Join us at the Big Jam in Dumfries from 22nd April – 27th May, in collaboration with the Stove Network and Dumfries Music Conference. We’ll be working with local bands and young musicians to build an orchestra and write original music to perform as part of our gig at Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival on 27th May.
Ages 12 – 30 – come and get involved!
For more info, visit the Stove Network website or email Martin at martin@thestove.org.
We’re well chuffed to be playing Doune the Rabbit Hole Festival on Friday 18th August(6pm – Jabberwocky Stage)!
Come join us and check it out: http://dounetherabbithole.co.uk/
Sun 4th June, 7pm – Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh.
Featuring Kathryn Joseph, Dawanggang & The Black Diamond Express
Info & Tickets here. Facebook event here
Sat 27th May, 7pm – Theatre Royal, Dumfries.
Featuring Taggan, Kate Kyle, Gracefell & Matrons of Music choir.
Info & Tickets here. Facebook event here
Sun 9th June, 7pm – St Lukes, Glasgow.
Featuring Kathryn Joseph & Dawanggang
Meet different members of the orchestra weekly! Our orchestra is your orchestra.
1. What instrument do you play and how long have you been playing with Tinderbox? I sing and I have been involved in the Tinderbox Project since Autumn 2014.
2. What is your first musical memory? Watching my older brother playing the piano when I was younger. This encouraged me to take my first piano lessons.
3. Which record / band rocks your world at the moment? That’s a good question! There are a few good albums I have listened to a lot lately, such as Somi’s Petite Afrique, Beady Belle’s ‘On My Own‘. There is one track in particular that rocks my world at the moment: This is Masterpiece (Mona Lisa) by Jazmine Sullivan.
Performing at the Meadows Festival in 2015. I remember that it was a very windy day and it was difficult to breathe while I was singing. The music sheets were flying around the stage! I don’t know how I managed to sing along with the others. This gig was fun! 🙂
I think that this is probably ‘Bethany Lane’. I have seen how much work Jack and Luci put into getting everybody recorded on this track, and maybe that’s why I think this is a very special song!
Meet different members of the orchestra weekly! Our orchestra is your orchestra.
1. What instrument do you play and how long have you been playing with Tinderbox? I play the oboe, and I’ve been playing with Tinderbox since 2013. I tend to rehearse/conduct the band nowadays though!
2. What is your first musical memory? Some of the strongest are playing in a recorder ensemble when I was very wee, and noticing Danse Macabre by Saint-Saëns in the Jonathan Creek TV theme intro – which sparked an interest in orchestral music.
3. Which record / band rocks your world at the moment? Recently I’ve been enjoying In Love With A Ghost’s Let’s Go EP for its lush harmony and crispy beats.
One that stands out is a Frontiers concert we’d arranged a couple years ago – it was a point in the project where it felt like it was starting to gain traction and seeing the progress a lot of the young people involved had made was really moving.
Many of the recording sessions for the album too – especially the choir/vocal/rap ones, those seem to be the silliest and most entertaining 🙂
Also, hearing the orchestra recently rehearse my piece Rimo has been incredibly humbling and meaningful too. They play it so beautifully!
It’s so hard to choose! I’d probably have to say Talking About Birds though ultimately. The energy and imagination Song Yuzhe (DaWangGang) brings to everything he does is incredibly inspiring, and I love the power and wackiness of it.
Meet different members of the orchestra weekly! Our orchestra is your orchestra.
1. What instrument do you play and how long have you been playing with Tinderbox? Alto sax; been with Tinderbox for a year.
2. What is your first musical memory? Probably singing along with The Proclaimers in the car!
3. Which record / band rocks your world at the moment? Getting back in to Elton John and Billy Joel.
Hanging around the Meadows Festival last year after we played, it was such a sunny day with good vibes and great music, and was a great chance to chat to everyone.
It honestly changes everyday, but right now it’s probably ‘More’.
—
Meet different members of the orchestra weekly! Our orchestra is your orchestra.
Cello – I’ve been involved with Tinderbox since the very first rehearsal! That’ll be over 6 years now.
