Ear to the Ground Scotland – Details, episodes & analysis

Lewis Coenen-Rowe is a composer and pianist, specializing in opera, vocal music and chamber music. His music is concerned with themes of ecology, memory, time, and the unstable divide between the comic and the serious.

He is also an advocate for environmental sustainability in the art and also currently works at environmental arts charity Creative Carbon Scotland.

Today we are delighted to be chatting to Lewis about his latest opera STUMPED which is being performed this summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Head on over to the Edinburgh Fringe to see all performance dates and to buy tickets!

Ear to the Ground keeps you in the loop with interviews and gig alerts from Scotland’s top-notch composers.

Hosted by Aileen Sweeney and Ben Eames.

Sound edited by Mia Eames.

Website Links:

https://www.eartothegroundscotland.com/

https://www.lewiscoenen-rowe.com/

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/stumped

Timothy Cooper is a composer and performer of electroacoustic music. Tim’s work is often collaborative, working with musicians, artists, and poets amongst others. Since 2019, Tim has been working with Ensemble 1604 composing a concert length show called Shadows That In Darkness Dwell that explores the music and life of English renaissance composer John Dowland.

Click Here to purchase the album and head over to The Night With... festival page for tickets and info!

Track List:

Labyrinth

Shadows That in Darkness Dwell - I. Flow

Shadows That in Darkness Dwell - II. Fled

Shadows That in Darkness Dwell - III. Darkness

The Narrow Way

Semper Melancholia

Whose Heavenly Touch

Ear to the Ground keeps you in the loop with interviews and gig alerts from Scotland’s top-notch composers.

Hosted by Aileen Sweeney and Ben Eames.

Sound edited by Mia Eames.

Website Links:

https://www.eartothegroundscotland.com/

https://timothy-cooper.co.uk/

https://thenightwith.com/

https://ensemble1604.wordpress.com/

In this episode we caught up with Rufus Isabel Elliot who told us about OVER/AT, a trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse music-making world, as well as telling us about upcoming releases of Rufus's own music.

Rufus is a composer and musician from Tower Hamlets, based now near Gairloch. In the last couple of years, Rufus has worked with the likes of Sound Festival Scotland, Red Note Ensemble, Magnetic North, and the Nevis Ensemble, with whom it was composer-in-residence in 2019. Current projects include a new album with composer/violinist Harry Gorski-Brown, and a new longer-form vocal piece with Scots traditional singer Josie Vallely.

Rufus produces OVER / AT, which encompasses live touring projects, recording projects, workshops, online learning resources, and more. The first OVER / AT E.P. was released in March – FOLKS' SONGS, and OVER / AT #1 was shortlisted for a Scottish Award for New Music.

With special thanks to performers:

Are We? Malin Lewis

PASS Harry Gorski-Brown

Achilles Lyre Andrew Herrington

Ear to the Ground keeps you in the loop with interviews and gig alerts from Scotland’s top-notch composers.

Hosted by Aileen Sweeney and Ben Eames.

Sound edited by Mia Eames.

Website Links:

https://www.ambf.co.uk/

https://www.ambf.co.uk/over-at

https://www.eartothegroundscotland.com/

In this episode we chat to composer, collaborator, sound designer and concert producer Matthew Whiteside.

As a composer, Matthew has received international performances by ensembles and performers such as the RTÉ NSO, Red Note Ensemble, the Aurea Quartet, Pauline Kim Harris and Diagenesis Duo at venues such as New York University, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, Glasgow City Halls, Salem Artworks in New York and the Belfast International Festival at Queen’s.

Most recently Matthew's piece Night Thoughts was shortlisted for a Scottish New Music Award 2021 for Large Ensemble (Sponsored by PRS).

As well as being a composer, Matthew is also founder and programme of the The Night With... a concert series featuring interesting music in informal spaces. In 2020 The Night With... won the SMIA Award for Creative Programming at the Scottish Awards for New Music as well as winning the Award for Recording of New Music at the awards in 2021 for The Night With... Live Vol. One album.

With special thanks to performers:

Night Thoughts Crash Ensemble

Mesmerism (Written by Paul Mac, Arranged by Jessica Wells) Ensemble Offspring

Quartet No. 6 Aurea Quartet

Well, Well, Well Red Note Ensemble

Ear to the Ground keeps you in the loop with interviews and gig alerts from Scotland’s top-notch composers.

Hosted by Aileen Sweeney and Ben Eames.

Sound edited by Mia Eames.

Website Links:

https://www.matthewwhiteside.co.uk/

http://thenightwith.com/

https://www.eartothegroundscotland.com/

In this episode we chat about to Ailie about her recent success at the Scottish Awards for New Music where her piece Skydance won the 'Dorico Award for Solo Work' (sponsored by Steinberg). We also discuss field recordings, motherhood, and a very squeaky gate!

Ailie is a multi-award winning composer, performer and creative curator whose work crosses the boundaries of traditional and contemporary music.

Winner of the ‘Achievement in New Music’ prize at the inaugural New Music Scotland Awards, Ailie has received commissions, awards, and residences from the PRS Foundation Creative Scotland, Enterprise Music Scotland, the CCA, Culture Ireland, Celtic Connections, EIFF, and CALQ Montreal. Recent commissions include pieces for the 2019 BBC Proms, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sound Festival, the Riot Ensemble, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Bang on a Can, the Dunedin Consort, and the Glasgow School of Art Choir.

