British Electroacoustic Competition Call for Works Winners Announced!

In May we launched a call for works in order to find a selection of pieces to represent Great Britain at the forthcoming CIME General Assembly Meeting as a part of MUSICACOUSTICA-Hangzhou.

With a staggering 49 submissions, the four jurors (Diana Salazar, Adam Stanovic, James Andean, and Cameron Naylor) were blown away by the standard of work this year! It wasn’t easy deciding upon the three pieces to put forward this year, and invariably many good pieces didn’t make the shortlist, but on behalf of all four jurors would like to offer a huge congratulations to the three winners.

First Place: Irving Kinnersley – Estuary 2

Estuary 2 is a sonic exploration of place as a ‘heterogenous and multi-temporal present’ (Laurent Olivier). Constructed from field recordings, studio recordings, historic sound and synthesised materials, the piece is structured as an episodic sequence of natural events and human interactions with the environment. The estuary shoreline of Bridgewater Bay formed by the vast geological processes of deep time and powerful tidal forces provides the liminal space where the narrative of the piece develops. The materiality of this environment in its destructive and more gentle manifestations is central to the composition, with the sound of rocks, pebbles, sand and waves forming much of the sonic texture of the piece. Human presence in this environment is seen as fragile and fleeting; footsteps, voices, morse code, rhythmic tapping and phone messaging, enigmatic sonic traces appear and disappear throughout the composition.

Irving Kinnersley is a composer based in Somerset, his work encompasses acousmatic composition, audio-visual work and sound for installations. Much of his recent work engages in a sonic exploration of the Somerset Levels and the coastline of Bridgewater Bay.

He studied literature at London University and University of Kent and electroacoustic music at Bath Spa University and the University of Manchester. His work has been performed internationally at numerous festivals and has been awarded at the KLANG International Electroacoustic Competition and MUSICA NOVA international Electroacoustic Competition.

Listen to Estuary 2 below.

Irving Kinnersley’s work can be found at https://irvingkinnersley.com/

Second Place: Enrico Dorigatti – Morphogenesis

Morphogenesis is an acousmatic composition named after the homonym biological process through which a complex living organism is shaped through the cooperative efforts of several simpler entities. Morphogenesis highlights simultaneously the macrostructure and the small, elementary sonic entities shaping it. The composition of the piece relied on an original library of field recordings; the sonic affordances of the sounds included guided the development of both the sound design and compositional processes and, consequently, the evolution of the piece itself.

Enrico Dorigatti is an experimental sound artist, composer, and creative technologist working across diverse formats such as audiovisual, music composition, and generative and interactive sound art. Formerly a conservatory graduate (BA and MA in electroacoustic music composition), he is currently a doctoral candidate in creative technologies at the University of Portsmouth (UK). His artistic and scholarly output has been presented internationally.

Listen to Morphogenesis below.

Enrico Dorrigatti’s work can be found at https://www.enricodorigatti.com/

Third Place: Marty Fisk – Metrograde

Metrograde explores the impact of cars on the urban soundscape, without allowing the audience to hear them directly.

This audiovisual work utilises Spectral Compression to obscure one sound-world with another; with the spectral content of motor vehicles passing through space acting as a control source, tearing distorted lines through the music which surrounds the listener.

Marty Fisk is a composer, performer and visual artist, originally from Gloucester. He is currently undertaking a PhD in electroacoustic composition with BEAST at the University of Birmingham. His research interests focus on exploring the dynamics between performer, audience, and sound: realised through fixed and live multichannel works, novel sound interfacing technologies, and excessive use of distortion.

Marty Fisk’s email is available upon request.