Being in a music class when I was 5 and getting kicked out for giggling
Rachel Sermanni – Tied to the Moon or Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings – The Harrow & The Harvest.
Playing at the Queen’s Hall, and conducting and hearing Tinderbox play my arrangement. Recording the album was pretty fun too! Also Mike Kearney’s suggesture stuff was always super fun.
Meet different members of the orchestra weekly! Our orchestra is your orchestra.
I play the oboe and i have been playing with tinderbox since Summer 2014 I think.
Theres always been music playing in my house, but I remember my sister teaching me how to play ‘Wild Mountainside’ on piano before i knew what the note names were.
The first gig I played with tinderbox – Journey of a thousand wings 2014. I gained so much musical confidence, met a group of brilliant and passionate people, improvised for the first time, and just had such a great time.
I think it has to be ‘Live Free or Die’. It’s just so happy and motivating. Like “yeah! Go live your life and win everything!”
Meet different members of the orchestra weekly! Our orchestra is your orchestra.
Hmm….Quetzalcoatl
Meet different members of the orchestra every week! Our orchestra is your orchestra.
by Jaime Cross (see Jaime’s original blog here)
Ahoy!
So I want to do some follow ups on the Room To Play exhibit I had a hand in and briefly go over some of the concepts and sound design for what we eventually came up with. As a sneak peak, here’s a little loop with a few of the sounds that I’ll be discussing in the next few posts:
For more info on Room to Play and some looks into what we go up to in the workshops check out this blog post. This post is obviously from my own perspective, but a lot of other people’s work went into creating not only this exhibit but the others that went on display, so do check out who else was involved🙂.
But veering back on topic: the main concept for Room to Play was combining aspects of music and sound with “play” and “games”. As a sound designer in digital games you would think that a lot of the processes would be similar and easily carried over, but with Room to Play on the whole I wanted to look at the tactile side of things, how people interact with objects that generate sound and how they react to the sounds the objects made.
So with that in mind, one of the ideas for an installation was to use trampolines in some fashion.
Ya know, these things (made to look good by people with art skills!):
After a few ideas (including bouncing musicians!) the basic concept the group came up with was what would happen if a sound played when someone jumped. But we took it one step further.
Team Trampoline had an plan. That plan involved Dance Dance Revolution. Well, the dancemats anyway.
We decided on segmenting each trampoline into five areas (like you see above) and set up trigger points in each segment, a contact point attached to the trampoline itself and and another underneath on a bed of foam. Every time someone bounced on that area, the two contacts connected and BEEP! A sound! Here’s a look at our original test:
It worked! Really well! We used an iPAC as an input device that acted as a computer keyboard along with a lot of copper tape, a lot of wires and precarious maneuvering to stop everything falling to bits, and used Ableton’s Key Map ability to trigger clips in Live.
We just needed to sort out some sounds for the installation, and we had a few ideas there too. When coming up with ideas for our space someone suggested a woodland theme and basing some of the installations around that. Although this visual element didn’t persist, I ended up making a drum kit out of wood and tree samples for use with the trampolines, with each segment triggering a different part of the kit. Here’s a quick listen:
So, there are the basic elements of a drum kit in there. I fashioned a kick drum out of low wood and tree thumps along with some branch breaks, giving it the body and beater sounds respectively. The beater sound is augmented by a squeaky floor I found in a hotel. The snare is made of slightly lighter hits, with a sharper sound to make it more… snare like. I added in a second, slightly duller hit for variation purposes too! The hi-hats are leaf rustles, with the closed samples shortened with some filtering to take a bit of the high end off. They are also a few different samples in there to help with repetition issues. I added in some effects too, such as individual squeaks and more designed sounds from a wood base to bulk out the palette, although we stuck with five sounds for the trampoline.
While the kit itself works quite well on its own and in theory, in practice it didn’t go exactly to plan. When people jumped on the trampoline the kick triggered almost constantly, dominating the soundscape unless the person playing was reeeealllly accurate (pro tip: quite hard to do!) Sound wise I felt this made it a bit less playful than the other two trampolines as a constant mush of percussive hits, even if it sounded like a giant crashing through a tree, didn’t feel quite right. It still had that nice action/reaction to it though!
