Listen Club
Location
The Rose Hill
70-71 Rose Hill Terrace
Brighton
BN1 4JJ
Date & time
Monthly on Wednesday evenings from 19:00-20:30
Upcoming Listen Club dates in 2024:
October 30
please book a ticket here!
Listen Club #16: Deep Listening to the Unheard
26/09/2024
| Neolithic Cannibals Clip 1 (2024) | Neolithic Cannibals | 4:22 |
| Cave of Shells (2016) | John Kenny | 2:13 |
| Stone Tape (1972) | Nigel Kneale/BBC Radiophonic Workshop | 4:45 |
| Neolithic Cannibals Clip 2 (2024) | Neolithic Cannibals | 6:12 |
| In the Cave (2012) | Pepe Deluxe | 1:51 |
| Star Carr (2013) | Ben Elliot and Jon Hughes | 5:59 |
| Sound Marks (2024) | Rob St John / Rose Ferraby | 7:44 |
| Mycenae Alpha (1978) | Iannis Xenakis | 9:39 |
| Neolithic Cannibals Clip 3 (2024) | Neolithic Cannibals | 6:03 |
| Vision of Truth (1991) | Blake Baxter | 6:31 |
| The Landscape Listens (2022) | Caterina Barbieri | 8:07 |
Listen Club #15: Acoustic Light
10/07/2024
“We hear the rain not through silent falling water but in the many translations delivered by objects that the rain encounters” – D.G. Haskel
John Hull recorded in his cassette diary on blindness, that “…the steadily falling rain creates a continuity of acoustic experience” – [Hull, 1997]
Sound artist and researcher Julian Weaver auditions a range of works exploring rained and raining objects interspersed, for contrast, with their inverse.
We often listen to rain as it strikes the world around us, natural objects such as trees, plants, ground, water and also, but perhaps less so, the coverings we use for protection against it; umbrellas, bus stops, roofs, windows, tarmac. Rain then can be considered as an acoustic light that falls on us and the surrounding environment, describing it for any sensing life form.
| Talking Rain, Harangue I (1997) | Hildegard Westerkamp | |
| Hornwort (unreleased) (2005) | Lee Patterson | |
| re-rain (installation) (2016) | Kouichi Okamoto | |
| Minnaert Resonance Test (unreleased) (2018) | Julian Weaver | |
| Side A, Drip Music (1962) | George Brecht | |
| Photosynthesising Hornwort (2009) | Patrick Farmer | |
| Passau to Jochenstein Dam, A Sound Map of the Danube (2008) | Annea Lockwood | |
| The Noisiest Guys On The Planet (2019) | Jana Winderen | |
| #09 Guandu Nature Park, Taipei, Freshwater Organisms from Taiwan (2017) | Yannick Dauby | |
| L’Eau, Expériences musicales de Jean Dubuffet ou la Musique chauve (1961) | Jean Debuffet | |
| Shampoo, Fixed Air for Two Senses (2017) | Julian Weaver | |
| Pasvikdalen (2014) | Jana Winderen | |
| Suikinkutsu, Fieldwave, Vol. 2 (2021) | Eisuke Yanagisawa | |
| Leidenfrost effect, Dripping (2000) | Andreas Bick | |
| Dripping (2000) | Andreas Bick | |
| Holding My Breath in Imaginary Ponds, Endings (2016) | Kate Carr | |
| Fence in Rain, Snæfellsjökull, Iceland, Endings (2016) | Kate Carr | |
Julian Weaver is an artist and researcher who works primarily with sound. His work is currently focussed on matter, substance and sensing in scientific and ecological imaginaries and fictions.
He is also director of Finetuned, a company focusing on interdisciplinary research and curated projects that also provides consultative and technical services to artists and galleries, universities and industry. https://www.hypo.io
Listen Club #14
12/06/2024
For centuries music was either composed on paper or with an instrument, and in order to be heard, it had to be performed. But the authors of these pieces neither wrote nor played them; they are all meticulously composed, but performance always precedes composition. Plunderphonic works are often performed by people who are dead, would have refused to have anything to do with one another or never met and never will; you could call it a kind of zombie music – in short, impossible. Yet, it’s so common now you can’t escape it.
