We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our next artists-in-residence, West Yorkshire based musician, Sophie Cooper and French musician, Delphine Dora. Collaborating across two different countries presents a unique set of challenges, so spending a week here with us should be very productive for them!

Come out on Friday, 21^st April at 7:30pm to hear what Sophie & Delphine have been working on. They will be joined by Cork-based musician, Roslyn Steer. There is a 5 euro suggested donation to support the musicians.

Sophie and Delphine have embarked on an ongoing improvisational project together exploring sonic possibilities between their primary instruments of trombone, piano, voice and electronics. Cooper and Dora’s improvisational approach to making music has come from a shared interest in exploration of the unknown. The music produced is without restraints and sits somewhere between contemporary classical and experimental drone music.

As well as instrument playing, the duo have a strong interest in the human voice and possibilities of non-verbal communication, negotiating space between them and thinking about musical call and response. They see improvisation as a method of rejecting standard musical practices and the inclusion of electronic processes in their work creates a fresh way to present traditional brass instruments and accompaniment standards.

Hear them on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/wasistdas/delphine-dora-sophie-cooper-les-differences-sunissent

The collaboration between two women is also a crucial element of the duo’s ethos. In each other they find inspiration, spur each other on to be creative and hope to motivate other women to work with sound. With the forthcoming Brexit on the horizon they also see a collaboration between the UK and France as an important statement of solidarity and rejection of this event.

In the past two years, Cooper and Dora have undertaken two UK tours including invitations to perform at Oxfordshire’s Supernormal Festival, twice at London’s Café Oto, MK Gallery in Milton Keynes and Manchester’s Islington Mill. Their first album, which was recorded at Todmorden Unitarian Church, a historic late 19^th century chapel, was critically acclaimed and featured in both Pitchfork and The Quietus’ best of 2015 end of year lists.

France’s Delphine Dora and England’s Sophie Cooper have both made impressively uncategorizable music over the past decade, and while they’ve been mutual supporters (Dora released Cooper’s excellent Our Aquarius on her Wild Silence label last year), this is the first time they’ve played together. Improvising in an echo-laden church in West Yorkshire, the pair found a sound distinct from their respective individual work. Their voices fill the space in a haunting-yet-reverent way; some of the tracks are like wordless hymns sung by ghosts. —Marc Masters, PITCHFORK Best Experimental Albums of 2015

https://sophiecoopermusic.com/

https://delphinedora.wordpress.com/