If you want to test it out for yourself, you can download the Ableton pack. It’s completely dry effects wise, so have fun!
Next time I’ll cover the other two sounds, the festival reactions and some of the other exhibits that people made during Room to Play🙂. In the meantime, here’s a sneaky video peek:
Cheers!
Jaime Cross – Noise Maker General
Sound Designer/Composer/PR Busybody at Team Junkfish
We’re delighted to be providing acoustic orchestral music at the Open Door Cafe Fundraiser on Friday 2nd December!
We’ll also be joined by the wonderful Jellyman’s Daughter.
For more information on the event, click here to go to the Facebook event. Tickets can be purchased in advance here.
Our debut album ‘Tinderbox’ is now available to stream and buy on Bandcamp, Itunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and all other reputable online outlets.
**** ‘A trip on a grand, ambitious and stimulating scale’ The Scotsman.
Single Releases here
Album Videos here
Album Press Release and Track-by-Track Introduction.
Tinderbox’s “Alternative Orchestra Night: Room to play” will be coming to the Electric City at Hidden Door Festival this year, on Monday the 30th of May. Check out the line-up & info below…
6-11pm, £12/£10 advance
Tickets available here
Facebook event here
More info at www.hiddendoorblog.org
THE LONG ROOM
9.45-11pm: Tinderbox Orchestra
Closing the night Edinburgh’s famous Tinderbox Orchestra will bring together bands, artists and poets and take you on an orchestral journey through new collaborations and compositions!
“Rave Culture meets last night of the Proms” The Herald
“An Orchestral Revolution” Edinburgh Evening News
**** The Guardian, **** The Scotsman, **** The List
8.15-8.35pm: Room to Play
Room to Play is an exciting new creative course exploring interactive live and digital processes in music, art, performance and game-development. A team 13 emerging musicians, visual artists, game developers and other professions have come together to work with award-winning musician, sound-designer, game developer and sonic artist, Yann Seznec (British Composer Award for Sonic Art, 2015), as well as Edinburgh’s Tinderbox Orchestra, to develop a series of interactive musical and orchestral performances and installations. These will be on display in the daytime plus this feature slot with the Tinderbox Orchestra for a brand new experiment! More info here
6.30-7.15pm: Mantra & Niall Moody
Film, game, and media music band Mantra have teamed up with games developer and sound designer Niall Moody on their live interactive game music production Dance of Whispered Truths – where audience members can control the band and visuals through a custom console in an aesthetic-generative game atmosphere, through group musical and visual improvisation. Facebook page here.
GARAGE SPACE
7.20-8pm: Jellyman’s Daughter
“The Jellyman’s Daughter sound like they’ve come down from the same cold mountain as The Civil Wars or Grammy-winning duo Robert Plant and Alison Krauss… [Graham] can make his cello as percussive as a drum, as grounded as a bass or as sweet as a fiddle… when Kelly and Coe sing together, their harmonies squeeze the heart.” The Herald Scotland. www.thejellymansdaughter.com
8.45-9.25: Brave Little Note
Brave Little Note is the alter ego of composer and multi instrumentalist Jacqueline Irvine. She makes lovely noise using electronics alongside real instruments and vocals. Amongst other projects this year, she has collaborated with King Creosote and a talented bunch of female musicians on his gorgeous album The Queens of Brush County. She will also be collaborating with Tinderbox Orchestra later in the evening. She rarely performs live so catch her while you have the chance! Listen on soundcloud here
These spectacular performances and activities are suitable for the whole family and will be heading to the “Electric City” at Hidden Door Festival on Saturday the 28th of May…
12.30 – 2pm: #artcore Young Bands Showcase:
Full line up to be announced!
www.outoftheblue.org.uk/artcore/
2 – 2.30pm: Tinderbox Frontiers
Young musicians of all ages and abilities across Edinburgh come together for this amazing project – samba, electronics, ukuleles, orchestral instruments, rappers, singers and more! More info here.
3 – 4.30pm: 50 piece Massed Band Open Workshop!
with Mike Kearney, Oi Musica and Tinderbox.
