Latest postsAn T-Uisge / Rain StoriesThe Mac TV production for BBC Alba featured extensive footage of me wandering among the Scots Pines in East Lothian, recording rain, discussing personal discomfort, the Ocean ARTic Partnership, the beauty of the downpour and climate change. It was broadcast on 13th April. The feature also plays an excerpt from LIGHT WATER IS BLACK WATER It is available on BBC iPlayer for a limited time: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016fdj/an-tuisgerain-stories-series-1-2-beo-leis-an-uisgeliving-with-rain... Read more...Moonlight and Ice: A zooplankton NocturneThanks to the support of the UK's PRS Foundation, I have been able to realise a new work, Moonlight and Ice: A Zooplankton Nocturne. The work, the result of a collaboration with Dr. Laura Hobbs from the Scottish Association for Marine Science, focuses on her emergent research into the behaviour of Arctic zooplankton in the winter night. The zooplankton, perhaps due to diminished ice cover in the winter months shows indications of adapting to lunar cycles, by deep diving during periods of the full moon. This behaviour suggests an impact upon the food chain, and further direct impact of climate change in the Arctic.... Read more...Black Glass : New DateThe date for the re-scheduled premiere of LIGHT WATER IS BLACK WATER has been announced. The event will now happen on Saturday, June 4th at The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh. Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased here: https://www.thequeenshall.net/whats-on/light-water-black-water LIGHT WATER IS BLACK WATER was a commission from the Ocean ARTic Partnership comprising Creative Informatics, People Ocean Planet, MASTs, and Blue Action EU. With collaborators based at the University of Edinburgh and the Alfred Wegener Institut in Germany, new compositions were derived from climate model data showing explicitly how a reduction in Arctic Sea Ice could have catastrophic impact on the climate at lower latitudes.... Read more...Light Water Is Black WaterI recently completed work on my commission for the Ocean ARTic Partnership and now the process of getting the work out there to be heard has begun. A studio recording of LIGHT WATER IS BLACK WATER is now available for download and streaming via all major platforms, including Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music. The Bandcamp version includes bonus downloads including scientific context, development diary and presentation scripts. You can download it here: https://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/album/light-water-is-black-water On November 5th, the Black Glass Ensemble presented the work at Lab#19, Creative Informatics COP26 themed livestream focusing on climate art initiatives across the country. A video of the event will appear shortly, and I hope also to release a high quality audio recording of the event as the performances were beautiful. The public live audience premiere of the work will take place at The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh on January 15th 2022. Tickets are now available for the show and can be purchased here: https://www.thequeenshall.net/whats-on/light-water-black-water... Read more...Scottish Awards for New Music – ShortlistMichael's work with Black Glass ensemble has been recognised by New music Scotland and the Scottish Awards for New Music 2021 with shortlisted nominations in 2 categories. The work BE MINE IN PATIENCE - AN EMBRACE IN B MINOR has been shortlisted for Best New Electroacoustic / Sound Art Work and also for the ISM Award for New Music in Covid Times. Full information on all the awards and nominations can be found on the New Music Scotland website: https://newmusicscotland.co.uk/awards2021/ About Be Mine In Patience:Prior to the 20th century, and the emergent dominance of equal temperament, the association of emotions with particular musical keys was common practice. The Black Glass Ensemble recently revisited this historical alignment of sound and emotion to offer a brief ‘embrace’ in B Minor - the key associated with patience. The initial embrace, featuring the 8 musicians of the Black Glass Ensemble and guest Colin Potter, with whom they had been due to perform prior to the Covid19 lockdown, was well received. Consequently, Black Glass sought to widen the reach of their embrace to other musicians to make a more comprehensive piece of work. The response was unprecedented. 