SSTRAPP Summer Jam #2 is the second iteration of this annual event, comprising a full three days of sonic and somatic experimentation. For this one Inigo and Maeve will be joined by Patrick Valiquet, a writer, translator and musician studying the culture, history and philosophy of experimental musical thinking and invention. Patrick is currently working on the Derek Bailey archive, and he’ll present some ideas around the historicity of free improvisation.
We’ve got loads to do in a short time but we’ll try to leave space for participants to collectively program the schedule, developing over the days as we share and explore. We’ve called it the summer jam because it is an attempt to improvise together not just musically, but in the co-organisation of this collective project. It’s a jam so it’s most fundamentally about joyful and attentive collective musicking. But good improvisation doesn’t spring from assumed freedom or spontaneity, it is a matter of careful attention to the social and material conditions of improvising, listening to one another, and constructing together an ensemble that shares certain operative constraints in encountering those conditions, so that we can play with them effectively and lucidly transform them. The ensemble is yet to be assembled, and we do not yet know what it will be. So bring your thoughts, desires, wishes and wants, and let’s collectively compose it.
As usual we’ll have the synth lab set up, with loads of amazing synthesizers, samplers, effects pedals, acoustic instruments, and other audio equipment that you can use, and all the incredible sonic ingenuity and wisdom of Maeve to help realize your most outrageous musical fantasies. We’ll be talking about free improv, non-idiomatic music and musicological archiving, and continuing previous discussions on synthesis, noise and embodied listening, auditory neuroscience, sound studies and the politics of musicking.
We’ll work together in small groups to explore various practical and theoretical ideas, directed towards the construction of diagrams, installations, and group performances. On Saturday night we’ll make time for performances, and we’ll do a special SSTRAPP broadcast on Domes FM, so bring your usb sticks and be ready to play some tracks, spit some bars on the mic, or dance until your legs turn to jelly.
We know that SSTRAPP participants have developed their own sonic and somatic skills and knowledge, and we want to make the space available so that we can collectively share and benefit from it. If you’re interested in sharing and you’d like to present your research and/or practice please get in touch and we can try to add your intervention into the program. There’s ample space and equipment at BOARC for everyone to collectively pursue their sonic and somatic dreams.
Bidston is an anti-racist, trans-inclusive, intersectional feminist space where we welcome everyone who abides by this accountability agreement.
There are no requirements for attending, everyone is welcome, whatever their knowledge, abilities, etc., and the theory and practice should be accessible for those with no background in them.
We recommend arriving at Bidston sometime on Thursday so we’re ready to start working on Friday morning, but if you can’t make it then you can still join later.
It is possible to participate with or without accommodation. We will do collective meals together, which is also an optional extra cost. The cost for participating in the workshop are as follows:
Workshop fee: On a sliding scale from £20-£30 per day, or £60-£90 for the total three days. Please pay more if you can, the lower end of the scale is for those who really couldn’t afford it otherwise, the cost is very cheap for what you’re getting!
Accommodation fee: On a sliding scale from £30-£40 per day, or £90-£120 for the total three days. If you’re struggling financially, e.g. on benefits, get in touch and it may be possible to reduce the cost.
Meals fee: £15 per day
If you’re interested in coming and want to know more get in touch at sstrapp@proton.me