Come and join Tinderbox and Oi Musica for this 50-piece massed band at Hidden Door! You can get involved on brass, wind and strings instruments, samba drums & percussion. We will split into sections to learn a brand new piece of music and come together for a huge Massed Band performance at the festival. Places are limited so please contact us at admin@tinderboxproject.co.uk to sign up for the workshop and let us know which instrument you play. Age 10+, all levels welcome.
ROOM TO PLAY VIDEO
LOTTERY GOOD CAUSES VIDEO
Room to Play is an exciting new programme exploring interactive live and digital processes in music, art, performance and game-development. A team of 13 emerging musicians, visual artists, game developers and other professions came together for 10 weeks to work with award-winning musician, sound-designer, game developer and sonic artist, Yann Seznec (British Composer Award for Sonic Art, 2015), as well as Edinburgh’s Tinderbox Orchestra, to develop a series of interactive musical and orchestral performances and installations. These were exhibited and showcased at Hidden Door Festival 2016, Edinburgh Game Symposium at DARE ProtoPlay 2016, and at North Edinburgh Arts.
We are excited that the project is looking to continue informally with regular get-togethers so the artists can continue to make and develop projects. If you would be interested in getting involved in this project, please get in touch with us at admin@tinderboxproject.co.uk.
THE ARTISTS
Yann Seznec
Yann is a musician, sound designer, game-developer and artist, whose work focuses on interaction, physical sound, and unusual approaches to musical software and hardware. In December 2015, he received a British Composer Award for Sonic Art for his work “Currents”. He received an MSc in Sound Design from the University of Edinburgh and is the founder of Lucky Frame, a Bafta award-winning company specialising in fun and intuitive digital creations. Recent projects include collaborating with Matthew Herbert and the BBC Concert Orchestra to build custom software and hardware for “Baroque Remixed” at the Roundhouse, an Edinburgh Art Festival and PRS commission, and performances at Mutek Montreal, Melbourne Recital Hall, and Köln Philharmonie. In the last year he has created a set of original music for an interactive whisky cocktail event, an abstract documentary for blindfolded audience aboard a canal boat, and a series of sonic visualisations made from recordings of war planes for a residency at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.
http://www.yannseznec.com | http://luckyframe.co.uk/about/
Timea Tabori
Timea Tabori is an Engine Programmer at Rockstar North and the Chair of IGDA Scotland. She is a STEM and Video Game Ambassador and CoderDojo mentor working to highlight career opportunities in digital technology to young people, especially women. She is passionate about bringing diversity and new voices to the games industry and creating playful experiences for everyone through improved collaboration.
Website: http://www.timeatabori.com | Twitter: @TimeaTabori
Rachel McBrinn
Rachel McBrinn is a visual artist working mainly with digital video and installation. Her practice connects material, spaces and histories, often guided by outdated scientific theories and ideologies. She is currently working on a new commission entitled ‘Monument’ for Hidden Door Festival 2016, and undertaking residencies at Edinburgh Printmakers and the RSA Collection. Rachel also teaches and works as a Tutor Support at Leith School of Art.
Website: www.rachelmcbrinn.com | Twitter: @Rachel_McBrinn
Benjamin Luff
I am Ben Luff, a games designer/programmer originally from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, currently studying an MProf in Computer Games Development in Dundee. My undergraduate degree is in games programming (Computer Games Technology), however I currently fill a design role and am interested in creating anything that tries to do something a little different with traditionally ludic concepts. I have had the pleasure of working with cutting-edge technology during my internship at Microsoft Research last year, but I am also an advocate for the expressive use of procedural media, so I have loved being a BAFTA scholar and a member of the games crew. My other interests include music (I am an avid record collector), cooking, VR visuals and cinema; I would love to incorporate these into my designs if possible!
Jaime Cross
Jaime Cross is a sound designer and composer for games, currently working at Team Junkfish where he also serves as a company director. He has a focus on building and reinforcing game worlds though audio, as well as 3D audio spatialisation. He has previously taught about game audio at the Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Design Studio, and has spoken at a number of events on the same subject.He also sits on the board of directors for IGDA Scotland, the Scottish branch of the IGDA, a game developer advocacy group.
