ORGAN REFRAMED: CHRIS WATSON AND CLAIRE M SINGER
Organ Reframed
Saturday 17th September
Voci del Vento
Claire M Singer and Chris Watson with the London Contemporary and Choir
Live visuals by Jim Horsfield, Adam Moffatt-Seaman
Welcome to Union Chapel!
Tonight Chris Watson's soundscapes from the habitats northwards of the Antarctica to the Arctic accompanied by a score by Claire M Singer take you on an audiovisual journey through the beauty of our natural world…
20.00-20.30 Part One
The dry valleys and ice fields on the Antarctic continent
Underwater currents of the Great Southern Ocean
Winds over Cape Point, South Africa
The Kalahari desert, Botswana
21.00 - 21.30 Part Two
Air in motion over the Indian Ocean
Mount Horaiji sacred cedar forest, Japan
Grey seals singing on the Isle of May, Scotland
Nightingale song, Suffolk, England
22.00 - 22.30 Part Three
Whimbrel singing over reindeer moss, Snæfellsnes, Iceland
Sea wash on Djúpalónssandur lava beach, the Snæfellsnes peninsular Iceland
Bearded seals singing under the sea ice, Svalbard
Winds through ice holes, the North Pole
Soprano
Jennifer Harper
Harriet Armston-Clarke
Eve McGrath
Sally Carr
Mezzo Soprano
Heloise Werner
Rose Staniewska
Joanna Harries
Rose Martin
Violin
Mandhira De Saram
Viola
Matthew Kettle
Emma Sheppard
Freya Hicks
Cello
Brian O'Kane
Sergio Serra
Stephanie Tress
French Horn
Richard Bayliss
Kate Hainsworth
Trumpet
Dave Geoghegan
Jonny Abraham
Oliver Carey
Trombone
Barnaby Philpott
Ross Johnson
Cimbasso
Mike Levis
Visuals
Jim Horsfield and Adam Moffatt-Seaman
We dedicate Organ Reframed 2022 to the memory of our friends Philip Jeck and Mira Calix who we had the honour of working with in 2016 and 2018.
Chris Watson was a founding member of the influential Sheffield based experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Since then he has developed a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals and habitats from around the world. As a freelance composer and sound recordist Watson specialises creating spatial sound installations which feature a strong sense and spirit of place.
His television work includes many programmes in the David Attenborough ‘Life’ series including ‘The Life of Birds’ which won a BAFTA Award for ‘Best Factual Sound’ in 1996, and as the location sound recordist for the BBC series ‘Frozen Planet’ which also won a BAFTA Award for ‘Best Factual Sound’ (2012).
Watson has recorded and featured in many BBC Radio 4 and World Service productions including ‘The Wire’ which won him the Broadcasting Press Guild’s Broadcaster of The Year Award (2012). His music is regularly featured on the BBC Radio 3 programme ‘Late Junction’. He has also worked extensively for RTE Radio 1 on series such as ‘Sound Stories’
In 2013 Watson received a Paul Hamlyn Composers Award.His installations have been commissioned by international galleries and festivals such as Sheffield Millennium Gallery, Opera North in Leeds, The National Gallery, London, The Louvre, Paris, the Aichi Triennial in Japan and Unsound in Kraków.
Claire M Singer is a composer and performer of acoustic and electronic music, film and installations. Known for her experimental approach to the organ her work draws inspiration from the dramatic landscape of her native Scotland, exploring rich harmonic textures and complex overtones that create ever-shifting melodic and rhythmic patterns disappearing almost as soon as they emerge. Her three critically acclaimed releases on Touch feature Singer playing both organ and cello (‘..each piece is timeless and genuinely magical’ – The Quietus). Performances include Queen Elizabeth Hall; Glasgow Cathedral; Tate Modern; Westerkerk opening for Low and the Barbican opening for Stars of the Lid. The Guardian wrote ‘Claire M Singer really knows how to wring the best out of this magnificent instrument, creating moments of sustained rapture’ Most recently her solo organ work The Molendinar featured in The New York Times '5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Organ'.
Awards include the Oram Award in 2017 for her innovation in sound and music and the Festival Castell de Peralada Award for best film score in 2019 (Tell It To The Bees). In 2020 her work Gleann Ciùin was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award, which was commissioned by the London Contemporary Orchestra.
