OOR_Scintilla

we are 4 days in to our two-week residency at Hospitalfield and it has been a wonderful whirlwind!
..walks, talks, slow gazing and grazing, endless squeaky corridor roaming, nook and book scouring, statue staring, breathtaking portrait pondering, pipe and bell tingling, ferns and monkey tries, ancient string strumming, bedroom and garden critters, food sharing, group fire-building and song...much of that before we really got into the studio! We'll be sharing more shortly on what we're working on 🎶🚪🏺🌿

We have a new sound artefact in this exciting show organised by at opening this Saturday! Come along to experience some magical performances + artworks to celebrate May Day! 🌓🕸️🎭🪬


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EXHIBITION ANNOUNCEMENT! The Witches Dance at Sett Studios. A group exhibition RE-VISIONING TRADITION, FOLKLORIC TRANSFORMATIONS, AND WITCHCRAFT 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷 Opening night (April 29th 6-9pm) will feature performances on STAGE-AS-ARTWORK or ARTWORK-AS-STAGE by myself and Laurie .w.macpherson More information to follow. 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷

our current residency with Settlement Projects and Sett Studios is focused on the archives recording the important history of the Edinburgh Settlement movement…

Our research into this has particularly led us to think about the role traditional music & song have played in the representation and preservation of communities who have often been subject to social exclusion - those within gypsy/traveller culture for example.

Exploring analogue tape methods of production, we’re working towards a new collection of compositions interpreting these archives, that will be released in digital & physical format.

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A bit of background on this history of Settlement projects...

Edinburgh's Settlement Projects community shop is one of the first ever thrift shops. It was established as part of the international Settlement movement that originated in London in 1886 - a global network of voluntary organisations & social action centres working closely with local communities, representing and responding to needs & aspirations to promote social & environmental justice.
Edinburgh Settlement started in 1905 as Edinburgh University Settlement (EUS) to help alleviate poverty, encouraging staff, students & graduates to be part of various outreach initiatives providing services that improved the lives of those within deprived/disadvantaged areas & communities. ‘Settlement Houses’ were established in underprivileged districts of the city, where students would live & work to lead clubs and societies, coordinate support & undertake social investigation work. EUS has been instrumental in many initiatives in community development, welfare, education, voluntary work, local resources and arts & cultural activities.

Since EUS closed in 2010, Settlement Projects has been essential in continuing the legacy of this work & together with the university is a custodian of the archives recording the Edinburgh Settlement history.

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Archival material in images shared with kind permission of Settlement Projects 📸

an inspiring visit to the School of Scottish Studies at The University of Edinburgh last week as part of our current Sett Studios residency research exploring the history of the Edinburgh University Settlement movement, an innovative social movement working with communities that evolved Leith Walk's present-day Settlement Projects

The SoSS is an incredible repository of material recording the cultural traditions and folklore of Scotland. Alongside extensive photographic, film, video and manuscript collections, it holds a sound archive of over 33,000 recordings. The many notations and recordings are an important representation of people's creativity in Gaelic, Scots and English languages, as well as histories of communities throughout Scotland and its diaspora.

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Our interest in Settlement Projects' own archive connected to the EUS has led us to think about the role traditional music & song have played in representing both the exclusion and expression of certain communities or cultures, how they have come to be recorded and re-emerge...

This is the first of several research visits to the University Collections during our Sett residency. Needless to say we are having a mighty time exploring all that these archives hold 📼🎞️📽️📀🎧

Stay tuned for more updates!

Foik Flaw I-III, our original three-part soundtrack composed for the FOIK FLAW procession with Sett Studios Settlement Projects in collaboration with Josh Corkill is now available to listen to on Soundcloud!

Foik Flaw I-III Foik Flaw is an original three-part soundtrack composed by OOR_Scintilla for the opening procession event of the FOIK FLAW exhibition at Edinburgh’s Sett Studios (October 2022) in conjunction with Set

the FOIK FLAW documentary video is here! Charlie Jones-Gosling has made this fab short film capturing the opening night of the recent FOIK FLAW exhibition at Sett Studios & Settlement Projects, including the costumed procession down Edinburgh's Leith Walk which we had the pleasure of soundtracking in collaboration with Josh Corkill

With music & performances by Sam Wood, Faliraki, Cod O'Donnell

FOIK FLAW On Saturday 1st October 2022, FOIK FLAW opened with a joyful procession doon Leith Walk, led by costumed artists, and uniquely soundtracked by OOR_Scintilla + Josh…

FOIK FLAW is now open at Sett Studios until Sat 15th October.

Having soundtracked Saturday evening’s beautifully eccentric costumed procession down Leith Walk with a new 3-part composition made in collaboration with Josh Corkill, OOR_Scintilla are also presenting a new sound work in this exhibition, produced during our recent residency Sett Studios + Settlement Projects.

Celebrating fifty years since the filming of The Wickerman, Sett Studios, Leith’s most recent studio + gallery complex is hosting FOIK FLAW with invited artist Eddie Summerton.

FOIK FLAW celebrates how ancient and reimagined folkloric artefacts, rituals, processions and soundscapes, as introduced in The Wickerman film and accompanying soundtrack, enable a community a cultural + social identity.