Darragh Quinn
Marianne Sice
Marianne is in her third year studying music at The University of Edinburgh. As well as being a classically trained pianist, singer and guitarist , she enjoys exploring diverse types of music and collaborating with other art forms.
Marianne is passionate about the way music , sound and visual art affects the way we feel, to the way we perceive things, to the way we think. She is very excited to embrace this project as a challenge for both the creators of the art and the observers.
Stella Phipps
I’m a visual artist and illustrator, based in Glasgow. My practice explores themes of memory and identity to create layered, poetic works, with a mixed media approach and a focus on installation and storytelling. I work with the community arts organisation Impact Arts and I’m currently exploring puppetry and performance with a group of young people, alongside devising a series of feltmaking workshops and collaborative exhibition entitled Traces.
Website: cargocollective.com/stellaphipps | Blog: stellaphipps.tumblr.com | Twitter: @phipps_stella07
Martin Disley
Martin is currently studying for an undergraduate degree in Music Technology at the University of Edinburgh, specialising in composition, interactive installation art, and acoustics. Current projects include, an interactive system exploring the effects of repeatable performed gestures on the engagement of participants with live avant-garde electroacoustic sound, designed specifically for those unfamiliar with the tradition. Outside of his studies he is currently working with Artlink Edinburgh designing and building sensory engagement devices for people with severe disability.
Rosalind Sharp
Rosalind has just completed her second year as a music student at the University of Glasgow. She is a performer first and foremost, but in recent years has taken a strong interest in composing. After taking the university’s Sonic Arts course, Rosalind composed a piece for human and computer entitled ‘Incidental Dream’ which explores the idea of “unfamiliar familiarity” in our dreams, and the sense of uneasiness that accompanies this. Rosalind plays clarinet and alto sax, and is currently stretching herself over multiple genres in an attempt to get a feel for as many types of music as she can. She is very excited about the Room to Play project as it will allow her to collaborate with individuals from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, and will give her the opportunity to learn new skills out-with her normal field of study and comfort zone.
Jack Stancliffe
I’m a young maker creating work with both situation and site specificity – utilising notions of the performance or “performativity” to find ways to create situations where communities and publics can unravel and challenge their relationships to people and place. With a specific emphasis on ideas around the communication of histories, such projects have existed on tourist filled beaches, yacht clubhouses, amateur dramatic theatres, and dockyards.
I also work the friction filled world of arts and education and youth arts settings, working for organisations such as the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Showroom, YTAS Scotland, Cryptic Theatre, and Wild Rumpus.
Ceylan Hay
Ceylan Hay is a self-taught musician, composer and sound artist, currently studying the interdisciplinary-focused MA (Honours) Music degree at University of Edinburgh. She is interested in the therapeutic possibilities for sound, free improvisation, the migration of music and musical instruments, apocalyptic / post-apocalyptic visions of the future and sleep paralysis. In previous creative collaborations, she has performed a granite mountain, a biological cell, a crannog, a banana, a goddess of the sea, a toad’s bride and a moth-killer.
Soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/sonicallydepicting | Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sonicallydepicting
Oana Stanciu
I’m a visual artist from Romania currently living in Edinburgh. My recent work involves photography and moving image in which I use myself as a model, experimenting with my body and everyday objects to improvise scenes and create unnatural or subtly distorted images. I have also worked for several films, and am a freelance graphic designer, set designer and photographer.
Website: http://oanastanciu.weebly.com/
Jennifer Austin
Jennifer Austin is a musician from Orkney. She graduated from Strathclyde University with a BA in Applied Music and now performs with singer/songwriter ‘Rachel Sermanni‘, folk trio, ‘Wildings‘ and Orkney band, Fara. Jennifer also composes and has written pieces for Celtic Connections, Mr MacFall’s Chamber Quintet and for the art collective, Projector Club. She also tutors with an inclusive music company called Paragon.
Website: www.jenniferaustin.co.uk
PROJECT PARTNERS
Tinderbox Project and Tinderbox Orchestra:
A visionary and award-winning system of 
contemporary youth orchestras, workshops, creative productions and apprenticeship programmes based in Edinburgh.