104 musicians returned 247 individual musical tracks to be mixed into this present arrangement. The full 38’ 50” minute work, “Be Mine in Patience: an Embrace in B minor” is made freely available in the hope that this extended embrace may help in some small way to nurture strength, fortitude and comfort. credits released June 15, 2020 Black Glass Ensemble and Friends Be Mine in Patience: an Embrace in B minor Arranged and produced by Michael Begg Cover Image by Ben Ponton, used by permission of Sue Cannon The Black Glass Ensemble: Michael Begg Douglas Caskie Jen Cuthbertson Neil Cuthbertson Clea Friend Julia Lungu Aisling O'Dea Ben Ponton Contributors: Tommy Aashildrød The Alaska None David Allison Christopher Alvarado Mkl Anderson Carsten Aniksdal Artificial Memory Trace Matt Atkins Nigel Ayers Simon Balestrazzi Stephen Bishop Sergey Bulychev Matt Burnett Dave Burraston Ed Carter Kim Cascone Don Clemenza cl0v3n Chris Connelly Dane Law Thomas Dimuzio Pablo Diserens Anthony Donovan John Duncan Kate Ellis Steve Fors Clive Graham Scot Jenerik Jean Johnson Dan Joseph Evan Henderson Robert Henke May Haliburton Mark Hand Jim Haynes Liz Helman Jack Hertz Kathy Hinde Marc Hurtado France Jobin Andreas Karperyd Katpis Tapes Fergus Kelly Julia Kent Jon Lee Edvard Graham Lewis Andrew Liles Malcolm Lindsay Marco Lucchi Patrick Tubin McGinley Grey Malkin Robert Mazrim Radboud Mens Emmanuel Mieville Abul Mogard James Murray Philippe Neau Adi Newton B J Nilsen Mike Nolan nula,cc Aisling O’Dea Orphax Mike Orr Chris Osborne Daniel O’Sullivan Ivy O’Sullivan p_fish_mani Filippo Panichi Lee Paterson PBK Ben Ponton Colin Potter Nicola Quiriconi Audrey Redpath Ivan Ristić Carla Santana Paul sawford Janek Schaefer Second Harmonic Generation Simon Šerc Tim Shaw Chandra Shukla Clodagh Simonds Steven R. Smith Jos Smolders sp3ct3rs Julia Spooner Mayor Stubbs Bill Thompson VIVIB Frans de Waard Warm Digits Simon Whetham Gary Wilkinson Pete Woodhead James Wyness Zach Zinn... Read more...Cultura Inglesa, São PauloFrom Twitter: Through illusion, reflection, projection mapping and ink drawing, Heather Lander’s Breaking Reverie Revisited, with music by Michael Begg, presents an eternal day break on a distant horizon for Brazil’s Cultura Inglesa Festival, in São Paulo from 6 – 21 March. Full details can be found on the Cryptic Glasgow page: Breaking Reverie Revisited... Read more...2020 – 9Time to remember a year to forget Denied almost everything else I took to the studio. All of these recordings are scratched into the skin of 2020 A Moon That Lights Itself, with Clea Friend at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Witness 1 - Satellites announce lockdown Witness 2 - The Weather Engine Witness 3 - with Clodagh Simonds and the Sentinel Satellites - observing Cummings and Goings in the UK Be Mine In Patience - Black Glass and 140 other guests seek to immerse you in solace Witness 4 - with Ben Ponton - we greet a passing comet in the midst of our quarantine with soundings from the earth, the air and the upper atmosphere Witness 5 - I finally reach my vision of a new music for Solastalgia with Aisling O’Dea, Julia Lungu and Clea Friend - the string section from Black Glass Two Gather In The Waiting Room - A defiantly hopeful, yet suspended collaboration with Hans Joachim Roedelius, released by Klanggalerie, as the sun settled into the autumn evening. Arise From The Twilight - Black Glass had all momentum kicked away after they arose in February. This release, closing the year, is the punctuation point around which we start, once again, to gather.... Read more...Creative Climate Data WorkshopI was pleased to contribute to an online workshop organised by Edinburgh’s Creative Informatics team on 22nd October. (https://creativeinformatics.org/) The workshop/discussion, in anticipation of the 2021 COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, looked at creative responses to climate data, and raised toothsome questions on the role and nature of sonification and its relationship to science and music. Lee de Mora, a marine ecosystem modeller from Plymouth Marine Laboratory also presented. He introduced the UKESM1 ‘earth system music’. I used some sample data provided by Lee to build a demonstration of a climate Witness Engine to help raise discussion around how data is manipulated to make musical sense. The demo will, I hope, continue to evolve into a larger project in 2021.... Read more...Arise From The Twilight – TUSK Festival 2020Black Glass Ensemble will hold a live listening party for the upcoming album, Arise From The Twilight at TUSK FESTIVAL 2020 Ben Ponton and I will be in the virtual chat room for a full playback of the album. Place: online Date: Sunday 4th October Time: 1900 (UK) Check out the TUSK festival brochure for full, free schedule: https://tuskfestival.com/artists/brochure/... Read more...Arise From The TwilightBLACK GLASS ENSEMBLE ARISE FROM THE TWILIGHT LIVE AT THE QUEEN’S HALL, EDINBURGH FEBRUARY 13, 2020 CD (Ltd. Ed.) AND DL 11 | 11 | 20 Sign up to the mailing list to be first to