The Drone Ensemble in Infinity Pitch, an exhibition by Pester & Rossi at The BALTIC

The Drone Ensemble were invited by the collaborative duo Pester & Rossi to host an experimental sound workshop for young gallery visitors during the Infinity Pitch exhibition at The BALTIC.

Pester & Rossi are asking visitors to make, break and re-make the rules of play. BALTIC’s largest gallery space has up to eight live action stations with activities where you can watch, listen, explore, improvise and play along with a number of enormous colourful inflatables.

We had planned a simple workshop structure that involved making megaphones for the children to use to mimic the sounds of the instruments. To make the megaphones we had prepared templates that could be used to trace the outline that was to be cut out of coloured card. Pester & Rossi have supplied rolls of coloured electrical tape for gallery visitors to use to transform the walls and floor of the gallery. This tape was also used to form and decorate the megaphones. The Drone Ensemble would perform a number of times throughout the duration of the workshop, following a score projected onto the walls and getting the children to participate at specific times. However, once we entered the space we soon realised that we would need to reassess our plans due to the existing noise levels, the nature of the space and the sheer number of children who desperately wanted to have a go at playing the instruments.

After setting up the instruments and observing how the space was being used, we had a group conflab and prepared our plan of action. Each of us was responsible for one type of instrument, and we were to demonstrate how to play the instrument. We encouraged the children (and adults) to try playing the instruments, and guided them as they did so.

I was very impressed by the children's abilities to learn how to play a new instrument, particularly the friction drums.

The gongs were extremely popular, and we were able to involve lots of the kids playing the gongs at once as we performed a number of gong parades around the gallery. Pester & Rossi have made a selection of costumes for visitors to wear, and so we encouraged the children to dress up in these. Armed with a gong in one hand, a beater in the other, and dressed in an array of brightly coloured red, green, yellow and blue outfits, we paraded around the gallery in single file making a rather colossal sound. 

The children enjoyed making the megaphones, and this activity was easy to manage as the instructions were very simple and did not require many materials or guidance. This meant that we could concentrate on playing the instruments with the children.

The workshop was a big success and Pester & Rossi were pleased with our contribution and response to their exhibition. We were exhausted afterwards, but would certainly consider doing more workshops in the future.

The Drone Ensemble prepares for BALTIC workshop

The collaborative artist duo Pester & Rossi have invited the The Drone Ensemble to lead an experimental sound making workshop as part of their current exhibition, Infinity Pitch, at BALTIC.

Sat 7 Apr 14.00-17.00
Drone Ensemble
Infinity Ensemble experimental sound making workshop

Yesterday we had another workshop planning meeting where we prepared the props we will be using in the workshop, confirmed the logistics, booked the van and developed the score for the performance that will take place as part of the workshop.

It was a really productive session, and I'm hopeful that it will go down well with visitors.

For more information about the event visit
http://baltic.art/whats-on/infinity-pitch

Drone Ensemble record Friction Drums

Over the past couple of months I have been working with the Drone Ensemble on some audio for my forthcoming exhibition at The Word, South Shields. We have recorded some vocal experiments and have been using a limited selection of instruments. I have chosen to focus on the friction drums to produce a constant background hum sound that I think relates to the notion of hearing a relentless voices or voices. 

With practice, Ben has mastered the technique of playing the friction drums in a way that eliminates any slapping or wavering as the players hands move from the end of the dowel, off the dowel and to the other end of the dowel nearest the drum. This week we focused on achieving some high quality recordings of a range of the friction drums played in different combinations. I will then layer these and edit them with my other recordings to form the audio part of my installation.

Play by your own rules - The Drone Ensemble collaborate with Pester & Rossi at The BALTIC

Infinity Pitch
Pester & Rossi

24 March – 15 April 2018

Pester & Rossi have invited The Drone Ensemble and a group of other collaborators to make, break and re-make the rules of play. Their forthcoming exhibition, Infinity Pitch, will involve up to eight live action stations and big, fun, colourful inflatables across BALTIC’s largest gallery space. Visitors will be able to take part in activities where they can watch, listen, explore, improvise and play.