Listen Club #14 presents some of its milestones, traces the dialectic between art and pop that has driven it from the start and follows it out into the the zone where those distinctions cease to signify.
| Ommagio a Jerry Lee Lewis (1975) | Richard Trythall | 6:38 |
| Beyond the Valley of A Day in the Life (1977) | The Residents | 4:02 |
| Dolly Proton – pretender (1988) | John Oswald | 2:46 |
| Maria Callas (1989) | Christian Marclay | 3:07 |
| DJ Qbert Mixmaster Mike Apollo (1992) | DMC 1992 Final | 1:37 |
| Vientiane (1990) | Roberto Musci and Giovanni Venosta | 11:11 |
| Stem Long Stem (1996) | DJ Shadow | 7:48 |
| We Will Rock You, Bossa Nova! Mashup (2014) | Elvis vs RHCP vs Queen vs Flo Rida vs Cee Lo Green | 3:06 |
| The Anthology Vol. II []HIP HOP MIX []INSTRUMENTAL COMPILATION[] – selected works (2023) | Madlib |
Chris Cutler wrote the definitive and widely published essay on Plunderphonics. He is a composer, performer writer and broadcaster. He was in numerous bands, including Henry Cow, Pere Ubu, Gong, Art Bears and Cassiber, and worked with The Residents, as well as in dance, film, Hörspiel, theatre, soundscape, radio and orchestral projects. He runs the independent label ReR Megacorp, had published three books and numerous articles on music, and produces the long-running ‘probes’ podcast for the museum of modern art in Barcelona.
Listen Club #13
15/05/2024
Listen Club for long distance lovers
“The epoch of nonsense, our epoch, can begin.” Friedrich A. Kittler
In this edition of Listen Club, Ed Baxter auditioned a range of works which transported the
listener impossibly close to faraway beings and which occupy the uncanny space between our interior and exterior perception.
| A Matter of Life and Death (excerpt)(1947) | Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger | 5:34 |
| The Art of Talking (excerpt) (2009) | Chris Mann | 5:16 |
| Mouth Piece (excerpt) (2013) | Xentos Fray Bentos | 3:16 |
| Pressures of the Unspeakable (excerpt) (1991) | Gregory Whitehead | 6:48 |
| Intimacy & Distance (excerpt)(2009) | Ed Baxter | 12:48 |
| Birdbrain (excerpt) (2022) | Ed Baxter | 3:04 |
| The Exeter Whisper (excerpt) (2018) | Ed Baxter | 7:36 |
Ed Baxter is a radio artist and associate lecturer at the London College of Communication, where he teaches Sound Art. He was the co-founder, with Phil England, of Resonance FM and stepped down from his role as its CEO this year. With Chris Weaver he won a BASCA “Composer of the Year” award in 2013 for the audio element of NVA’s “Speed of Light” at Edinburgh International Festival. He has also been a concert and festival producer, bookseller, typesetter, publisher, script writer, installation artist, and co-editor of the Works of Thomas De Quincey.
Listen Club #12
10/04/2024
Andrés Saenz de Sicilia shared a selection of field recordings, compositions and experimental works, blurring boundaries between the natural and artificial.
We listened to the sonar-chatter of bats recorded in Priory Gardens and Chesfield, recorded using dual ultrasonic transducers!
| Priory Gardens (1998) | Michael Prime | |
| Kali, Gaea (2005) | Jacob Kierkegaard | 3:23 |
| Sequence 2 (1977) | Mike Ratledge | |
| Composition from the Soundscape of the Anthropocene Ocean (2021) | Jana Winderen | 6:45 |
| Let’s Go Out and Dance (excerpt)(1987) | Tibor Szemző | 10:54 |
| Forestscape (commissioned for Critical Zones: Observatories for Earthly Politics exhibition at ZKM, Karlsruhe) (2021) | Andres Saenz de Sicilia |
Andrés Saenz de Sicilia teaches philosophy at Northeastern University London and Central Saint Martins. His creative works and performances have been featured in programs at Café OTO, Whitechapel Gallery, BBC Radio, the British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Documenta fifteen, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Villa Lontana, Flat Time House and ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe. His music has been released on labels including 12th Isle, Good Morning Tapes and Villa Montana Records.
Listen Club #11
13/03/2024
Olivia Louvel curated a listening session inspired by:
Dogger/Ice LAND
of tectonic plates, shifting
of sea and land
of visions reconfigured.
