Tom Richards is an artist, instrument designer, musician and DJ based in London UK. He is know for creating graphic scores with an instrument called the mini Oramics machine – an early synthesiser designed by electronic pioneer Daphne Oram.
Sarah Angliss is a composer, performer, sound historian and robotic artist.
Sarah’s work reflects her lifelong fascination with electronics, ancient music, faded variety acts and machines. Though her music, performance and writing, she explores the uncanny properties of technology, revealing resonances between European folklore and early notions of electricity and sound.
A prolific live musician, Sarah’s known for her skills and augmented techniques on theremin, an instrument she combines live with Max, vocals, recorder, saw, keyboard and her many found sounds and field recordings. On stage, she’s often accompanied by musical automata – machines she’s been devising and building since 2005 to give her performance an arresting and uncanny physical presence.
In April 2017, Sarah released her solo album Ealing Feeder – a work The Wire Magazine described as ‘a subtle gem’. She’s currently composing Giant, an electroacoustic chamber opera exploring the life, death and contentious afterlife of Charles Byrne (working with librettist Ross Sutherland and director Sarah Fahie). Giant is supported by Aldeburgh Music and funded by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.
Sarah also works in theatre, creating distinctive sounds which blur the boundaries between sound design and musical composition. She’s recently been working as composer and sound designer at Park Avenue Armory, New York, for a production of Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape (directed by Richard Jones – a transfer from The Old Vic, London). She’s currently working on a new production at The Almeida Theatre and has recently been sound designer on Hart and Kaufman’s 1930 play Once in a Lifetime(for The Young Vic, directed by Richard Jones).
Sarah’s sounds have been sampled extensively by Moon Wiring Club on his album Today Bread Tomorrow Secrets. Three of her own tracks featured on his summery compilation Down to the Silver Sea. Her occassional trio Spacedog have collaborated with Belbury Poly on Message and Method, a single in the acclaimed Ghostbox Study Series.
Based in London, Sarah is a resident artist at the former Limehouse Town Hall and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Sound Practice Research Unit, Goldsmiths. She’s recently been contributing to the EPSRC-funded research project Being There. Hosted by the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol, this is a practical exploration of humans and robots in public spaces.
Bristol New Music is a consortium of five key organisations in Bristol (Colston Hall, Arnolfini, Spike Island, St George’s Bristol and the University of Bristol) dedicated to bringing the very best international new music to the city, while working to create opportunities for emerging regional artists.
The consortium present a biennial festival of new and experimental music in venues and spaces across the city. The first festival took place in February 2014 and showcased artists including Quatuor Bozzini, Canada’s leading new music string quartet, Ensemble musikFabrik, composer and saxophonist John Butcher, soundscape artist Cevdet Erek, electronic artists Klavikon, Roly Porter and Addison Groove and the Christian Wallrumrød Ensemble.
In 2016 the festival returned for it’s second instalment in May with a fascinating installation in Colston Hall’s cellars titled Requiem for 114 Radios by artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard alongside performances from contemporary music artists, Max Richter and Kronos Quartet. Bristol composer/producer Vessel teamed up with Liverpool’s Immix Ensemble to present the live A/V incarnation of their 2016 Erased Tapes collaboration Transition and new commisions were performed by John Bence and Arve Henriksen at St George’s Bristol.
In 2018 the festival continued its growing reputation of fearlessly exhibiting and exploring new realms in sound with a programme including Charles Hazlewood with Army of Generals and members of The British Paraorchestra performing Steve Reich’s The Four Sections across the four levels of Colston Hall’s foyer, electronic artist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith performing in the IMAX cinema at Bristol Aquarium, and Sarah Angliss’ unsettling electronic composition at St Geroge’s Bristol with Aether Music and Oramics, to name a few.
