The intersection of music and technology is a hotter topic than usual this year, with the proliferation of AI. At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, meanwhile, some shows and events are re-examining this relationship in their own way, with human-generated explorations of how music and technology can interact in an audiovisual environment.
“MŮO is part performance and part installation, and is centred around a music machine I’ve built called the Muonophone,” says Highlands-based music producer Lomond Campbell, no stranger to such experiments when he was in the band FOUND. “It uses muon detectors to detect harmless radiation created by cosmic rays hurtling through deep space, then converts these cosmic rays into evolving music and visuals.”
Presented in collaboration with Sonica Glasgow and the French Institute, with technological support from the University of Glasgow, the French Institute will host ten performances and an ongoing installation throughout the month.
“MŮO is about making nuclear forces that surround us both visible and audible,” says Campbell. “The bigger concept is to stop and contemplate the journey of each muon. Every sound you hear is the result of an unimaginably massive nuclear event in deep space, whether that be energy from a sun, black holes, stars exploding, planets colliding or possibly even other nuclear civilisations annihilating each other. So I’m inviting people to think about that, but there’s no shame at all in just coming along to appreciate the design of the machine and get lost in sound.”
K Mak is Kathryn McKee, a classically-trained cellist from Brisbane, Australia, who has played with big names including Eminem and Kanye West, as well as performing orchestral, chamber and opera sessions. Her performance is named K Mak at the Planetarium, taking over the Demonstration Room at Summerhall to create a planetarium-like audio-visual environment, in consultation with experts from her own local planetarium.
“It’s an explosion of colour and sound, an opportunity to go wherever the music takes you,” says K Mak. “It couples tailored visuals with original live music in a unique, intimate setting, an abstract expression of my own joy and an invitation for others to access theirs. I love the idea of transporting people with music and colour, and I guess it fits with the times in that we appreciate the extra stimulation of visuals with our music. The combination of hundred-year-old instruments with modern audio and visual technology is also appealing.”
Finally, Channel is a deep-listening experience produced by Dutch Kills Theatre Company and created by New York-based musician, composer, and sound designer Jack McGuire, aka Wet Hands. “The audience are invited to use their voice to help shape and create the meditative space together,” he explains. “I’ll improvise a live score of ambient electronic music informed by the audience’s collective sound, creating a space to discover the ways your own personal sounds interact with the collective sound. This piece is about the act of listening with intention, truly listening and being heard as a way to connect to ourselves and to others.
“’Deep listening’ has been something I’ve been interested in for many years, after being introduced to the work of Pauline Oliveros,” he continues. “She came up with the term and created a number of works that challenge audiences to participate in creating sonic meditations. Her work asks us how many sounds we tune out each day and reminds us that the more intentional we can be in listening, the more we open ourselves up to really hearing each other. I want people to find a sense of calm and presence in the hectic environment of the Edinburgh Fringe, to walk away thinking about how they listen to all the sounds of their daily lives, and how doing so with more intention will create more presence and connection.”
MŮO, French Institute, 8-25 Aug (not 11); MŮO Live, French Institute, various dates, 6pm
K Mak at the Planetarium, Summerhall, 31 July-24 Aug (not 11, 18), various times
Channel, Assembly Roxy, 30 Jul-24 Aug (not 12), 2.40pm