonic rhythms. These will include a football stadium, cathedral, dairy farm, school playground, motorway crash barrier and a field. Each solar powered Soundbox contains an artificial neuron modeled on those which fire within the brain’s cortex and will be attached to a resonant surface. Inside these devices, the size of a video cassette, is a minute microphone, computer, Feonic FI drive and amplifier, which will capture the huge array of sounds made at each location.
As each of the ‘neurons’ are stimulated by sound, created by both the public and the elements, they will select audio fragments to be streamed across an invisible network or cortex created between them. Using cutting edge technology, this cortex will form a living instrument which communicates with itself and in turn its audience. The total composition is created through newly-developed software and constantly evolves as the micro-fragments of sound are heard as music.
The cortex of 24 fragmented audio channels will then flow to a central space at FACT, Liverpool. Visitors to FACT will be able to listen via 24 speakers to the collective sounds from each site and their interaction with each other, together with a map detailing all of their locations. This performance can also be heard at each of the 24 ‘neuron’ sites as the collective audio generated in Liverpool will be simultaneously streamed back to each of the remote units (enabling them to listen to how their activity is influencing the work) and will also be available to listen to online.
The Fragmented Orchestra has no precedents. It will create a constantly evolving piece of music that is orchestrated through the lens of a neuronal system. When playing, The Fragmented Orchestra will create a compelling piece of music, parallel to the processes of consciousness and the creation and perception of music itself.
The Fragmented Orchestra will be created by Jane Grant, John Matthias and Nick Ryan. Jane Grant is a visual artist working with film, sound, video and installation. She has exhibited widely in the UK and is currently Principal Investigator of an AHRC funded project, which merges the human voice and breath with neuronal firing patterns, to be shown at ArtSway in 2008. John Matthias is a musician and physicist. He has worked with many artists including Radiohead, Matthew Herbert and Coldcut and has performed extensively in Europe including at the Pompidou Centre, Paris. Nick Ryan is a composer, producer and sound designer. He won a BAFTA for his ground breaking interactive radio drama The Dark House, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and has composed extensively for film and television.
For further information please contact:
New Music Award:
Maija Handover / sound uk: 020 7375 0025 / maija@sounduk.net
www.sounduk.net
PRS Foundation for New Music:
Charlotte Ray / PRS Foundation: 020 7306 4233 / newmusicaward@prsfoundation.co.uk
www.prsfoundation.co.uk
Note to editors:
About the New Music Award: The New Music Award has already garnered high praise from MPs and opinion makers as well as huge support amongst a broad spectrum of artists and the media. Heralded as music’s equivalent to the Turner Prize, the New Music Award is the most financially significant award for music in the UK. It champions pioneering new music and provides a significant amount of money towards the creation of one adventurous and challenging new musical work – up to £50,000. Allowing total creative freedom, the Award is open to absolutely anyone, working in any genre and artistic context. A rare unrestricted creative opportunity, submissions are judged on artistic criteria. Rather than being retrospective, the award challenges the UK's creative music community to extend the boundaries of its work. The New Music Award hopes to ignite the imagination of the creative community and also dramatically raise the profile and level of debate around contemporary British music. This is not a cash prize for the winner but pays up to £50,000 towards the creation and performance of a new project. www.prsfoundation.co.uk/newmusicaward
Short films of the other short-listed projects for the New Music Award 2008 can be viewed at www.prsfoundation.co.uk/newmusicaward :
Adjustments – Netsayi Chigwendere
Carousel Commission - David Thomas, Eliza Carthy, Adam Bushell & Ed Baxter
Echolocation - Robert Jarvis
Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra - Shlomo and Anna Meredith
Pedal Tones - Django Bates
About the PRS Foundation for New Music:
The New Music Award is just one of the many initiatives of the PRS Foundation (PRSF) - the UK's largest independent funder dedicated to new music in any genre. Widely respected as a refreshingly approachable and adventurous funding body, the Foundation supports an amazing range of new music activity - from unsigned band showcases to composer residencies, from commissions for new music to experimental live electronica. The organisation has a unique remit to support all genres of new music across the whole of the UK. Since its launch in March 2000, it has successfully funded over 2500 imaginative new music initiatives to the tune of over £9.5 million. The PRS Foundation for New Music receives generous support from the membership and Board of the Performing Right Society Ltd (PRS). However, the Foundation is a registered charity and is independent in terms of its remit, governance, administration and branding. For more details visit: www.prsfoundation.co.uk
About the New Music Award judges:
Marcus Davey is Chief Executive of the Roundhouse, which opened in 2006 following a £30m refurbishment. He was previously a board member and Chairman of the PRS Foundation.
Jenny Abramsky is Director of BBC Audio & Music and a member of the BBC's Executive Board. She oversees BBC Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, Five Live and the BBC's digital radio stations 1Xtra, 6 Music, BBC 7, Five Live Sports Extra and the Asian Network. She is also responsible for the three BBC orchestras in England, the Proms, Classical Music Television, Popular Music Television and Radio Resources. In October 2008, she becomes Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Jem Finer is a British musician and composer and was one of the founding members of The Pogues. In 2000, Jem’s Longplayer piece of music was started; this is designed to last 1000 years without ever repeating itself. In 2005 Finer won the PRS Foundation’s New Music Award with Score for a Hole in the Ground.
Eric Nicoli joined EMI as a non-executive director in July 1993 after working at United Biscuits. He was appointed EMI Group Executive Chairman in 1999 before assuming the position of Chief Executive Officer, EMI Group in January 2007. He stepped down from this role in August 2007.
Nitin Sawhney. Firmly established as a world-class producer, songwriter, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, orchestral composer and cultural pioneer, Nitin Sawhney is widely regarded as one of the most influential and versatile creative talents working today.
Errollyn Wallen is as respected a singer-songwriter of pop influenced songs as she is a composer of contemporary new music. Born in Belize, she studied composition at universities of London and Cambridge.