The session featured tracks from her latest release, doggerLANDscape, and from her participation in Acoustic Cameras, a project which invites sound artists to annex the real-time flow of webcams located in various places around the world, in this instance, Iceland.
| We Are One Land (2023) | Olivia Louvel | 3:40 |
| When The Sea Will Rise II (2016) | The Digital Intervention | 7:54 |
| Water. It Must Be (2014) | Paul Kendall | 4:08 |
| Sonata I (1946-48) | John Cage | 2:50 |
| Madwoman’s Vision (1989) | Meredith Monk | 7:44 |
| Submerged (2009) | Jana Winderen | 6:35 |
| Doggerland DNA (2023) | Olivia Louvel | 4:41 |
| Sonata III (1946-48) | John Cage | 2:32 |
Olivia Louvel is a French-born British composer and artist whose work is presented in the form of sound recordings, sound art installations, video art, and live performances. She often works at the border of documentation and creation, unearthing: the writings of Mary Queen of Scots, an archival tape by Barbara Hepworth, and the fossilised trees on the Lincolnshire coast. She has recently presented her work at Middlesbrough Art Week, Towner Eastbourne, Phoenix Art Space, and The Hepworth Wakefield. Her research has been supported by the Henry Moore Foundation and the Arts Council. With LOL, she won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Sound Art at the Ivors Classical Awards 2023. http://www.olivialouvel.com
Listen Club #10
27/02/2024
Chris Sciacca and Kersten Glandien presented a survey of Radio Aporee, Maps of Sounds of the World and a selection of live audio streams from Locus Sonus.
Listen Club #9
23/01/2024
What happens when we listen to the interwoven elements of sound in film: music, sound effects, dialogue, and location recordings, apart from the visual scenes they imbue? Chris Sciacca guides us through a miasma of film sound for an evening of theatre of the mind.
| Film | Scene Description | Duration |
| Baraka (1992) Ron Fricke | Bali Kekac Song | 6:10 |
| Stalker (1979) Andrei Tarkovsky | Escaping into the Zone via railway cart | 9:06 |
| Blue (1993) Derek Jarman | excerpt | 3:48 |
| Blowout (1981) Brian DePalma | Opening Sequence into sound studio | 4:18 |
| Berberian Sound Studio (2012) Peter Strickland | Gilderoy dissolves into film | 6:26 |
| The Witch (2015) Robert Eggers | Black Phillip Speaks | 2:48 |
| Leviathan (2012) Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel | Selected edits Speaks | 7:42 |
| Sweetgrass (2009) Lucien Castaing-Taylor | Cowboy swears at sheep | 3:02 |
Listen Club #8
19/12/2023
This was our first Listen Club to feature an old-school, full length album playback.
Guest curated by artist Ring Modulator, we listened to the entire length of Brian Eno’s Ambient 4: On Land with a speaker set up detailed by Eno himself.
It featured a novel third Ambisonic/Hafler Circuit Speak System in a triangle formation by switching the positive and negative polarities from the rear speaker.
| Ambient 4: On Land (1982) | Brian Eno | 44:35 |
Listen Club #7
14/11/2023
Simon Emmerson on ‘Sound-Space-Place’.
| First stereo recording (1933) | Alan Blumlein | 2:00 |
| The Wizard of Oz unmasked (1939) | 1:00 | |
| Whalesong recordings mix (1970) | Roger Payne | 4:30 |
| Kits Beach Soundwalk (1989) | Hildegard Westerkamp | 9:42 |
| Roaratorio (1979) | John Cage | extr. 5:35 |
| I am sitting in a room (1969/80) | Alvin Lucier | extr. indeterminate |
| Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (1980) | Jonathan Harvey | 9:10 |
| Near and Far (at Once) (2022) | Simon Emmerson | 13:00 |
Composer, performer and writer Simon Emmerson has worked in sound and music made with technology for around 50 years. He has worked with instruments and live electronics as well as studio ‘tape music’. He writes: “The exploration and celebration of the spaces around us takes many forms. Sound and music can have the magical quality of taking us somewhere else. We can experience so many different spaces and places – some outside, some inside our heads; some close, some distant … and maybe even surreal or impossible.”
