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New work this year, made in collaboration with artist Heather Lander for Cryptic. It’s a physical installation with intricate surround sound and a live performance element.

‘Primordial Waters’ will premiere as part of Sonic-A in Glasgow this week, appropriately on 31st October (Samhain of the Celtic calendar), concerned as it is with Celtic mythology and practice, and with the natural world in all its dimensions.

It is being performed in its full form at least twice, on 31st October and 1st November at the Tramway in Glasgow at 9pm. It will also remain setup as a short-form installation without the live elements in Tramway during the day of the 1st. You can get tickets here.

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Finally available as a digital download, after being on cassette only. Now released under my Alex Smoke moniker, as Alex Menzies will now just be used for commercial work.

It’s a combination of ideas from various cultures, from my work on music and health, and from experimenting with acoustic sources and physical modelling.

I think of it as night music.

Available in all the usual places but buying it directly from my Bandcamp is by far the most helpful to me personally.

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I am lucky enough to be performing two different shows in Mexico over the next fortnight, as part of the 15th Visiones Sonoras Festival in Morelia, and by extension in Mexico City.

The first show will be a live version of music released as part of my Other World Music (OWM) series, and be part of the festival’s inaugural concert in Morelia.

The second show will be a version of ‘So Below’, performed in Mexico City’s beautiful Ex Teresa chapel, now an arts venue. It will be performed alongside some of Scottish Composer Matthew Grouse’s latest work.

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Nice review of the ‘So Below’ live show, from earlier this year.

https://www.list.co.uk/article/107783-so-below-alex-smoke-and-maarten-vos/

There will be news on further performances shortly, and am working towards a London show in the not-too-distant (but probably more distant than I think) future.

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Other World Music Vol.I has been nominated for the EVM Award for Electroacoustic/sound art work as part of the Scottish Awards For New Music.

Awards are always a strange proposition as they suggest competition, which is a mindset far removed from the thinking that went into the work. But recognition of one’s music is always welcome, especially if the work is of a personal nature, and it helps draw attention to many artists who otherwise might remain unknown to the larger public.

In this instance my category also features Louise Harris and Pippa Murphy.

Niteworks, whose album I helped produce, are also up for an award in The Good Spirits Co award for innovation in New Traditional Music.

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It’s been a quiet start to the year as far as observable activity is concerned, but behind the scenes it has been full on.

The first work to break ground will be ‘So Below’, a one-off performance with my sometime collaborator Maarten Vos at the Glasgow University Memorial Chapel, supported by the PRS Foundation and Cryptic.

I don’t want to go into too much detail on what to expect but it will be immersive, will incorporate cello, electronics and multi-channel surround, and will take place at night.

Hopefully some of you can make it.

Wed 3rd April, 8pm. Tickets are £10/£7 and available here.

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You may have seen this on my Twitter or Facebook but it also belongs here, being as it is a further step towards making music for contexts outside of the norm.

Cryptic are an arts organisation who specialise in audio-visual installation and performance, and they’ve taken me on as one of their associate artists, which means they’ll be supporting me in my artistic endeavours and helping me with one-off performances and touring installations.

We have worked together before, on 2015’s ‘Etanan‘ with Florence To , and last year’s ‘Portal‘ with Robbie Thomson. There are now further projects in the pipeline, the first of which will be announced very shortly.

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The first official result of my last year’s music fellowship with the NHS, exploring the links between health and sound.

Of the many fascinating avenues that I explored, this album encapsulates ideas from just a few of them, and is particularly focussed on the use of music as a way of reducing stress.

I will be writing up a more complete overview of my year’s research at some point, and there will be a further album later in the year exploring other ideas from it.

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The second volume of my Other World Music series, under my own name, has been released.

Again, it draws its influences from various musical traditions and forms and incorporates some of the research of my NHS music fellowship this year.

 

I am just pressing up tapes and releasing them myself although they will also be in shops such as Boomkat sometime around the middle of December.

It is limited to a run of 111.

You can buy it from my website here:

https://www.alexmenzies.net/product/other-world-music-vol-ii-cassette