Infinity Pitch is for everyone and open daily. No need to book, just drop-in.

Sat 7 Apr 14.00-17.00
Drone Ensemble
Infinity Ensemble experimental sound making workshop

For more information please visit

http://baltic.art/whats-on/exhibitions/infinity-pitch

Vocal work with Sarah Grundy and her loop pedal

In addition to working with the Drone Ensemble on some audio to my forthcoming exhibition at The Word, I am collaborating with Sarah Grundy. Sarah is an interdisciplinary artist who works in sound, performance, theatre, and music. The majority of her work looks to worldmaking – creating an idealised alternative for living in or dealing with society. She is also part of ‘The Anima Collective’ who explore the potential of the voice through singing. Sarah also performs with Edwin Li as Leroy McSex in the musical, drag duo Shirley Mann and Leroy McSex.

Sarah and I had spoken about the work a few weeks ago, and we both agreed that using the loop pedal with Sarah's voice could be a good way to achieve the layering of voices that I want to create. When we met today I gave her a sheet with words on that she could use to play around with.

In her usual remarkable way, she soon began to thread words together and create some rhythmic patterns and harmonies, exemplified through the use of the loop pedal. We made a great start, and are to continue with developing this piece.

Drone Ensemble experiment with vocals

I am working towards my audio visual installation to be held at The Word in May, and will be collaborating with The Drone Ensemble to produce the audio for the installation. 

After an initial introduction to my project and discussion about how the collaboration could work, we had our first rehearsal and experiment on Monday evening. I specifically want to work with voices, and it will be the first time that The Drone Ensemble has used vocals as part of a performance. 

We began with some vocal exercises to warm up, and then gave each other a phrase that we had to say. Joe had been making some instruments that would alter the sound of the voice, or alter how the voice is heard. By speaking into two circular discs, the sound gets amplified for the speaker, but it does not really sound much different to the listener. Is this like the experience of an auditory hallucination? Would attaching contact microphones to the inside of the discs enable the amplified sound to be heard by the listener?

The second time that we did the exercise we also added the friction drum, and this made a real difference. People began to gain confidence in what they were doing and we established some links between what we were each doing. At times there was rhythm and other times none. 

We listened back to what we had recorded, and went through the aspects that worked and those that did not work. I am going to do some further preparation work prior to our next rehearsal and we will continue to develop the performance.

The Drone Ensemble Score for An Artistic Encounter at The Great North Museum:Hancock

Each Drone Ensemble performance is unique and we respond intuitively to each other and improvise. However, we usually follow a rough score to help us all keep on time and to give us a degree of structure.

This is the score that we followed when performing in An Artistic Encounter at The Great North Museum:Hancock.

The Drone Ensemble performance at The Great North Museum: Hancock as part of An Artistic Encounter

Many thanks to all who came to experience The Drone Ensemble play at The Great North Museum: Hancock as part of An Artistic Encounter.

Unfortunately I did not get the chance to see any of the other artworks properly as we were so busy setting up the instruments and warming up for the performance, but the whole evening seemed to go down very well with the audience. 





Showing such a great mix of artworks within the museum collection may introduce a new audience to The Great North Museum: Hancock. Likewise, those familiar with the museum may have been introduced to new artistic experiences. An Artistic Encounter may have stimulated regular visitors may to view the collection in new ways. Hopefully, this all bodes well for the possibility of more of these kind of events in the future.



Playing in these different contexts gives The Drone Ensemble a focus for each performance, and we adapt in a site-specific manner and according to the conditions and themes of each event. I find this an exciting way to work and it helps us progress and vary our performances.

The Drone Ensemble performance at the Great North Museum: Hancock on 13th December, 6-8pm

An Artistic Encounter
Wednesday 13th December, 6pm-8pm
Great North Museum: Hancock


On Wednesday 13th December The Drone Ensemble will be performing as part of An Artistic Encounter, an evening of contemporary art and live music staged amongst the collections of the Great North Museum: Hancock.