Singer has been Music Director of the organ at Union Chapel since 2012. In 2016 she founded Organ Reframed, which focuses on commissioning and presenting innovative new experimental music, re-imagining the organ for both artist and audience. Past commissions include Éliane Radigue, Low, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie. In 2022 Claire launched the Organ Reframed label to release the catalogue of commissions with Éliane Radigue being the first.
London Contemporary Orchestra is a leading global orchestral group focused on playing, commissioning and developing new music and artistic output. Alongside working with well-known artists, LCO focus on developing a diverse next generation of players, conductors and composers by creating opportunities for them to work at the highest professional level.
Formed in 2008 by co-artistic Directors Robert Ames and Hugh Brunt, the LCO has collaborated with a wide array of musicians, artists, creative figures, platforms and venues such as: Radiohead, Frank Ocean, Jed Kurzel, Jonny Greenwood, Steve Reich, Justice, Terry Riley, Thom Yorke, Mica Levi, Actress, Beck, William Basinski, Richard Reid Parry, Goldfrapp, James Lavelle, Secret Cinema, Vivienne Westwood, Nike, Bill Morrison, Conrad Shawcross, Ron Arad, Hannah Perry, NTS, Boiler Room, DAZED, Resident Advisor, Meltdown Festival, Barbican, Southbank Centre, Roundhouse, Printworks, Tate Modern and BBC Proms.
LCO have a strong recording and performance record for film, television and music, having recorded soundtracks such as The Master, Alien: Covenant, Macbeth, Phantom Thread, Assassin’s Creed, You Were Never Really Here, McMafia, Suspiria, American Animals, performed live Moonlight, There Will be Blood and Under the Skin and featured heavily (strings and choir) on Radiohead’s 2016 A Moon Shaped Pool.
Upcoming projects include: A world tour of Phantom Thread performed live, a development collaboration with Erased Tapes label, a new organ concerto with Philip Glass, a studio album with Actress, a new collaboration with Hannah Perry and Mica Levi, a new live show of Become Ocean developed with Universal Assembly Unit.
The LCO is a winner of the RPS ‘best ensemble’ award, the UK’s highest accolade for an orchestral group.
“London Contemporary Orchestra has become one of Britain’s brightest beacons for new music. Its repertoire is adventurous yet it attracts sell-out crowds to extraordinary venues and has a remarkable online following. It nurtures new audiences, forges fruitful alliances across the stylistic spectrum, and champions challenging scores with virtuosic flair.”
- Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards
Visual Artists Adam Moffatt-Seaman and Jim Horsfield have worked together since 2003. They have collaborated with numerous artists creating visuals and performing live with orchestras, electronic artists and bands across the globe. These include Portishead, The Prentders, Jon Hopkins, Brian Eno and even a TED talk with Beardyman.
They created and run ‘Geminate’ a digital interactive public art installation which has been installed in London, Arras (France), Suffolk and Sussex.
For 'Voci del Vento', they have taken inspiration from Claire M Singer and Chris Watson’s piece, to present an immersive architectural projection mapped journey, that travels across the natural world.”
Organ Reframed
In 2016 award winning artist Claire M Singer, known for her experimental approach to the organ founded Organ Reframed at Union Chapel, London,where she is music director of the organ. The only festival of its kind, Organ Reframed focuses on commissioning innovative new music, introducing new artists and audiences to how versatile this instrument is. In 2022 Claire set up a label to release these commissions with Occam XXV by Éliane Radigue being the first release.
‘The idea of Organ Reframed dates back to 2006 when I was commissioned to write my first organ piece. At the time I was mostly composing in the studio and was struck by the vast breadth of the instrument and how capable it was of creating timbres that were similar to what I was working with electronically. The lush acoustic quality of the sound resonating in the space was incredible and the sonic possibilities seemed endless. I felt so fortunate to have had the time to experiment and explore the instrument and realised perhaps the reason there wasn’t a huge amount of experimental works being written for organ was because they are mainly housed in churches and concert halls so you really need to know someone with a key
From that point on I started composing almost exclusively for organ and since launching Organ Reframed in 2016 I am now able to give fellow artists the opportunity to explore what an incredible instrument it is.’
– Claire M Singer
About our 1877 Father Henry Willis Organ
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Organ Reframed 2022 is brought to you by Union Chapel Project in partnership with the London Contemporary Orchestra with generous support from Arts Council England, PRS for Music Foundation, The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust and the Three Monkies Trust