hear of the pre-order in October: https://mailchi.mp/ed71e52b95bb/omnempathy-mailing... Read more...Witness Engines gain Connected Innovators supportThis week Creative Edinburgh (https://www.creative-edinburgh.com/) announced the first round of Creative Informatics Connected Innovators. Nine projects from emerging leaders across the creative industries will receive up to £10,000 funding to explore new approaches to their work and advance their careers using data and data-driven technologies! Witness Engines, Michael Begg's ongoing project seeking to create new music for the anthropocene that speaks to our growing solastalgia, is one of the nine projects. For more information, and a full listing of the other projects, go here: https://creativeinformatics.org/showcase/creative-edinburghs-connected-innovators/... Read more...Breaking Reverie @ Mutek & Cryptic ‘Sonic Bites’Heather Lander's light sculpture installation, Breaking Reverie, with music by Michael Begg featured at this year's Montreal Mutek. A Covid sensitive rendering of the work will be published by Cryptic on September 24th as part of the 'Sonic Bites' taster programme. The work will show online in a free but ticketed event at 1300 (UTC+1) More details, and tickets, can be found on the Cryptic website... Breaking Reverie Revisited... Read more...Two Gather In The Waiting RoomMichael Begg & Hans Joachim Roedelius TWO GATHER IN THE WAITING ROOM Klanggalerie (Vienna) CD, gg345 Order CD: https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg345 Download from Bandcamp: https://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/album/two-gather-in-the-waiting-room In August 2020 as part of Michael Begg’s residency at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall, a special collaborative performance had been due to happen between Begg and legendary figure of the European electronic music scene, Hans Joachim Roedelius. Lockdown forced their collaboration to evolve remotely and has resulted in the release, Two Gather In The Waiting Room. The result is a beautiful fusion of their individual signature sounds, and a movingly evocative, and unexpectedly positive portrait of artistic life in lockdown. <a href="http://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/album/two-gather-in-the-waiting-room">Two Gather In The Waiting Room by Michael Begg & Roedelius</a>... Read more... Latest postsAn T-Uisge / Rain StoriesThe Mac TV production for BBC Alba featured extensive footage of me wandering among the Scots Pines in East Lothian, recording rain, discussing personal discomfort, the Ocean ARTic Partnership, the beauty of the downpour and climate change. It was broadcast on 13th April. The feature also plays an excerpt from LIGHT WATER IS BLACK WATER It is available on BBC iPlayer for a limited time: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016fdj/an-tuisgerain-stories-series-1-2-beo-leis-an-uisgeliving-with-rain... Read more...Moonlight and Ice: A zooplankton NocturneThanks to the support of the UK's PRS Foundation, I have been able to realise a new work, Moonlight and Ice: A Zooplankton Nocturne. The work, the result of a collaboration with Dr. Laura Hobbs from the Scottish Association for Marine Science, focuses on her emergent research into the behaviour of Arctic zooplankton in the winter night. The zooplankton, perhaps due to diminished ice cover in the winter months shows indications of adapting to lunar cycles, by deep diving during periods of the full moon. This behaviour suggests an impact upon the food chain, and further direct impact of climate change in the Arctic.... Read more...Black Glass : New DateThe date for the re-scheduled premiere of LIGHT WATER IS BLACK WATER has been announced. The event will now happen on Saturday, June 4th at The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh. Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased here: https://www.thequeenshall.net/whats-on/light-water-black-water LIGHT WATER IS BLACK WATER was a commission from the Ocean ARTic Partnership comprising Creative Informatics, People Ocean Planet, MASTs, and Blue Action EU. With collaborators based at the University of Edinburgh and the Alfred Wegener Institut in Germany, new compositions were derived from climate model data showing explicitly how a reduction in Arctic Sea Ice could have catastrophic impact on the climate at lower latitudes.... Read more...Light Water Is Black WaterI recently completed work on my commission for the Ocean ARTic Partnership and now the process of getting the work out there to be heard has begun. A studio recording of LIGHT WATER IS BLACK WATER is now available for download and streaming via all major platforms, including Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music. The