It is hosted by Connecting Principle, the multi-disciplinary research forum at Newcastle University.

The digital artworks showcased will be set in dialogue with the museum's rich collections of natural history, archaeology, geology and world cultures.



Visual artists:

Aurelio Andrighetto, Enrique Azocar, Murray Ballard, Daniel Brown, Irene Brown, Keith Brown, Paul Bush, Roi Carmeli, Chris Cornish, Juliet Flemming, Andrea Frank, Nils Guadagnin, Lois Hobby, Michael Jank, Ant Macari, Simon Martin, Jasmine Matthews, Michael Mulvihill, Colin Priest, Claudia Sacher, Sabina Sallis, Wolfgang Weileder, Albert Weis, Louise Winter

With live music:

The Drone Ensemble and The Improvisors’ Workshop Ensemble

The project builds on a collaborative research project between Newcastle University, Montpellier University, La Panacée: Centre d’art contemporaine, Montpellier, and the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Montpellier Agglomeration. In an exhibition staged in University of Montpellier’s medieval libraries, a series of newly commissioned artworks were presented in response to artefacts held in their historical scientific, medical and art collections.

Connecting Principle is an art centred international multi-disciplinary research forum at Newcastle University instigating a dialogue between art and other disciplines. The aim of the forum is to increase opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration within academia and independently. Connecting Principle sees itself as an international network of artists, theorists and researchers.

https://greatnorthmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/an-artistic-encounter

Live Stream footage of The Drone Ensemble performance at TUSK 2017

The TUSK Festival website features the live stream footage of the performance by The Drone Ensemble at The Sage.



It can be viewed via this link:

https://livestream.com/tusk/tusk2017/videos/164206934

Our set begins around 7mins 50seconds into the footage.



We also documented the performance ourselves and made a high quality audio recording. We will share these once we have edited the footage. So watch out for another blog post with more documentation.

Staraya Derevnya performance at TUSK Festival 2017

Before the start of TUSK Festival 2017 I received an email from Gosha, one of the members of the collective, Staraya Derevnya, who was interested in The Drone Ensemble.



"Staraya Derevnya are a Russian/Israeli collective with a tangible feel of the steppe and the ice and a curious musical hybrid that suggests endless/lawless, hard-bitten territories but yet with submerged echoes of the Incredible String Band and MV+EE, or maybe Caroliner but with psychedelic stimulants forsaken in favour of eyesight-endangering homebrew hooch. Of course there are remnants of some kind of un-placeable folk music in there too, the ethno-musical signature of some imagined state long gone rotten, perhaps. And yes, fleetingly yet more than once there is a glimpse into what Comus would have sounded like had they been Russian. Staraya Derevnya make bewitching music that seems impossible to place in terms of direction and intention, like climbing into a cab only to realise its not a cab at all.."

Gosha explained that he was really excited about seeing The Drone Ensemble play as part of TUSK 2017, but that unfortunately the band had other commitments on Friday evening and so were going to miss our performance. We agreed to meet on the Saturday after Staraya Derevnya had performed in Sage 2.



I thoroughly enjoyed their performance, and found it very interesting talking to them about how they work together despite different members of the band being based in London, Moscow and Tel-Aviv. They play some of their own handmade instruments alongside sounds and noises and other instruments such as flutes, guitars, Theremin, Mbira, Shruti box and a kazoo. Vocals are in Russian. For their set at TUSK 2017 they worked with an artist to produce visuals for the performance. Hopefully The Drone Ensemble will get the opportunity to collaborate with Staraya Derevnya at some point in the future. Watch this space!

http://www.starayaderevnya.co.uk/

http://tuskfestival.com/artists/staraya-derevnya/

The Drone Ensemble perform in TUSK at The Sage

A few photos from an amazing event - more to come later!