“Rave Culture meets last night of the Proms” The Herald.
**** The Guardian, **** The Scotsman, **** The List
www.tinderboxproject.co.uk
Hidden Door:
A multi-arts festival in Edinburgh which aims to create a platform for up and coming 
artists to showcase experimental work to large public audiences in non-traditional settings. Previous festivals attracted audiences of around 10000 people. ***** The Scotsman.
Edinburgh Game Symposium:
Promotes discussion, sharing of practice and learning around video game development and game audio through a well-represented and international spectrum of speakers, workshops and panel discussions.
www.edingame.org. Twitter: Edin_Game
North Edinburgh Arts:
Award winning cultural centre in Muirhouse in Edinburgh, providing a safe, enjoyable and creative environment for people of all ages to relax and develop within.
Supported by:
Join Edinburgh’s famous Tinderbox Orchestra and perform at one of the most exciting festivals and unusual venues in Edinburgh. Hidden Door Electric City will transform an incredible disused street lighting depot into a mecca of art, music, theatre, poetry and creativity. Hidden door is a nine day festival in the heart of Edinburgh, where an abandoned space is transformed and filled with art and music!
The Tinderbox Orchestra will unleash an explosive mix of orchestral music – in this five week course you will discover how Jazz, Electronic, Folk and Funk can all combine and be performed by an orchestra. The course will feature brand new compositions and collaborations with bands and poets, as well as working with an exciting new project called Room to Play – an interactive and multidisciplinary music project bringing together musicians, artists & game developers!
“Rave Culture meets last night of the Proms” The Herald
“An Orchestral Revolution” Edinburgh Evening News
**** The Guardian, **** The Scotsman, **** The List
Dates and Audition Details
Auditions will be held on the 23rd and 24th of April.
You must be aged between 14-25 and grade 5+ Standard as a guide (although it is not necessary to have taken an exam).
Email admin@tinderboxproject.co.uk to book an audition or find out more.
Telephone: Luci 07835 297 119
Rehearsal schedule:
Sundays: 1st , 8th , 15th, 22nd, 29th of May – 11am – 4pm in central Edinburgh.
Course Fees:
Course fees are £75, with discounted places of £50 available for students, self funded or low income participants.
by Ben Glue
So, my experience of the fifth anniversary Tinderbox festival. Well the story started the day before, when I turned up at the beautiful Lady Glenorchy Church, which is now the Assembly Roxy, to volunteer and lend a menial hand… physically ready, but emotionally oblivious to what lay ahead!
I arrived mid afternoon to a hive of activity. Whilst the sound engineers struggled skillfully with the logistics of a 70+ orchestra at a non “plugged in” venue, a core Tinderbox team of the most creative people I have ever met organised and fine-tuned both frantically and tirelessly.
The first sign that this was much more than just a gig was when I arrived at the foyer to find a several-tonne, oriental electric rickshaw/tuk tuk, with a bizarre fabric house built onto it, stuck half way through the tiny, ornately carved church doorway! This was an installation providing a soundscape and information about the Beijing Community Rickshaw Project, which is yet another facet of Tinderbox’s diversity you should really google. The strange vehicle also served the noble purpose of acting as a gigantic play toy for all of the young kids that turned up on the day of the festival, freeing up their parents to take in the orchestral wonders and peruse the stalls. The youngsters, whilst happily exploring the heavily decorated tuk tuk, seemed at times pleasantly confused by the lack of a coin slot.
Fluttering overhead came more wonderment. Firstly in the form of a huge cloud above the stage, that was being built by an artist (Oana Stanciu) out of nothing but a lifetimes supply of baking paper and an invisible web of extremely fine fishing line! The ‘Cumulo Nimbus’ exhibit grew and grew, symbolically as the deadline loomed nearer.