Bandcamp version includes bonus downloads including scientific context, development diary and presentation scripts. You can download it here: https://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/album/light-water-is-black-water On November 5th, the Black Glass Ensemble presented the work at Lab#19, Creative Informatics COP26 themed livestream focusing on climate art initiatives across the country. A video of the event will appear shortly, and I hope also to release a high quality audio recording of the event as the performances were beautiful. The public live audience premiere of the work will take place at The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh on January 15th 2022. Tickets are now available for the show and can be purchased here: https://www.thequeenshall.net/whats-on/light-water-black-water... Read more...Scottish Awards for New Music – ShortlistMichael's work with Black Glass ensemble has been recognised by New music Scotland and the Scottish Awards for New Music 2021 with shortlisted nominations in 2 categories. The work BE MINE IN PATIENCE - AN EMBRACE IN B MINOR has been shortlisted for Best New Electroacoustic / Sound Art Work and also for the ISM Award for New Music in Covid Times. Full information on all the awards and nominations can be found on the New Music Scotland website: https://newmusicscotland.co.uk/awards2021/ About Be Mine In Patience:Prior to the 20th century, and the emergent dominance of equal temperament, the association of emotions with particular musical keys was common practice. The Black Glass Ensemble recently revisited this historical alignment of sound and emotion to offer a brief ‘embrace’ in B Minor - the key associated with patience. The initial embrace, featuring the 8 musicians of the Black Glass Ensemble and guest Colin Potter, with whom they had been due to perform prior to the Covid19 lockdown, was well received. Consequently, Black Glass sought to widen the reach of their embrace to other musicians to make a more comprehensive piece of work. The response was unprecedented. 104 musicians returned 247 individual musical tracks to be mixed into this present arrangement. The full 38’ 50” minute work, “Be Mine in Patience: an Embrace in B minor” is made freely available in the hope that this extended embrace may help in some small way to nurture strength, fortitude and comfort. credits released June 15, 2020 Black Glass Ensemble and Friends Be Mine in Patience: an Embrace in B minor Arranged and produced by Michael Begg Cover Image by Ben Ponton, used by permission of Sue Cannon The Black Glass Ensemble: Michael Begg Douglas Caskie Jen Cuthbertson Neil Cuthbertson Clea Friend Julia Lungu Aisling O'Dea Ben Ponton Contributors: Tommy Aashildrød The Alaska None David Allison Christopher Alvarado Mkl Anderson Carsten Aniksdal Artificial Memory Trace Matt Atkins Nigel Ayers Simon Balestrazzi Stephen Bishop Sergey Bulychev Matt Burnett Dave Burraston Ed Carter Kim Cascone Don Clemenza cl0v3n Chris Connelly Dane Law Thomas Dimuzio Pablo Diserens Anthony Donovan John Duncan Kate Ellis Steve Fors Clive Graham Scot Jenerik Jean Johnson Dan Joseph Evan Henderson Robert Henke May Haliburton Mark Hand Jim Haynes Liz Helman Jack Hertz Kathy Hinde Marc Hurtado France Jobin Andreas Karperyd Katpis Tapes Fergus Kelly Julia Kent Jon Lee Edvard Graham Lewis Andrew Liles Malcolm Lindsay Marco Lucchi Patrick Tubin McGinley Grey Malkin Robert Mazrim Radboud Mens Emmanuel Mieville Abul Mogard James Murray Philippe Neau Adi Newton B J Nilsen Mike Nolan nula,cc Aisling O’Dea Orphax Mike Orr Chris Osborne Daniel O’Sullivan Ivy O’Sullivan p_fish_mani Filippo Panichi Lee Paterson PBK Ben Ponton Colin Potter Nicola Quiriconi Audrey Redpath Ivan Ristić Carla Santana Paul sawford Janek Schaefer Second Harmonic Generation Simon Šerc Tim Shaw Chandra Shukla Clodagh Simonds Steven R. Smith Jos Smolders sp3ct3rs Julia Spooner Mayor Stubbs Bill Thompson VIVIB Frans de Waard Warm Digits Simon Whetham Gary Wilkinson Pete Woodhead James Wyness Zach Zinn... Read more...Cultura Inglesa, São PauloFrom Twitter: Through illusion, reflection, projection mapping and ink drawing, Heather Lander’s Breaking Reverie Revisited, with music by Michael Begg, presents an eternal day break on a distant horizon for Brazil’s Cultura Inglesa Festival, in São Paulo from 6 – 21 March. Full details can be found on the Cryptic Glasgow page: Breaking Reverie Revisited... Read more...2020 – 9Time to remember a year to forget Denied almost everything else I took to the studio. All of these recordings are scratched into the skin of 2020 A Moon That Lights Itself, with Clea Friend at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Witness 1 - Satellites announce lockdown Witness 