The Drone Ensemble Live At The Sage, Gateshead On Friday 13th October, 6-7pm

TUSK Festival 2017 will kick off with a live performance by The Drone Ensemble from 6pm on Friday 13th October at the Sage I'd like to invite you to join me on Friday 13th October when I'll be playing in The Drone Ensemble from 6-7pm in the main concourse of the Sage. No tickets are required and entry is free! I'll then be heading up the road to The NewBridge Project: Gateshead, 232-240 High Street, NE8 1AQ for the opening of REALITY CHECK, a group exhibition that I have work in. I hope you can make it along to what should be a treat for your ears and eyes! THE DRONE ENSEMBLE The Drone Ensemble emit vast, deep, sonorous drones using instruments we have almost entirely designed and built ourselves. Joe Sallis leads musically and on instrument design and the Ensemble’s evolving line-up has been causing some excitement in Tyneside’s subterranean circles and how those sonorous waves of sound interact with the interior of Norman Foster’s architecture is something we can’t wait to hear. TUSK FESTIVAL 2017 Once more, alongside a truly eclectic and international music menu and TUSK’s trademark slew of UK debuts, festival goers can again enjoy the festival’s renowned film programme, exhibtions, talks, installations, interactions and more, all curated to inspire the musically curious. The announcements for TUSK 2017 are typically genre transcendent, offering festival goers a unique opportunity to broaden their musical horizons whilst enjoying a rip-roaring festival experience. The Line Up is: Fri 13 Oct Concourse 6pm Drone Ensemble Sage Two 7pm Swarmfront Sage Two 8pm Duncan Harrison Sage Two 8.45pm The Tea Towels Sage Two 9.45pm Valerio Tricoli Sage Two 10.45pm United Bible Studies Sat 14 Oct NRFH 12pm Andrew Liles NRFH 12.45pm Panel Discussion NRFH 1.45pm Midwich NRFH 2.30pm Film Programme Sage Two 6pm Luna Del Cazador Sage Two 7pm Kink Gong Sage Two 8pm Staraya Derevnya Sage Two 9pm ELG Sage Two 10pm Hans Grusel’s Krankenkabinet Sage Two 11.15pm Brainbombs Sun 15 Oct NRFH 2.30pm Film Programme NRFH 5pm Hans Grusel’s Krankenkabinet & Staraya Derevnaya NRFH 5.45pm Radio Play Sage Two 6.30pm Kara-Lis Coverdale Sage Two 7.30pm Ulas Ozdemir & Arash Maradi Sage Two 8.30pm Klein Sage Two 9.30pm Brigid Mae Power Sage Two 10.30pm Beatrice Dillon Sage Two 11.30pm Nurse With Wound As well as 3 days of TUSK’s unique and famously diverse live music programme, the festival will also include films, talks and more, as well as afterhours action and exhibitions at The Old Police House, Workplace Gallery and Shipley Art Gallery. tuskfestival.com | Twitter | Facebook Weekend Tickets for TUSK Festival 2017 are £60. Day Tickets are also available for £21.80.

the-drone-ensemble-live-at-the-sage-gateshead-on-friday-13th-october-6-7pm-as-part-of-tusk-festival

Thanks to all involved in the Unpitch event at Culture Lab

The Drone Ensemble would like to thank Ben Freeth and Jez Riley French for inviting us to perform at the Unpitch event at Culture Lab, featuring headliners Hankil Ryu and Lo Wie from Korea.

We would also like to thank all the people who turned up to listen to us!




The Drone Ensemble set up this evening consisted of:

friction drums

pipe gurdys

hurdy gurdy

percussion

It was good to test out a simpler score and allow each of the instruments to have a period of time as the focus.

The Drone Ensemble featuring in Hankil Ryu and lo wie evening performance at Culture Lab

The Drone Ensemble have been invited to perform in

Unpitch presents: Hankil Ryu and lo wie evening performance at Culture Lab, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

Invite
You are cordially invited to a series of sound art presentations, workshops and performances to take place on 24th February 2017 in Culture Lab and Fine Art, Newcastle University. These are free and don't cost anything to attend / participate. They are aimed at anyone interested in electronic music, electronic performance, digital media, creative practice involving technology, artists developing their own musical instruments, musicians, artists and those with an interest in contemporary music and performance in Korea.

