“Forget the Mercury – now music’s got a Turner Prize.” Neil Spencer, The Observer
Sound artist Jane Grant, musician and physicist John Matthias and BAFTA winning composer Nick Ryan have won the PRS Foundation New Music Award 2008 of £50,000 for the realisation of The Fragmented Orchestra, a visionary new work which will enable us to hear the human brain at work and the sound of the UK as music. Grant, Matthias and Ryan have until September 2009 to create their award-winning new work and present it to the public.
“We are incredibly excited about winning this prestigious Award and turning our living instrument into a reality, which will happen in the 24 sites across the UK and at FACT in Liverpool, European City of Culture.”
Jane Grant, John Matthias and Nick Ryan
Winner of the inaugural New Music Award 2005, Jem Finer presented Jane Grant, John Matthias and Nick Ryan with this prestigious and ground-breaking award for contemporary British music in front of an invited audience at Shoreditch Town Hall.
An esteemed panel of judges – that included Marcus Davey (Chief Executive, The Roundhouse), Jenny Abramsky (Director of BBC Audio and Music), Jem Finer (composer), Eric Nicoli (former-CEO, EMI Group), Nitin Sawhney (composer) and Errollyn Wallen (composer) – met beforehand to decide which of the six short-listed ideas should receive the New Music Award for the creation of an adventurous and challenging new musical work. Heralded as music’s equivalent to the Turner Prize, the New Music Award is also the most financially significant award for music in the UK.
“This is a truly intriguing musical adventure. These are outstanding creative musicians using technology to its fullest and exploring the sound of our own consciousness. It’s an exciting prospect that people all over the UK will be able to be involved in this unique score. It was a unanimous decision.”
Marcus Davey, Chairman, New Music Award judges
You can watch a short film about The Fragmented Orchestra here
The Fragmented Orchestra is a pioneering composition that will mirror the function of the human brain and the way it processes sound. At the heart of this pioneering new work are 24 ‘neuron units’ placed across the UK in locations chosen for their inherent sonic rhythms. These will include a football stadium, cathedral, dairy farm, school playground, motorway crash barrier and a field. Each solar powered Soundbox contains an artificial neuron modeled on those which fire within the brain’s cortex and will be attached to a resonant surface. Inside these devices, the size of a video cassette, is a minute microphone, computer, Feonic FI drive and amplifier, which will capture the huge array of sounds made at each location.
As each of the ‘neurons’ are stimulated by sound, created by both the public and the elements, they will select audio fragments to be streamed across an invisible network or cortex created between them. Using cutting edge technology, this cortex will form a living instrument which communicates with itself and in turn its audience. The total composition is created through newly-developed software and constantly evolves as the micro-fragments of sound are heard as music.
The cortex of 24 fragmented audio channels will then flow to a central space at FACT, Liverpool. Visitors to FACT will be able to listen via 24 speakers to the collective sounds from each site and their interaction with each other, together with a map detailing all of their locations. This performance can also be heard at each of the 24 ‘neuron’ sites as the collective audio generated in Liverpool will be simultaneously streamed back to each of the remote units (enabling them to listen to how their activity is influencing the work) and will also be available to listen to online.
The Fragmented Orchestra has no precedents. It will create a constantly evolving piece of music that is orchestrated through the lens of a neuronal system. When playing, The Fragmented Orchestra will create a compelling piece of music, parallel to the processes of consciousness and the creation and perception of music itself.
The Fragmented Orchestra will be created by Jane Grant, John Matthias and Nick Ryan. Jane Grant is a visual artist working with film, sound, video and installation. She has exhibited widely in the UK and is currently Principal Investigator of an AHRC funded project, which merges the human voice and breath with neuronal firing patterns, to be shown at ArtSway in 2008. John Matthias is a musician and physicist. He has worked with many artists including Radiohead, Matthew Herbert and Coldcut and has performed extensively in Europe including at the Pompidou Centre, Paris. Nick Ryan is a composer, producer and sound designer. He won a BAFTA for his ground breaking interactive radio drama The Dark House, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and has composed extensively for film and television.
You can read press coverage on The Fragmented Orchestra and the New Music Award here
Do you agree on the winner? Are you excited by the idea of the UK becoming a musical instrument? Would you want to hear/participate? Have your say!