Recomposed takes audio and video recordings of live music performances made on the day of an event, to create an entirely new -sonically and visually- world, that the audience can experience directly after the source performance. This is no remix: the intensity of the work generates material which is new and exciting while still rooted in that recent shared experience.     

The project developed as a way of engaging diverse audiences in high-quality exploratory electronic music. It premiered in Oxford in 2014, recomposing a concert by jazz pianist Ivo Neame with saxophonist Julian Arguelles. Audience responses were overwhelmingly positive, the tangible link to something familiar clearly breaking down barriers to music and sound art that they wouldn’t ordinarily experience, giving them a foundation for deeper appreciation and exploration. The Oxford recomposition was broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction.

Recomposed went on to Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2016, again with a broadcast on Radio 3's Jazz on 3, reworking a show by Soweto Kinch.  

Recomposed can work with any genre as a source, and as such it provides an excellent tool for audience development and engagement whilst simultaneously presenting something with real artistic depth and pedigree. The results can be posted online (alongside straight recordings of the source), giving a legacy not only to the event but a wider and more unusual web presence for the presenter and all the artists involved.

Iain Chambers is a composer, performer and radio producer and co-founder of musique concrète composing/performing collective Langham Research Centre. Iain's music is heard internationally in concerts, national radio, multimedia productions and sound art installations. He's performed at Tate Modern, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Barbican Art Gallery amongst many other places. Iain has been commissioned by The Guardian, Totally Thames festival, Borealis Festival, BBC Radio 3 and ABC Australia. His work on radio dramas in particular has won several international awards.

Nina Perry has produced radio features and documentaries, for the BBC and internationally, since 2003. Her music compositions have featured in many of these radio features as well as stage plays. A concert featuring Nina's radio music was recently staged by Crash Ensemble in Dublin.

Pascal Wyse is a sound designer and composer, cartoonist and journalist whose sound and written work has been publish by the Guardian amongst other international publications.

Kathy Hinde is a visual artist who has a strong history of working with contemporary musicians and in unusual and challenging environments. Amongst others she has worked with Joanna MacGregor, Maja Ratkje, Sadhana Dance, London Sinfonietta and Will Gregory (Goldfrapp). Her work often utilizes chance procedures and innovative uses of technology.

Practicalities

Recomposed can work on at least two models – through recording soundchecks/ rehearsals of an hour or more plus the performance, or through access to the musicians separately to record elements of what they will be playing in the performance. Recomposed can work with acoustic music or amplified music. Recomposition can be done at a standalone event or as part of a festival presenting multiple recompositions. As standard Recomposed comes with two composers and one video artist.

Recomposed works best in a separate space to the source performance, a space that the audience would naturally go into or through (a foyer for example). The recomposition artists work in public and are quite happy to be visible whilst creating the new work, creating a buzz around the activity. Recomposed comes as a largely self-sufficient package including PA including splits to come from the venue’s own PA plus projection and its own technical team. It needs just power and space from the host.