Background
Following a recent Arts Council England sponsored research visit to SouthKorea artists Ben Freeth and Yvette Hawkins in collaboration with Jez Riley French have invited Korean artist's Hankil Ryu and Lo Wie to Newcastle.

To share practice and expand networks there will be a series of workshops, presentations, and performances taking place over two days: 23rd and 24th February 2017. Ben and Yvette will launch "Hybrid Cultures / Borderless Practice" a book and set of recordings on the Sonospace label. This will feature their work in Korea. https://www.sonospace.org/

Jez Riley French will work with First Year Fine Art Students to create a performance involving field recording and photographic scores.

Hankil Ryu and Io wie will work with Creative Arts Practice students, fine art students and members of the public to explore acts of listening, writing and collective vocalisation.

Daytime
12pm - 1pm Lunch time presentations Hankil / Io wie, JRF (lunch bites format - listen and eat lunch!)
1pm break
1.30pm - 4.30pm Hankil / Lowie Workshop begins
Spaces limited: to reserve a free place book here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/text-oriented-composition-hankil-ryu-lo-wie-workshop-tickets-32055137780

Evening
7.00pm Doors open
7.30pm First performance

Performances:
7.30pm Drone Ensemble
8.00pm Jamie Cook
8.40pm Jez Riley French (UK) + (1st Year Fine Art Students)
9.20pm Ben Freeth, John Bowers and Tim Shaw
10pm Hankil Ryu / lo wie (SK)


Artist Bio's / Descriptions:
Hankil RYU (Korean, born 1975) is a musician from Seoul. He has organised a monthly event called RELAY since 2005 and established his own publishing office called The Manual. He is interested in finding an alternative musical structure possessed by abandoned objects like clockworks, typewriters and telephones. After discovering the instrumental possibilities of a typewriter, he started to collaboration project called ‘A.Typist’ with lo wie and Taeyong KIM. The collaboration’s results were released by The Manual and Mediabus as three CD+Book sets. He has also been a member of FEN (Far East Network) since 2008. As a different approach from his past works, in 2015, he started digital beats project called ‘pilot Ryu’ based on synthesis sound.

lo wie
lo wie is Beckett's Typist and a member of A.Typist, and organizing a music composition concert series, Namsan.
http://lo-wie.blogspot.com/
https://vimeo.com/160201665

Hnakil Ryu / lo wie performance on 24th will feature a variety of objects, text and software:
“A. Typist: The Soft Machine”

A.Typist is a project group consisting of the musician Ryu Hankil, and the writers Kim Taeyong and lo wie. They use prepared typewriters with an interest in finding sound/music produced by writing, texts produced by sound/music and unexpected things produced by the relationship of the two ways of producing sound/music and texts. Recently, their interest is extending into translation among writing, text scores and performance, and transition among physical forms of sound, light and electricity.
In this concert, Ryu Hankil and lo wie will perform “cut-up feedback” using their cut-up score based on William Burroughs’ “The Soft Machine” which is the first work of his cut-up trilogy.

Jez Riley French
Alongside performances, exhibitions, installations, JRF lectures and runs workshops around the world and his range of specialist microphones are widely used by recordists, sound artists, musicians, sound designers and cultural organisations.
In recent years he has been working extensively on recordings of surfaces, spaces and situations and developing the concept of photographic scores and ‘scores for listening’, which have featured widely in publications and exhibitions.
His work has been exhibited in shows and installations alongside that of Yoko Ono, David Bowie, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Watson, Alvin Lucier, Annea Lockwood, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Stars of the Lid, Jeremy Deller, Sarah Lucas, Brian Eno, Signe Liden, Sally Ann McIntyre etc, at galleries including The Whitworth Gallery (Manchester), Tate Modern and Tate Britain, MOT - Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (Japan), Artisphere (USA)….
jezrileyfrench.co.uk