2 - The Weather Engine Witness 3 - with Clodagh Simonds and the Sentinel Satellites - observing Cummings and Goings in the UK Be Mine In Patience - Black Glass and 140 other guests seek to immerse you in solace Witness 4 - with Ben Ponton - we greet a passing comet in the midst of our quarantine with soundings from the earth, the air and the upper atmosphere Witness 5 - I finally reach my vision of a new music for Solastalgia with Aisling O’Dea, Julia Lungu and Clea Friend - the string section from Black Glass Two Gather In The Waiting Room - A defiantly hopeful, yet suspended collaboration with Hans Joachim Roedelius, released by Klanggalerie, as the sun settled into the autumn evening. Arise From The Twilight - Black Glass had all momentum kicked away after they arose in February. This release, closing the year, is the punctuation point around which we start, once again, to gather.... Read more...Creative Climate Data WorkshopI was pleased to contribute to an online workshop organised by Edinburgh’s Creative Informatics team on 22nd October. (https://creativeinformatics.org/) The workshop/discussion, in anticipation of the 2021 COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, looked at creative responses to climate data, and raised toothsome questions on the role and nature of sonification and its relationship to science and music. Lee de Mora, a marine ecosystem modeller from Plymouth Marine Laboratory also presented. He introduced the UKESM1 ‘earth system music’. I used some sample data provided by Lee to build a demonstration of a climate Witness Engine to help raise discussion around how data is manipulated to make musical sense. The demo will, I hope, continue to evolve into a larger project in 2021.... Read more...Arise From The Twilight – TUSK Festival 2020Black Glass Ensemble will hold a live listening party for the upcoming album, Arise From The Twilight at TUSK FESTIVAL 2020 Ben Ponton and I will be in the virtual chat room for a full playback of the album. Place: online Date: Sunday 4th October Time: 1900 (UK) Check out the TUSK festival brochure for full, free schedule: https://tuskfestival.com/artists/brochure/... Read more...Arise From The TwilightBLACK GLASS ENSEMBLE ARISE FROM THE TWILIGHT LIVE AT THE QUEEN’S HALL, EDINBURGH FEBRUARY 13, 2020 CD (Ltd. Ed.) AND DL 11 | 11 | 20 Sign up to the mailing list to be first to hear of the pre-order in October: https://mailchi.mp/ed71e52b95bb/omnempathy-mailing... Read more...Witness Engines gain Connected Innovators supportThis week Creative Edinburgh (https://www.creative-edinburgh.com/) announced the first round of Creative Informatics Connected Innovators. Nine projects from emerging leaders across the creative industries will receive up to £10,000 funding to explore new approaches to their work and advance their careers using data and data-driven technologies! Witness Engines, Michael Begg's ongoing project seeking to create new music for the anthropocene that speaks to our growing solastalgia, is one of the nine projects. For more information, and a full listing of the other projects, go here: https://creativeinformatics.org/showcase/creative-edinburghs-connected-innovators/... Read more...Breaking Reverie @ Mutek & Cryptic ‘Sonic Bites’Heather Lander's light sculpture installation, Breaking Reverie, with music by Michael Begg featured at this year's Montreal Mutek. A Covid sensitive rendering of the work will be published by Cryptic on September 24th as part of the 'Sonic Bites' taster programme. The work will show online in a free but ticketed event at 1300 (UTC+1) More details, and tickets, can be found on the Cryptic website... Breaking Reverie Revisited... Read more...Two Gather In The Waiting RoomMichael Begg & Hans Joachim Roedelius TWO GATHER IN THE WAITING ROOM Klanggalerie (Vienna) CD, gg345 Order CD: https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg345 Download from Bandcamp: https://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/album/two-gather-in-the-waiting-room In August 2020 as part of Michael Begg’s residency at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall, a special collaborative performance had been due to happen between Begg and legendary figure of the European electronic music scene, Hans Joachim Roedelius. Lockdown forced their collaboration to evolve remotely and has resulted in the release, Two Gather In The Waiting Room. The result is a beautiful fusion of their individual signature sounds, and a movingly evocative, and unexpectedly positive portrait of artistic life in lockdown. <a href="http://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/album/two-gather-in-the-waiting-room">Two Gather In The Waiting Room by Michael Begg & Roedelius</a>... Read more...
