NTS Show

Our latest show is now online. Music, sounds and alternative realities from around the world and our very own doorstep.

http://ntslive.co.uk/?author=98

Ed Handley – The Cornish Ballad

We are extremely happy to announce that Ed Handley (Warp Records) will compose the music to The Cornish Ballad.

Ed is a pioneer in the story of electronic music, enriching the atmosphere of electronica as a former member of The Black Dog, under the guise of Balil and as one half of Plaid with Andy Turner.
Ed has collaborated with singers Mara Carlyle, Nicolette and Björk, and released records on the labels Planet E, Clear, Peacefrog, Black Dog Productions, Warp Records and Trent Reznor’s label Nothing Records, as well as extensive remix work for many other artists including Autechre, Björk, Goldfrapp, Reload, Grandmaster Flash and The London Sinfonietta.
In 2006 Plaid composed and performed the original score to Michael Arias’s anime film Tekkon Kinkreet, rejoining Arias for his second feature, Heaven’s Door.

The Cornish Ballad is an on-going exploration into 21st century music, indigenous knowledge systems and sonic docu-poems, following on from our last production Nord Rute and Ed’s collaboration with Javanese musician Ruhayu Supanggah and the Southbank Gamelan Players.

www.plaid.co.uk, www.scintilli.com

The Cornish Ballad

And so one journey ends and another begins. From the arctic tundra, Sámi reindeer herders, Shamans and underworlds to the people who inhabit the timeless county of Cornwall.

Paced over a period of 6 months, I will walk to communities drawing contributors from Cornwall’s diverse population, representing the many ways of living found in the county. We will navigate routes to ancient sites, down mines over Tors, along coastlines and across the sea sharing stories alluding to shifts of people, music, traditions, folklore, seasons and natural resources across the region. The walks will be documented using a Soundfield microphone which records in surround sound.

Combining field recordings, sound design and specially commissioned music score, a surround sound performance will take place at The Lost Gardens of Heligan followed by standalone installation at Cotehele House, Lizard Point Lighthouse and forest on Davidstow moor this summer.

Nord Rute on Deutschlandradio Kultur

The Compass Series’ production, Nord Rute, will be broadcast on Deutschlandradio Kultur December 23rd 2011 @ 00:05 German time.

http://www.dradio.de/dkultur/sendungen/klangkunst/1600480/

Nord Rute will be available as a CD release and download through Gruenrekorder February 2012.
www.gruenrekorder.de

Merry Christmas

The Wire Magazine review of Nord Rute @ Trinity Buoy Wharf

THE WIRE MAGAZINE

THE COMPASS SERIES – UNCHARTERED TERRITORY – INTO MAGAZINE MAY 2010

THE COMPASS SERIES – UNCHARTERED TERRITORY

The Compass Series presents: Nord Rute – Part 1 of the Valkeapää Narratives

“…their joyful, pounding electronica seems to fill the room with light and warmth. One piece is like a gaggle of music boxes bobbing on a tide of deep groove. The contrast with the gritty recordings of the hard work of herding is very satisfying”. Clive Bell, The Wire.

‘Nord Rute’, is the first of four ambisonic projects, inspired by the literary works of Norwegian, Sámi poet, painter and musician Nils Aslak Valkeapää. The 60 minute narrative focuses on Valkeapää’s book ‘The Sun, My Father’, which takes the Norwegian Sámi as its central theme. It is a collaboration between field recordist Ross Adams, electronic music composers Ed Handley and Andy Turner, the Sámi poets Synnøve Persen and Ánde Somby, with Joiking and drumming by Ingor Antte Ailu Gaup.

The Sámi are the only ethnic group in the European Union classified as an indigenous people. They are a minority that inhabit four countries – Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia and have their own language and culture, which has thrived due to their ability to adapt to changing social and geographical environments over the centuries. Music and art have emerged as influential tools in the process of maintaining community and identity.

Part docu-poem, part music score, part folk tale and part sound montage, Nord Rute captures the events of a reindeer migration to their spring birthing pastures on the shores of Porsangerfjord, northern Norway.  In 2008 Adams travelled 450 kilometres across vast plateaus, through valleys and over frozen lakes with Klemet Amund Eira and his ‘siida’ – a collective of Sámi herding families – and 6000 reindeer. Klemet’s family have been travelling with the reindeer from time immemorial. Using a Soundfield  microphone, Adams recorded the age old journey together with mountain recordings of Ingor Antte Ailu Gaup Joiking – an improvisational expression of self and nature intended to translate the ‘essence’ of a person or place into song – and his contemplations on the Noaide (Sámi Shaman). Amidst the dense, gritty field recordings and sound design, poet Ánde Somby travels between city soundscapes, tundra and underworld offering thoughts on his connection to the tundra, Sámi culture, dreamtime, the gift of the reindeer from the ‘underground people’ and what the hunted animal has to say to the hunter.

Incorporated into the narrative is an interpretation of Valkeapää’s poem ‘No.272’, from ‘The Sun, My Father’, with spoken word by Synnøve Persen and processed Mbira performed by Adams. Synnøve was recorded in woods near her homeplace in Porsanger. Poem No.272 is about a reindeer herd on the move examining the Sámis’ complex terms for describing reindeer and sounds of the arctic tundra.

Nord Rute was performed live through a 12 speaker ambisonic array at the 2010 Barents Spektakel Festival in Norway and the Compass Series event at Trinity Buoy Wharf’s Chainstore.

Nord Rute will be released on Gruenrekorder in 2011. (www.gruenrekorder.de)

Album Info

Recorded on location in London and northern Norway between Karasjok and Porsangerfjord 2008.

Equipment:

Sonosax SX-R4 Digital Recorder

Soundfield ST350

DPA 4060 (spaced pair)

DPA 8011 Hydrophone

© The Compass series 2011. Straying Maps The Path…