Yvette Hawkins
Yvette Hawkins (British Korean, born 1979) is a paper artist of South Korean and English descent who makes installations, sculptural objects and scores for improvised musical performance using books, maps, silk, textiles and other found materials. Hawkins trained at the Glasgow School of Art and graduated from Newcastle University in 2007. She has had numerous group and solo exhibitions within the UK and Europe. She also has pieces in collections in Italy, Japan, and the United States. Her work has been featured in several books. Hawkins is currently represented by Globe Gallery, UK.
https://yvettehawkins.co.uk/

Ben Freeth
Ben Freeth is an artist, musician, and researcher with an interdisciplinary practice using data, networked technologies, sonification, extended recording techniques, prototype electronics and marine algae to create sculptural installations and contemporary sonic performances enabling entangled encounters within “naturecultures” (a necessary entwining of the natural and the cultural, the bodily and the mind). This involves an exploration of sound and its ability to create relations within nature cultures, humans, environments, and technology.
https://bcfreeth.wordpress.com/

Tim Shaw has worked internationally as an artist, performer and sound designer. His practice is situated within media art and draws upon soundscape and electroacoustic composition, performance making and DIY technology. He currently works as a lecturer in Digital Media at Culture Lab, Newcastle. Collaboration plays a central role in his approach, he has been lucky enough to make artistic work with Chris Watson, John Bowers and Sébastien Piquemal.
https://tim-shaw.net/

John Bowers is an artist-researcher working within Culture Lab with a particular interest in the use of art and design-led methods (Research Through Design) to explore digital technologies and novel interaction concepts. He also works as a sound artist improvising with electronic, digital, acoustic and electro-mechanical devices and self-made instruments in performance and installation settings, typically accompanied by live digital image.

Drone Ensemble
The Drone Ensemble is an experimental sound group that uses acoustic instruments that can produce a prolonged drone sound. All the instruments are made by the group and are often re-interpretations of existing instruments from around the world.
The Ensemble intends for the combination of drone and pulse to induce trance-like states and a heightened, timeless listening experience.
Members of the ensemble are students or graduates of Newcastle University Fine Art. The ensemble is led by staff member, Joseph Sallis.

Jamie Cook
"soundscapes created from live foley recordings and granular synthesis"


Sponsored by:
Newcastle Institute of Creative Arts Practice (NICAP)
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/nicap/
Digital Cultures Research Group from Culture Lab
http://digitalcultures.ncl.ac.uk/
Fine Art Newcastle University
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/fineart/
Arts Council England
www.artscouncil.org.uk/

The Drone Ensemble attempt to come up with a new way of playing the pipes

The Drone Ensemble currently store all of the instruments in Joe's office, and it is gradually becoming harder to move around without knocking into or treading on one of the sound making machines. It is also quite a cumbersome challenge to set up the instruments and is not very time effective when we are only able to meet once a week for a few hours. When we have performed outside of the University, transporting the instruments has been another mammoth task requiring several trips, so any way we could reduce the clunckiness and size of the instruments would be a huge help.

We therefore decided to amend the design of the tubes so that they do not need to be attached to a base. We wanted to be able to have a wheel that we could each keep and move around with, playing the wheel on the various different tubes.

Achieveing the right design to make this happen is tricky, and we spent the whole session trying different options and testing out the results. Joe had sourced some felt for the rim of the wheel, and this seems to work when on the largest wheel but not so well on the smaller wheels.

Joe manages to make it look really easy to play, but there is quite a skill to balancing the wheel on the tube with just the right amount of pressure to make a sound.

This is how it is done:

Drone Ensemble at The Occasion Collective, Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle, 29th July 2016

Here's a video of the Drone Ensemble playing at The Occasion Collective, Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle on Friday 29th July 2016




https://youtu.be/h_AfELaE7OY

Drone Ensemble at UnEARTH

Last night the Drone Ensemble played as part of TOC's UnEARTH event at Alphabetti Theatre.