The next overhead surprise came from the growing realisation that what at first glance looked like homemade bunting, really was… and much more. This was the ‘Journey of a Thousand Wings’ installation by Kate MacKay, comprised of hundreds of silk swallows, each adorned with a hand written haiku and from many different languages. So often in life things which appear at first glance so simple turn out to be so beautiful. The idea blossomed from the title, dreamed up by a ten year old Edinburgh girl, into an international project involving people from local schools and youth groups in Edinburgh, to migrant factories and schools in Beijing, to slums in Delhi. Then later with Tinderbox’s involvement, it evolved into a multicultural orchestra, giving local youngsters the opportunity to learn and collaborate with artists from China, Chile, Bosnia, Croatia and Ghana. With the right attitude there really is no limit to what can be achieved from such a simple, yet inciteful, concept.
When the 7pm deadline for the install day arrived and we had to vacate the building, there was an air of relief, yet also an apprehension of just how much was still to be done.
First thing the following morning was dedicated to the completion of Cumulo Nimbus, which had evolved into a fifteen foot wide, ten foot high, fluffy statement, that loomed above the vast performance area, which was now an organised snake pit of cables and mic stands. By ten o’clock young musicians began to fill the church, and with this congregation of creativity, the feeling of excitement began to lift the spirits of all.
As the festival began, established bands rocked the upstairs theatre and main hall, while up and coming young bands provided a relaxed and informal place to chill on the comfy sofas that adorned the downstairs snug bar. Whether your tastes are eclectic, ambient or just down right foot stomping, there really was something there for everyone.
The crowning jewel was, of course, the Orchestral performances and collaborations. Never before have I experienced a building filled with the most wondrous of sounds. Not just from the stage but also from musicians on the balcony behind and several wondering through the crowd! the lighting, somewhat akin to a pink floyd concert, roused yet more emotional senses. It truly was a night I will never forget. the fact that this all culminated from a youth arts charity and not a major commercial production just beggared belief.
For me the absolute highlight came from a young man Thomas. He had been diligently helping out all weekend, a shy person whom I had not noticed with an instrument, or in any sound checks. When the encore came he performed an amazing rap over the top of the Tinderbox classic Bethany Lane to close the night. It truly blew me away. When I spoke to him afterwards, still in disbelief, he told the first time he had performed the piece was to nearly three thousand people including the Dalai Lama on his visit to Edinburgh in 2012! The experience had totally redefined his life he told me. Seeing the change Tinderbox had made for him, redefined mine.
— — — — — — —
Ben Glue is a poet based in Edinburgh.
Photographs by Chris Scott
Concert: 7.30 – 10pm, £10
Masterclass: 2-4.30pm, £10
Masterclass & Concert: £15
Buy tickets here
Dawanggang
Dawanggang is a musical ensemble created by Song Yuzhe, an eclectic musician from North-East China. The music reaches far and wide, from nomadic themes of Western China to broad experimental lines, folk tales and sound-scapes. The band is of flexible composition and brings together people from all variety of musical, cultural and ethnic backgrounds so as to reach beyond differences and into new musical territory.
“Brings together the past and present, in the form of Asian folklore, sound art, Chinese opera and rock”,
BBC Radio 3
One of the strangest, most oddly compelling albums of the year, **** The Guardian
German Record Critics Award for Best Album of the Year
Concert
Song Yuzhe will play two sets of Dawanggang’s music in this one-off concert at Edinburgh’s beautiful venue The Caves. He will be joined by a 10-piece ensemble from the award-winning Tinderbox Orchestra.
Doors are at 7.30pm with the first set starting at 8pm.
Buy tickets here
Masterclass & Workshop
There will be an afternoon masterclass & workshop, in which Song Yuzhe will share ideas around his creative practice and unique approach to composition and performance. It will involve talks, demonstrations and discussion, as well as opportunities for people to try out new techniques and form an ensemble to play some of Dawanggang’s music.
In the first half of the workshop Song Yuzhe will share and demonstrate some techniques to focus and find direction in his practice, particularly using ideas around physical movement and imagery. The second part will look more at Dawanggnag’s music and journey, exploring the unusual mix of traditional and modern influences that is so present in the music. People in the workshop will form an ensemble together and we will use some of Dawanggang’s music as a platform and starting point to try out some of the techniques discussed in the workshops, and see where it takes us!
The masterclass is open to composers, instrumentalists, songwriters, singers and other artists. If you have an instrument, please bring this with you, though do not worry if you don’t have one as you will still be able to take part or observe if you would prefer.
