Jem Finer

Since studying computer science in the 1970s, Jem Finer has worked in a variety of fields, including photography, film, experimental and popular music, sound recording, sculpture and installation.

Much of his work relates to systems, extended processes and extremes of scale in both time and space and includes Longplayer, a long-durational musical composition and The Gurdy Stone, a 12 foot, 3 ton slate set upright in a field in Kingston, East Sussex by Finer and Jimmy Cauty, marking the beginning of an exploration into the sonic possibilities of stone.

Recent music revolves around a fascination with the hurdy-gurdy and includes hrdy-grdy, a cassette released by Benedict Drew’s Thanet Tape Centre, The Hurdy-Gurdy Song by Local Psycho (Heavenly Recordings) and various other collaborations. Underground, music for an exhibition of Jock McFadyen’s paintings of tube stations, was released in February 2024.

https://jemfiner.bandcamp.com
http://jemfiner.net
longplayer.org

Bredbeddle

Bredbeddle is Rebecca Lee, an artist, composer and musician based in Nottingham, UK.

Across two albums as Bredbeddle, ‘Steps on the Turning Year’ (Bezirk, 2021) and ‘Stackes’ (Fractal Meat Cuts, 2017) her work merges composition and collage. Fragments from her record collection, found sounds and diaristic recordings become parts of a score, building blocks to be written onto a timeline to create something new. While perhaps reminiscent of plunderphonics aesthetically, there is a musicality and narrative coherence to her songs that is distinct from an aleatoric or poetic montaging of sounds.

Strands of harmony and melody, of similarity and juxtaposition, are pulled from unexpected places. Held up for contemplation and then strung together into intricate pieces. Often manifesting as long-form, durational compositions, Bredbeddle’s process is rooted in seeing archives as a launching off point. Recorded material as a site of potential rather than an end point frozen in time and context.

“…a skewed prism, giving interesting and often poignant new perspectives on recognizable sounds, breathing a new essence into the familiar,” - Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis

“Haunted retro-futurists might draw comparisons with The Focus Group, others might imagine ‘Revolution 9’ assembled as a Fifth Form music project on a snowy Tuesday afternoon in 1981. Either way, it’s an evocative triumph from an artist who expertly turns distressed vinyl into distinctly affecting moods,” - Bob Fischer, Electronic Sound

https://bezirk.bandcamp.com/album/steps-on-the-turning-year
https://www.rebeccalee.info/

Arianne Churchman

Arianne Churchman is an artist from Suffolk, working in London. Her work looks at British Folklore and traverses performance, sound, film, textiles and objects. Often slipping in and out of tradition her works look for spaces where we might encounter strange and magical transformations within folklore. Her recent works focus on Suffolk horse folklore, transforming this material into new feminist collective histories and psychedelic dreamscapes in the form of a Dream Horse Cult. She frequently collaborates with other artists including Benedict Drew, Chloe Langlois and Plastique Fantastique.

https://ariannechurchman.com

Plastique Fantastique

Plastique Fantastique, a collaboration between David Burrows, Simon O’Sullivan, Alex Marzeta and Vanessa Page (sometimes with others, including Harriet Skully, Ana Benlloch, Stuart Tait, Mark Jackson, Benedict Drew, Frankie Roberts, Tom Clark, Simon Davenport, Joe Murray, Lawrence Leaman, Samudradaka and Aryapala), is a mythopoetic fiction - an investigation of aesthetics, the sacred, popular culture and politics - produced through comics, performances, text, installations and shrines and assemblages.

http://www.plastiquefantastique.org