"UnEarth at Alphabetti Theatre will showcase some of Newcastle's most interesting experimental and electronic musicians. From artists pushing the boundaries of live coding, improvisation and a number of creators building their own instruments, UnEarth is sure to be a highlight of the summer. Expect to experience the power of the acoustic drone and get your grove on to some seriously dancey vibes."

Performers included Mr Blazey, Jamie Cook, Ben Jeans Houghton, The Drone Ensemble, Phil Begg, Shelly Knotts and co￥ﾡpt aka Sean Cotterill.

Mr Blazey kicked off with his Kalimbo Project:

"[This project] is an attempt to apply collage techniques to every level of a musical performance; a thumb-piano ‘collaged’ together from everyday objects (lunch box, cupboard door handles, bike spokes etc.) contains motion and touch sensors which control effects while triggering, layering and juxtaposing fragments of samples and found-sounds through simple gestures. Expect exploratory shifting layers of ambient drones sprinkled with sloppy beats."

Check out the demo here:

mrblazey.tumblr.com

The Drone Ensemble were next up. We began with one of the friction drums, then gradually added another friction drum, followed by another. 

 

Edwin then introduced the large hurdy gurdy and after a while Ben shifted from playing the friction drum to playing the pipe gurdy. Later, I left my friction drum and took over from Edwin on the hurdy gurdy as he moved onto the percussion, shortly followed by Bex. 

Ben moved back to the friction drum for the remainder of the set. Bex and Edwin gradually faded out the percussion, and Edwin joined me on the hurdy gurdy, pressing on the strings to alter the sound produced. We ended the set by gradually fading out the hurdy gurdy.

We were pleased with how the performance was received, and felt it suited being played in such a venue. Unlike some other places where we have played, at the Alphabetti theatre each of the performers could hear the sound of the instrument they were playing. Hopefully the recording (which will go on the Drone Ensemble soundcloud soon) will sound as good.

Ben Jeans Houghton followed our set. creating layered loops with a multitude of instruments and his voice. Awesome!

For more information about Ben's work visit

http://www.benjeanshoughton.co.uk/

The Drone Ensemble prepare for our adventure to the BALTIC

The Drone Ensemble are delighted to announce that we will be participating in the forthcoming exhibition at BALTIC, The Playground Project.

"Until the 1980s – and in rare cases until today – playgrounds were places for social experiments, risky projects, and spectacular sculptures. Architects, urban planners, artists, parents, and children were invited to leave their comfort zone and to venture something new.

A focal point for ideas about education and childhood, about urban planning and public space, about architecture and art, about creativity and control, the playground has repeatedly resisted institutional and ideological appropriation and grown in its own, sometimes anarchic, ways.

The Playground Project will bring back many exemplary, but now often forgotten playground initiatives, pioneering acts and adventures with a playground in which children (and inner children) can run, hide, climb and imagine. The exhibition includes Marjory Allen (Lady Allen of Hurtwood), Joseph Brown, Riccardo Dalisi, Richard Dattner, Aldo van Eyck, M. Paul Friedberg, Michael Grossert, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Alfred Ledermann, Yvan Pestalozzi, Group Ludic, Egon Møller-Nielsen, Niki de Saint Phalle, Mitsuru Senda, Colin Ward and others.

The Playground Project is realised in cooperation with Kunsthalle Zürich"

For more information please visit

http://www.balticmill.com/whats-on/exhibitions/the-playground-project

The Drone Ensemble will be at the Children's Preview on Thursday 14th July. There will be the opportunity to see a range of the handmade instruments being played, and then have a go at playing the instruments yourself!



In preparation, we reviewed our current range of instruments and decided which instruments we will take to BALTIC. Unfortunately, due to certain restrictions, we won't be able to take everything, but we have an impressive range to play with.

Joe showed us a new instrument that he is working on. He also showed us his current store of pipes. It is rather impressive! Watch this space for more instruments involving pipes.