Listen Club #6
10/10/2023
Under the title Sound Works by Sound Artists Kersten Glandien digs into the sound tracks of spatial installations, sculptures, urban environments, custom-built instruments, performative
art sound art and projection art – and ponders the nature of compositions made to relate to
architecture, infrastructure, specific locations and spatial creations designed to be
experienced by a moving audience.
| Six Mirrors (Sechs Spiegel), Ludwigskirche Saarbrücken (1995) | Christina Kubisch | 10:00 |
| Your Favourite London Sound: Brixton Station (1998–2001) | Peter Cusack | 1:54 |
| Dukatenscheißer (2009) | Douglas Henderson | 3:00 |
| Your Favourite London Sound: Slamming Train Doors at Victoria Station (1998–2001) | Peter Cusack | 1:41 |
| Guitar Drag (1999) | Christian Marclay | 4:00 |
| Sonambients (1915-1978): October 12,1969 AM | Harry Bertoia | 5:00 |
| Your Favourite London Sound: Brick Lane (1998–2001) | Peter Cusack | 1:54 |
| Doggerland Channels (2022) | Olivia Louvel | 5:00 |
| Your Favourite London Sound: Nightingale & Substation (1998–2001) | Peter Cusack | 1:26 |
| 2 Aolian Harps pt.1 (1980) | Max Eastley | 5:03 |
Listen Club #5
12/09/2023
Pioneers of Electronic Music. Chris Sciacca chose a hypnotic blend of the originators of electronic music inspired by the documentary film Sisters with Transistors. The pieces range from modular synth polyrhythms, musique concrète with field recordings, ambient spoken-word dream sequences, and a classic horror soundtrack.
| A Sonic Womb (2019) | Suzanne Ciani | 8:53 |
| Second Breath | Suzanne Ciani | 9:05 |
| Pulse Persephone (1965) | Daphne Oram | 4:07 |
| The Dreams – Falling (1964) | Delia Derbyshire | 8:45 |
| Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind (1980) | Rocky Mountains | 3:04 |
| Patchwork (1980) | Laurie Spiegel | 9:47 |
Listen Club #4
20/06/2023
Chris Cutler chose an exciting programme of hybrid music and soundworks in which normally distinct languages or conventions are brought together in unexpected ways. Take a chance to rewire your synapses.
| I | ||
| Owen Springs Reserve (2014) | Hollis Taylor | 6:19 |
| Gesang der Jünglinge (1955-56) | Karlheinz Stockhausen | 13.08 |
| Three Bear Rooms (1996) | Chris Cutler | 4.44 |
| II | ||
| Agost (1976) | Musica Urbana | 6:54 |
| There and back Again (2006 – extract) | Chris Cutler | 12.42 |
| Farewell Party (2002) | Lloyd Green | 3.44 |
Listen Club #3
31/05/2023
Hosted by Chris Sciacca and presenting sound art, soundscapes and music compositions inspired by birds. Tracks include the earliest known recording on wax cylinder, extinct species, experimental analogue taper music, diverse field recordings, and a recording from inside the Laurenskerk in Rotterdam.
| Field Recordings and Location Sound | ||
| White-rumped Sham (1889) | Ludwig Koch | 1:04 |
| Gramophone matrix 7444r. Song of a nightingale (1910) | Karl Reich | 4.32 |
| The Fox and the Nightingal edit (2023) | Hazel Reeves | 2.54 |
| Explanation and Courting Song (1966) | Halaoff & Peter Bruce | 2.32 |
| Dawn with the white storks (2016) | Izabela Dłużyk | 6.16 |
| Electroacoustic composition and experimentation | ||
| Kauai O’o (2009) | Robert Davis | 1:25 |
| Syrinx (1979) | Ann McMilan | 4.38 |
| Slow Motion Blackbird (1994) | Chris Hughs | 5.47 |
| Musical Composition | ||
| Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of the birds) – Messiaen, 202 | Julien Hervé | 8:39 |
| 0.2 (2004) | Evan Parker with Birds | 8.29 |
Listen Club #2
11/04/2023
Curated by Al Strachan, this Listen Club focused on uses of the human voice in sound poetry and music.
| Meditations 3 and 3-2 | Propan | 4:04 |
| Zwevingen | Greta Monach | 7.14 |
| Long May I Sleeppppp | Xuan Ye and Chik White | 1.45 |
| Heavy | Audrey Chen | 2.32 |
| Early Morning Melody | Meredith Monk | 1.36 |
| Hot Tarmax | Ecka Mordecai | 2.32 |
| The Park | Robert Ashley | 21:36 |
Listen Club #1
14/03/2023
| Music for Quiet Spaces | Robin Minard | 15:46 |
| Ol-Olool-Ol | Chris Watson | 18:07 |
| OP 622526 | AGF & Porya Hatami | 6:34 |
| Lemon Grass | Chicago Underground Duo | 1:40 |