‘For any number of players, any sounds or combinations of sounds produced by any means, with or without other activities.’

Variations IV is the middle part of a set of works (also including 0’00”; and Atlas Eclipticalis) which can be said to follow from 4’33”. The other pieces representing ‘individual action’ and ‘nirvana’, respectively, Variations IV represents ‘samsara’, the turmoil of everyday life.

Although the performance is not determined sonically in any way, the piece is inherently site-specific. Its score consists of a set of circles and dots on transparent plastic which are dropped at random onto a plan of the venue and the surrounding area. Lines are then drawn to indicate positions and movement of sounds. This includes sounds from outside the space, including open doors, field recordings or sounds overheard from neighbouring rooms.

Today’s performance encompasses the whole running time of the concert and shorter performances. The score was created from a plan of Kettle’s Yard centred on the music room and uses field recordings made within the space after hours (air conditioners, traffic sounds focused in ceramic containers) as well as the sounds of Sunday lunchtime in neighbouring Northampton St and Castle St.

Experimental PA using FM radios and local FM transmitters
J K Brook

First seen at ‘Frequency Modulation at Kettle’s Yard New Music Mornings last year, the inspiration for this came from the mass listening event on the first day of FM broadcasting for Cambridge’s community radio station 209Radio and hearing about car-radios used to relay drive-in movie soundtracks, as well as from a liking for the ‘lo-fi’ compressed sound of cheap radios and the idea of creating a PA which could be easily distributed and moved around a space. The PA will be used in various pieces during the concert.

John Cage Radio Music (1956)
For 1-8 Radios
C Joynes, J K Brook, Adele May, Laura Howes, Matt Stephenson, Cos Chapman

Cos Chapman

A sound designer and performer for many years, Cos has worked with artists from a variety of backgrounds on film, dance, theatre and installations. He also collaborates with other musicians playing rock, contemporary and improvised music. He has recently been developing his live improvisation work, recently playing alongside Elliott Sharp and Christian Marclay for the SPNM at the Luminaire.

His soundtracks have been heard on Resonance FM and at national events including the Manchester Short Film Festival, Newcastle Vain Festival, Sonic Arts Network Expo! in Manchester, Thames Tideway Project and Anna Chen’s Taikonaut …

C Joynes

“Acoustic guitarist C Joynes uses traditional country-blues and early ragtime techniques to explore alternative melodic traditions: the English folk-tune; North and West African music; elements of classical Indian music;proto-minimalist and impressionist musics from the European classical proto-minimalist and impressionist musics from the European classical tradition. His approach contains a subtle and unassuming experimentation, with a penchant for reworking over-familiar pieces and stripping them of their kitsch and cliché, presenting them afresh.” - Rhodri Davies

He will be performing a number of shorter pieces, selected to demonstrate a variety of approaches he uses in engaging with improvisation.

John Cage Radio Music (1956)
Transposed to FM
For 1-8 Radios
C Joynes, J K Brook, Adele May, Laura Howes, Matt Stephenson, Cos Chapman

At the time Cage composed Radio Music, the AM (MW) band was the home for most music and popular stations in the USA as well as in the UK. Today it is FM which plays the same role. This interpretation of Radio Music attempts to achieve the feeling of (potentially jarring) ‘everyday’ radio at the current time and place that the original may have had as well as illustrating the contrasting content different performances of the piece can take.

Artistic Direction: J K Brook