FOIK FLAW brings together the studio holders + users of Sett Studios, linking this exhibition and related series of events with the birthplace of their original nomadic venue at Settlement Projects.

Radiophrenia Glasgow has teamed up with Rewire festival in The Hague to present selections from its 5 years of commissions on the festival's radio channel. The programme is running online right now and you can hear another broadcast of our 2020 work 'unknown thirds' tomorrow Sat 8th May 3.30 - 4.15pm!

https://www.rewirefestival.nl/timetable?fbclid=IwAR2CDypTCH68ZNV8ZQWPAjFzlVB8SyEO82Fzc9TeFxUsHkJ3zzlvZwKgay4

Rewire 2021 timetable Get started with your prep for the festival weekend and mark your favourite artists in your calendar.

tune in to Edinburgh's EHFM today 5th May 4-6pm to hear our OOR_Scintilla guest mix for this month's Fog Theory show https://www.ehfm.live. Such a pleasure to put together this 2 hours of tunes & artists we love...a couple of our own tracks in the mix as well as a specially mixed recording of an aeolian performance from 2013 by Bennett Hogg & Sabine Vogel.

In the meantime you can have a read of our Q+A on the new Fog Theory website https://fogtheoryradio.tumblr.com and listen back to Eps 1-5 via Mixcloud https://www.mixcloud.com/fogtheory

Happy St Patrick’s Day from OOR_Scintilla

harmonium nochdaidh [+ an bunnan bui]
https://oorscintilla.bandcamp.com/track/harmonium-nochdaidh-an-bunnan-bui

Improvised harmonium keys + bellows, words + vocal harmonies | oscillating calls of | Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna poetry of the dispossessed | looped ground recordings | + coda of ‘an bunnan bui’

Paddy Tunney’s translation of An bunnan bui, the yellow bittern a shining variant of Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna's wry beautiful empathy with the bittern frozen head first into Lough Lough MacNean, dying for want of a drink it’s absence felt in no booming call.

harmonium nochdaidh [+ an bunnan bui], by OOR_Scintilla from the album The Whiteadder Tapes

we're thrilled to be included in this year's fantastic Borealis - en festival for eksperimentell musikk of experimental music running from Bergen, Norway (17th - 21st March). Wherever you are you can tune in to the festival's live Radio Space platform online for another chance to hear our commissioned composition 'unknown thirds' as part of Radiophrenia's 2020 highlights.
https://www.borealisfestival.no/en/projects/radio-space/

Radio Space – Borealis Festival Join the festival wherever you are with our global radio art platform streaming 24 hours a day from 15 March–18 April! Radio Space 2021 is here! Radio Space is a radio art platform, initiated by Borealis in 2015. Here we present work for broadcast by renowned international sound artists, radio art...

we're feeling very at home and happy to be included amongst some excellent experimental sonics in the latest episode of new radio mix Fog Theory. Highly recommend a listen - Episode 002 is out today via Mixcloud https://www.mixcloud.com/fogtheory/fog-theory-episode-002/

Fog Theory | Episode 002 Episode 002 of Fog Theory. Image Credit: Wave Motion I, Keiji Ueumatsu, (1976).

we're delighted to be one of 20 commissioned artists featuring in this year's lineup of the ever-brilliant Radiophrenia Glasgow, airing 9th - 22nd November across Glasgow and online!

We've had much fun fondling around with winds, waters, harms & horns and many other things to produce a brand new composition for the airwaves in lieu of a live, people-filled theatre performance - cannae wait to share..

Schedule and wider programme to be announced soon. In the meantime check out the super cool new site with info on all the commissions at https://radiophrenia.scot

Our new website is up and running:
https://radiophrenia.scot/

The schedule will appear at the beginning of November.

we have a track from The Whiteadder Tapes featured in this month's Lights Out Listening Group programme streaming live from Glasgow tonight. Turn your lights off/down and tune in with us from 7.30pm via https://mixlr.com/lights-out-listening-group/ to experience a super selection of listenings from some brilliant sound artists, musicians and radio producers.

Programme info at: https://lightsoutlisteninggroup.wordpress.com/september-4/

Hi folks we're really happy to let you know that a limited number of copies of The Whiteadder Tapes CD are now available to get your hands on! For anyone who's interested in owning the full physical version of the album with our specially designed artwork, please just get in touch to request a copy via email at [email protected]

Available to listen & download digitally on Bandcamp at oorscintilla.bandcamp.com

The CD is free thanks to funding for the project from Scottish Borders Council, East Lothian Council & the Fallago Environment Fund, but we ask for £3 to cover all postage + packing costs. UK distribution only.

The CD is a 6-panel digipak cover with a 12 page booklet, featuring sonographic and photographic imagery from our field visits in the Whiteadder Valley, together with captures from the archaeological LiDAR map and researched traditional lyrical text.

The Whiteadder Tapes is the culmination of a sonic archaeology project undertaken by OOR_Scintilla in response to new mapping and excavational research led by AOC Archaeology in the Whiteadder Water Valley, Scottish borders for the Whiteadder: Heart of the Lammemuirs community project 2019-2020 whiteadder.aocarchaeology.com