With special thanks to performers:

Skydance - for Cello Louise McMonagle (Cello)

1 in 4 - for Vocal Trio EXAUDI

Dun Shith - for Double Bass and Electronics Will Yaeger (Double Bass)

Ear to the Ground keeps you in the loop with interviews and gig alerts from Scotland’s top-notch composers.

Hosted by Aileen Sweeney and Ben Eames.

Sound edited by Mia Eames.

Website Links:

https://www.ailierobertson.com/

https://www.eartothegroundscotland.com/

Darlene Zarabozo is a Cuban-American composer, sound artist, musician and collaborator based in Glasgow. She is currently finishing her bachelor’s in composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Linda Buckley and support from Alistair MacDonald in her electroacoustic studies.

Recently, she is one of six composers to be shortlisted by New Music Scotland and Scottish Music Centre for ISCM 2021 for her text-spoken electroacoustic piece, The Inevitable Withdrawal (feat. text by Phoebe McGowan). She was also featured on BBC Radio Scotland: Introducing for her song, This Heart Breaks for You, which was broadcasted in March.

More recently, her piece, are You there?, won the violin and electronics commission for The Night With... for violinist Emma Lloyd.

List of pieces:

The Inevitable Withdrawal/Cheap Emotions

are You there?

The Bacchae

The Typewriter Manifesto

Ear to the Ground keeps you in the loop with interviews and gig alerts from Scotland’s top-notch composers.

Hosted by Aileen Sweeney and Ben Eames.

Sound edited by Mia Eames.

Website Links:

Today, we are joined with Alastair White, a Scottish composer and writer currently studying a PhD at Goldsmiths in London. Alastair has been shortlisted for a Scottish Award for New Music twice and has created work for the opera festivals Tete-a-tete and Opera in the City, The Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and The Scottish Poetry Library along with many others.

In this episode we discuss Alastair's recent release with Métier Records, fashion-opera ROBE.

"ROBE is a one hour opera about cities, virtual reality and artificial intelligence that combines fashion, contemporary dance, experimental theatre, design, poetry and virtuosic music to create multi-layered worlds within worlds. Scored for piano, flute and four singers, it tells the story of an A.I., EDINBURGH, that wants to become a living city.  Part elegy for a vanished past, part manifesto pointing the way into a heady, transhuman future, ROBE uses its multilayered form to dramatise the relationship between virtual reality, official history and raw, personal experience."

With special thanks to performers:

ROBE

Clara Kanter (Mezzo-Soprano)

Rosie Middleton (Mezzo-Soprano)

Sarah Parkin (Soprano)

Kelly Poukens (Soprano)

Jenni Hogan (Flute)

Ben Smith (Piano and Musical Direction)

Ear to the Ground keeps you in the loop with interviews and gig alerts from Scotland’s top-notch composers.

Hosted by Aileen Sweeney and Ben Eames.

Sound edited by Mia Eames.

Website Links:

https://www.alastairwhite.org/

https://www.eartothegroundscotland.com/

With Tectonics 2021 just around the corner, we spoke to co-curator Ilan Volkov along with composer Tania León and performance and sound artist Olivia Furey who are both involved in the festival this year.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s annual festival of new and experimental music returns on the 8th and 9th of May with a line-up featuring many of the artists scheduled for 2020. Tectonics Glasgow once again sees international and Glasgow-based artists come together to blur musical boundaries and question what music can be.

The festival features live performances on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds as well as performances being available online at bbc.co.uk/bbcsso.

In this episode, we had the pleasure of chatting to composer and violinist Lisa Robertson. 

Lisa is from the West Highlands of Scotland and is particularly interested in combining sounds from nature and folk music, and examining relationships between people and the land, often highlighting environmental concerns.

Recently, she was featured in BBC Music Magazine's 'Rising Stars' column. Her music has been performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, EXAUDI, Red Note Ensemble, Hebrides Ensemble, Lucy Schaufer, and Heather Roche, among others. 

With special thanks to performers:

To Tell It Like It Is Ben Parry & NYCGB Fellowship Can We Not Hear The Birds That Sing? Lisa Robertson (Violin)

Machair Nordic Viola

The Inimitable Brightness of The Air Red Note Ensemble

Ear to the Ground keeps you in the loop with interviews and gig alerts from Scotland’s top-notch composers.

Hosted by Aileen Sweeney and Ben Eames.

Sound edited by Mia Eames.

Website Links:

https://www.lisarobertsonmusic.com/

https://www.eartothegroundscotland.com/

In this episode, we had the chance to chat to composers Stuart MacRae and Emily Doolittle and Violist Katherine Wren about their current project Art-Making in the Anthropocene.

'Art-Making in the Anthropocene is a series of 8 free online talks/discussions and an online concert, which bring together Scottish and international artists, activists, and academics from across disciplines to explore what art-making can be in this time of ecological emergency.'

Katherine's ensemble Nordic Viola will be performing a concert online on April 27th (5pm) featuring pieces by Scottish-based composers that are inspired by the environment.

For more information about the concert visit Art-Making in the Anthropocene.

Pieces Featured:

Emily Doolittle - Gardenscape Martin Suckling - Her Lullaby Ailie Robertson - Sky Dance

Ear to the Ground keeps you in the loop with interviews and gig alerts from Scotland’s top-notch composers.

Hosted by Aileen Sweeney and Ben Eames.

Sound edited by Mia Eames.

Website Links:

https://www.eartothegroundscotland.com/