If the bell rings, we will hear it
Rebecca Lee and Samuel Rodgers bring their new project to Nottingham. They will perform with prepared flute, field recordings, and an array of objects and handmade instruments, exploring resonances between materials, synchronicity, and the precarity of listening.
Field recordings comprising Brownian noise, distant traffic and ‘silence’ are played back through glass vessels, drawing tones out of this field of noise that fluctuate in relation to its ebb and flow. Samuel sets these vessels in motion, creating subtle shifts in the field of sound. Samuel also moves around the space, softly striking metal and glass cymbals, seeking out resonances. Rebecca inserts materials into the flute, altering the passage of air through the instrument, resulting in unstable and complex noises out of which unexpected tones emerge. Rebecca also moves around the space, exploring its acoustics, and drawing tones into the existing field of sound. By moving around the space and throughout the audience we hope to draw people into an active form of listening, exploring proximity and distance, and a haptic relation between body, materials and space.
Rebecca Lee and Samuel Rodgers began working together in 2013, collaborating and performing a number of scores by Jack Harris as part of his residency at Primary in Nottingham. They were commissioned in 2014 by Rammel Club to produce ‘The Element Resists’ for flute, field recording and electronics, which they also toured to Oxford Improvisers and Soundfjord’s V22 SUMMER CLUB // SOUND, London. Their collaboration centres on a shared interest in responding to different spaces and environments through sound, sounding, amplifying and recording materials, blurring boundaries between performer and environment (as listening). Their music is characterized by new techniques and has been described as having “an elasticity, a way of changing the sonic space”.
This autumn, they are touring their new project, If the bell rings we will hear it, to venues in Lincoln, Nottingham and Oxford, working with universities, festivals, arts organisations and other musicians to explore the role of the audience in improvised performance. Whilst in Nottingham, they will work with music students from the University of Nottingham.
Rebecca Lee is an artist and musician. She is an associate artist at Fermynwoods Contemporary Art and is based at Primary, Nottingham. Recent commissions include ‘This Certifies That’ soundtrack for Yelena Popova, Nottingham Contemporary (2016); ‘Rehearsing Memory, Belton 2015’, and ‘Song Sung When’ (2014) for the National Trust; Outside Broadcast (2015) public art commission for radio; ‘Accession Songs’ (2015), SYSON. http://www.rebeccalee.info/
Samuel Rodgers is an artist and musician whose practice encompasses performance, installation and phonography, and explores the spatial and material aspects of sound and listening. Samuel is a member of the Set Ensemble and co-curates the Consumer Waste record label. Samuel has performed across the UK and in Europe, and has recordings published by labels in the UK and US. Recent projects have included ‘Life does not speak; it listens and waits’ (2016), commissioned by MADE; ‘… (globb)’ (2015), a collaboration with Rotterdam-based artist Helen Anna Flanagan; and ‘Material World’ (2015), in collaboration with Laurence Price and Cathy Wade. http://samuelrodgers.info/
Event:
If the bell rings, we will hear itDates:
15 Nov 2016, 6.30pm–8.30pmSupported by:


