Scratch Night Programme
Levenshulme Old Library - M19 3QE
Doors - 7pm BYOB
We are trying to keep this event as green as possible. Please take your bottles/cans home with you to recycle. We encourage travel by bike or public transport.
In 2025 we aim to put on an interdisciplinary festival for experimental artists and we are hoping to make our events more accessible by hiring an interpretor. If you feel able to make a donation to help us fund this, plus venue hire and support for our artists, please do so via our card reader or via this Paypal link.
Huge thanks to Richard and Jason at Levy Old Library for all their help setting this up.
Warm up - 7pm
Bonjour Claude - On Being Watched
The fruits of a long-term collaboration between Dr. Amy Jolly (cellist) and Dr. Ellen Sargen (composer), On Being Watched explores discomfort through performance both on stage and in everyday life. The piece weaves solo lines for live cello with pre-recorded sounds from inside the cello’s body and pre-recorded interviews that were captured over three years as the pair explored what ‘resistance’ meant to them as artists. Capturing the discomfort that emerged physically, psychologically and semantically from this process, this resulting piece aims to subvert ‘gaze’ and ‘beauty’ in performance and considers positions of vulnerability from behind the cello. Their video is a hybrid performance-conversation, exercising their found need for verbalisation in their creative work.
Scratch Night - 7.30pm
Henry McPherson - Ecollage
Henry will present a new 'Ecollage', from a developing series of mixed media pieces exploring improvisation with plants, animals, and objects. ‘Ecollages’ is a developing series of performances and audiovisual compositions which explores listening- and sounding-with the more-than-human world. It uses combinations of field recordings, DIY instruments, electronics, visuals, and movement to think about our relationships with the dynamic, living, changing environments. From the inclusive performance ethics of experimental improvisation, Ecollages questions – ‘how can we better think, see, hear, and feel ourselves as part of natural ecologies?’ – ‘how might we find ways of co-composing with human and more-than-human sounds where neither is prioritised, neither is erased, and both can be valued?’ – ‘what changes can be made in our listening to understand that we are always ‘sounding with’ the world around us’?
Livonn - s_t__r___e___t__c_h
s_t__r___e___t__c_h explores the tension between bodies as threads weave and trap a dancer’s restless motion. This 11-minute movement improvisation raises questions about freedom, reciprocity, and duty. The sonic landscape evolves as the body’s tension is mirrored in the increasing distortion, oscillating between ambient trance and industrial noise music. This is the second collaboration between dancer Lisa Chearles and musician Devon Bonelli and expands on the balance between surrender and resistance. Their interaction seems protective, yet confining, interrogating where freedom lies. As the performance builds, subtle shifts in energy suggest that something is about to break – though whether it is the body, the mind, or the very space itself remains uncertain. Livonn's performance invites a reconsideration of what has been created and what might yet be undone.
Alice Billen - With rocks, and stones, and trees.
This is a mixed media piece combining live spoken word, recorded viola and nature sounds, all sourced or created by the writer.It is in three parts, which are distinct but connected, both by their subjects and the sounds that bridge them. Alice wanted to explore the harmony and tension we have with the natural world, and these prose poems were written as three explorations of this idea. She wants to share the joy she gets from the glorious sounds of nature, which can be like music, which is why the viola became an essential addition to the piece. These sounds give the words an extra dimension, to create an immersive effect for the audience.
Part 1: Compost, apple, blackbird. The first part is a common or garden reflection on nature and taking time.
Part 2: With rocks, and stones, and trees.Is about the disconnect from nature that modern life sometimes brings, and possibly how to find your way back.
Part 3: Window to your soul.Begins by meditating on the peace that water can bring. What follows is for the listener to decide.
Oskar with a K
Oskar with a K be talking about the crossover between his public art career and his Buddhist practice, particularly focusing on how challenges have helped him grow as an artist and Buddhist practitioner.
Company Carpi - Salford Dance Work in Progress
Company Carpi will share a short section of work in progress from a brand new commission they are creating with students of Contemporary Dance studying at the renowned dance department of the University of Salford. The music is short recorded assemblage of percussion material performed by the drummers Tom Maude and Paul Shearde, based on work originally composed for our company piece The Stumbling Block. The final work that will be presented at the University of Salford on 25th October is an exploration around themes of communication, and what we're sharing today is a selection of material found so far in exploration for that.
Laura May Brunk, Julie Burrow, Izzy Odelola - PISS SHY!!!!!
Bringing together their multi-disciplinary skills, this trio create playful performances which have a keen interest in turning the everyday mundane questions and curiosities of life into a theatrical, intricate and expressive performance including, but not limited to, music, song and words.
Biographies:
Bonjour Claude - Dr. Amy Jolly and Dr. Ellen Sargen - are an experimental duo who create dynamic works through their shared performance practice. The duo came about through research into collaborative practice at RAM and RNCM respectively. Over four years, the pair have moved fluidly between their respective performer / composer roles to create a unique experimental practice that blurs improvisatory and notated practices within a collaborative and autoethnographic space - framed by the pairs’ innovative handling of audiovisual materials. Bonjour Claude appeared at eavesdropping at Cafe Oto, presenting their research and first piece Maps for Claude. The duo is currently working on a new version of Ballet, a piece exploring the relationship between ballet dancing and musical performance. Their work constantly changes and grows as their practice develops.
Henry McPherson is a composer, improviser, artist, and researcher from Herefordshire (UK), living in the North West of England. His work explores creative relationships with the natural world through sound, movement, and visual media, often focused on plant ecologies, woodland and coastal ecosystems. He is interested in moss music and microclimates, dialogues with trees, sonic collage, illustrated notation, and dancing with instruments. His developing approach to ‘ecological improvisation’ aims to cultivate inclusive listening and interspecies empathy in and through performance. A versatile performer, Henry works across free improvisation, contemporary chamber and experimental music, as a pianist and DIY instrumentalist. He is a founding member of the UK-Swiss experimental collective The Noisebringers, is the co-editor of the online arts project The MASS. Henry's research work focuses on improvisation within social, community, wellbeing, and environmentally oriented initiatives across music, dance, and theatre. He is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Manchester's Creative Manchester research platform, and is a visiting lecturer in sonic improvisation at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland He previously lectured part-time at the University of Huddersfield. He holds a PhD (2023) in contemporary music and dance from the University of Huddersfield Centre for Research in New Music and Research Centre for Performance Practice, where he was supported by a collaborative studentship in association with hcmf//. He also holds an MA (2018) and BMus (2017; hons, 1st) in Composition from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Alice Billen is a freelance musician and writer, specialising in the viola and short form fiction. She is based in Ladybarn, Manchester, and tries to be a cyclist unless the weather is too awful. As a freelance violist Alice collaborates on varying chamber and orchestral projects in the North West and beyond. As a writer she has been published in international literary journals, and is working on a novel (about alpacas). Combining her two passions has been a slow but exciting journey and she hopes to do more with mixed media. When not fielding viola jokes Alice likes to walk her four imaginary sausage dogs somewhere green, and is hoping to eventually add some alpacas (perhaps real).
Lisa Chearles is a Singaporean dance artist based in Manchester. She makes dance and film capturing the visceral and surreal. Drawn to the uncanny, Lisa revels in creating an atmosphere of unease, inviting her audience to confront the enigmatic and the disquieting. She is curious about how film can reframe the context of dance and how choreography can be approached through the lens of filmmaking. With a focus on composition and visual impact, she aspires to create images that inexplicably linger in the mind's eye.
Devon Bonelli is a musician based in Manchester whose work transcends genre categorizations. They draw on classical, house, pop, and industrial music to explore queer history and trauma as a PhD researcher at the Royal Northern College of Music. Their music investigates identity, emotion, and memory by grappling with the complexities of modern life. Using vibrant harmonic colours and densely textured layers to create an immersive experience, they invite listeners to engage with abstract musical landscapes. Each piece is a dialogue between chaos and harmony, opening a doorway to introspection, encouraging a deeper connection with one’s own inner world.
Oskar with a K: I’m a muralist and designer based in Manchester, England. I began creating large-scale work in my early teens as a graffiti writer. Decades on, and this passion for producing public art has blossomed into a full-time creative career. Stylistically, my background in graffiti is blended with my formal graphic design training, resulting in what I would describe as graphic design unhindered by scale. Working collaboratively is also an important part of my practice, whether that be collaborating with other artists, or delivering mural workshops. I’m passionate about working in public space, engaging fully with those around me and contributing to a world in which art and design is implicit to our cityscapes.
Based in the North West, Company Carpi was founded in 2017 by choreographer Bettina Carpi and composer Gary Lloyd to give expression to their collaborative works: “We make hybrid dance theatre, and opera, always featuring strong societal topics, and with texts based on the work of, or written originally by, outstanding writers, poets, novelists and individuals with interesting perspectives to share.. We always perform with live music, we always work with emerging young artists and involve community groups, and we're always trying to reach audiences that may not be familiar with the mediums and kinds of work we make and the work of the many artists with whom we collaborate.”
Laura May Brunk, Julie Burrow and Izzy Odelola are Manchester-based multi-disciplinary artists who met when they were chosen by HOME to take part in PUSH LAB 2024, last January, exploring ways of collaborating. Recognising a shared interest in creating performances driven by creative urges and revelling in the weirdness of life, we've continued to collaborate!
Laura May (she/her) is a Manchester based theatre-maker seeking to create honest, curious work. She works as a director and facilitator seeking to produce open, playful creative environments. She is interested in exploring the bittersweet and absurd.
Julie (she/her) is a Manchester writer-performer who makes lo-fi, colourful, absurdist performances, in which she has variously played an Aperol Spritz, a big showbiz moth, and the entire city of Bruges.
Izzy (they/them) is a Manchester based drummer, percussionist and ambient composer with a prime focus on synthesis and music for film and theatre. They have a rhythmically dominant and heavily ‘feelings' based approach to composition as well as live performance. For Izzy it’s about musical instinct and trusting the power of improvisation. The weirder the better … most of the time.
Next Scratch Night: January 31st 2025