Featuring performances and fixed media works by current UG and PG students at the University of Glasgow, including Matthew Anderson, Abby Carter, Maria Mulvenna, Seyoung Oh and Sam Lou Talbot.
Programme:
Life in a Pendulum Motion – Seyoung Oh
Voices and Stuff – Maria Mulvenna
BODIES – Abby Carter
Netherton Braes Soundscape – Matthew Anderson
Blue Valentine – Sam Lou Talbot
Programme Notes:
Seyoung Oh – Life in a pendulum motion for solo cello and tape.
Cello – Rebekah Lesan
This piece was my final dissertation project and I composed in order to ‘bridge’ the sound of tape part and the cello as a challenge to the conceptual division between ‘music’ and ‘sound’ I had. I focused on the timbre of recorded sounds and cello in which guided me to compose the piece in search for creating timbral similarity between the two parts. The piece develops through the internal timbral evolution of sound materials.
The piece can be viewed as a motion of pendulum – continuum between noise and sound – section with sharp, metallic, grainy timbres morphs into soft, delicate section. Also, the section of active, forward moving movement swings to the static, meditative section. The piece swings between the two end poles like we constantly search for the balance between the two – being tensed and relaxed, sad and happy, fast and slow etc.. – each day, month, and year.
Maria Mulvenna – Voices and Stuff:
Voices and Stuff was created to explore the increasing use of audio messages instead of, or in addition to, text messages or phone calls. It repurposes sent and received audio messages to create an audio-visual work representing the oddities of these brief snippets of people’s voices and environments. The visual element is comprised of a mixture of different audio visualisations and is inspired by the social media platforms where these messages were originally exchanged. This is a light-hearted yet quite personal work, so I hope you enjoy!
Abby Carter – BODIES
BODIES is a film for two screens* based on a series of ten interviews with women and non-binary people, each of whom have a connection to open water.
The voices you hear explore their relationships with bodies of open water while sounds and images from under and above the water surround you. The film celebrates the water for all its beauty, mystery, multiplicity, and magic, and uses it as a platform for discussions about the body, identity, life, and death.
Content warning: discussion of mental ill-health, grief, and death.
*The film will be shown on one screen at GLEAM
Matthew Anderson – Netherton Braes Soundscape
Netherton Braes Soundscape is a gentle audiovisual exploration of the geography, nature, and history of Netherton Braes forest, and the ruins of Carnbooth Anti-Aircraft battery. Taking a walk through the area, it explores the history of the area from the bronze-age settlement to World War II bunkers, to a modern protected habitat.
Sam Lou Talbot – Blue Valentine
Music written and performed by Sam Lou Talbot. Directed, shot and edited by Simone Smith.
The official music video Blue Valentine is the result of a Glasgow-based, two women crew. English singer-songwriter, artist, and popular music academic, Sam Lou Talbot, wrote and performed the music, and Simone Smith, a BAFTA New Talent award winning filmmaker from Glasgow, directed and expanded the form into unseen territory. The intimacy of their working methods has led to a potent examination of the female psyche as a shifting terrain. The music video responds to contemporary materialities of popular music and journeying, as well as discourses in music video making as an ambiguous or “unruly aesthetic” (Vernalis, 2013, 2019).
The original song “Blue Valentine (String Reprise)”, feat. Glasgow-based Lithuanian composer, Rūta Vitkauskiatė on violin, is track 8 on Sam Lou Talbot’s latest album Body Down (Live) (2021) which is available to stream on all digital platforms. Recorded and mixed by Jamie Smith at St. Mary’s Space, Faslanoich. Remixed by Louise Harris. Mastered by Jake Garrett-Kavanagh.
Following its premiering at GLEAM Festival on 9 June 2022, Blue Valentine will be screening at 14 June, 2022, with an accompanying live dance and panel Q&A at CONNECT FEST! on 14/06 at 7pm at the Centre for Contemporary Art, CCA, Glasgow. Tickets are available via Eventbrite. The video will then be available to view online.
Twitter: @talbot_sl
Instagram: @samloutalbotmusic
Twitter: @vjsimone
Instagram: @simone-moon_girl