Places for the masterclass & workshop are limited so please book to ensure a place.
Buy tickets here
On the eve of its fourth birthday and annual awards party, we talk to executive director Janine Matheson about who they are and how far they’ve come.
“Our members span the whole creative industries,” Matheson explains. “Practice-led artists or musicians mix with these bigger, commercial creative companies. It spans all different age groups as well; people that are still in art college or studying, right up to really established creative leaders. We do a lot of events to bring people together, to help them connect to each other and support one another as they develop their creative career, their creative life.”
But she is quick to emphasise how they’re just connecting what was already there. “Edinburgh’s got an amazing cultural scene anyway, which existed before we were here – there’s a lot of support for creatives – but it does tend to be quite discipline-specific. There are loads of events for writers, or visual artists, or performers, but there’s maybe not as much that brings everybody together.”
Their network has grown significantly since its conception in 2011, now standing at around 2,100 members. That’s well over double what it was at this time last year, the constantly growing membership due in no small part to the creative diversity of those already involved.
The awards came about as a way to recognise the wealth of multi-disciplinary talent in the city. “We celebrate our birthday every year, and when we first started it was really important that, as part of that, we thank our network for their support, but also that we highlight what really amazing things people are doing. It’s quite a different type of awards in that it really is a party, it’s a celebration of what everyone’s achieved over the last year.
“The network is what makes Creative Edinburgh.”
This year the awards will take place at the newly repurposed Biscuit Factory creative hub in Leith on Thursday 12 November. Entertainment will come courtesy of bakery-meets-vinyl-party Kitchen Disco (“back by popular demand”), and there will be cakes from Lovecrumbs patisserie Twelve Triangles and beer from Heverlee.
The physical awards, too, change every year. “This year we’ve commissioned Karen Mabon, who’s a designer who works in fashion and illustration to make a selection of printed silk scarves.”
The full shortlist this year is below, featuring nine categories and three nominations per category.
Two new categories join the ranks this year, both focused on the work of individuals: Independent, for professionals and/or sole traders, and Leadership, for outstanding contributions to the sector from an industry leader. Up for the former are exquisite womenswear designer Judy R Clark, Lynsey Jean Henderson’s boutique art and design studio, and illustrator Marco Bevliacqua, aka Want Some Studio. The latter is between Scottish Games Network founder and all-round games industry don Brian Baglow, former Festivals Edinburgh director Faith Liddell, and the executive director of New Media Scotland, Mark Daniels.
The awards, and the network itself, can make a real difference to someone’s creative journey. “Over the last couple of years you get to see more of those stories: how people maybe met at a hotdesk hangout, and then they’ve pitched for a job together, and now they’re going to set up a business together… We can see all these connections – we’re here for the long haul.”
The Creative Edinburgh network has also proved useful for the wider creative community. “It’s helped Creative Scotland, the City of Edinburgh Council and other organisations that want to know more about Edinburgh as a whole. We can help with them that because we are connecting a big audience together – we’re open to anybody.”
And it doesn’t stop with Edinburgh. “We’re not alone in what we do. We connect people to other support – like Business Gateway, or Cultural Enterprise Office, or Creative Scotland – but also to other cities. We work a lot with Creative Dundee and Creative Stirling, and there’s AB+ in Aberdeen that’s developing, and Perthshire Creates, and Creative Glasgow’s on the horizon.”
So what’s next? “We’ve actually just been awarded some Creative Scotland money for a year project. At the end of November we’ll kick that off, and that’s gonna allow us to develop some of the areas that we started looking at (such as how we get our members more involved in different types of spaces). We’ve also plugged into a few international networks like in Toronto and Shenzhen. We want to think of fun, maybe more digital ways that we can connect our members with these international opportunities.”
George Sully, The Skinny
27th October 2015
Read the original article here
Since 2013, we have brought together some amazing artists, young people and community projects from different countries, through a range of art installations, orchestras, theatre shows and other projects. These have come together under the banner Journey of a Thousand Wings, taken from the title of a collaborative arts project by Kate MacKay that led to many of these projects.
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