Pink Loudspeaker • Issue #78
Weekly listings of UK and Irish sound art (14–20 April 2025)
Pink Loudspeaker is your definitive guide to contemporary sound art in the British Isles.
This edition covers all events that can be experienced across the UK and Ireland for the week of Monday 14th to Sunday 20th April 2025. Scroll down for details on over fifty sonic artworks, exhibitions, performances, workshops, and events across the UK and Ireland that you can experience this week.
Issue #78 we cover present moment sonic actions, deep listening to Eurotrance, club simulcra, the dissonant mechanics of migration, sonic convalescence, aural stimulation, the sounds of Anglo-Saxon looms, and more…
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Margaret Fiedler McGinnis – Present Participles
📍 Three Rooms, London
🗓️ 15–21 April 2025
Chicago-born, London based artist and musician Margaret Fiedler McGinnis will present her debut solo exhibition at Walthamstow’s Three Rooms gallery this week. Part-exhibition, part-residency, the artist will be present in the space for seven days developing new works under the title of Present Participles. Throughout the exhibition McGinnis will refine her artistic processes in real-time, experimenting with sculptural elements, sheet metal, transducers and other audio equipment, in what the artist describes as a “continuous processes of creation, transformation and observation.”
Present Participles will establish the artist’s recent trajectory towards sound art and installation after a long career as a musician, notably as a founding member of seminal English bands Laika and Moonshake in the 1990s and more recently as live guitarist for PJ Harvey and Wire. The exhibition will unfurl moment to moment and its results will inform McGinnis’ graduate show at the Royal College of Art which opens in the summer.
Experience Margaret Fiedler McGinnis’ Present Participles at Three Rooms gallery in Walthamstow from Tuesday 15th until Monday 21st April 2025.
magsmcginnis.com
instagram.com/threerooms_e17
Rowland Hill - Set You Free: A Eurotrance Deep Listening Event + Fluchtpunkt (vanishing point, place of refuge) installation
📍 Piel View House, Barrow-in-Furness
🗓️ 18–19 April 2025
In 2025 sonic arts organisation Full of Noises celebrates its fifteen year anniversary since its first festival in the port town of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. A short film has been produced which collates interviews with members of the team alongside archival footage documenting their activities since 2009. This weekend the organisation welcomes Manchester-based visual and performing artist Rowland Hill to their Piel View House venue for a weekend of deep listening and Eurotrance-inspired activities.
On Friday, Hill will present Set You Free, a performance exploring the cultural and political legacies of the Eurotrance genre of dance music through the lens of Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening protocols. Following the performance a disco will be held with choice selections of 1990s Eurotrance.
In addition, on Saturday the artist will present an iteration of her Fluchtpunkt (vanishing point, place of refuge) work, an atmospheric light and sound installation. The work replicates aspects of a typical nightclub environment with its use of colourful synchronised lighting, dry ice machines, and sonic club culture simulcra: repetitive beats, sampled voices, and synths. An atmospheric tension is created from the lack of visibility created by the dry ice, and the playback of audio recordings from extreme weather events, drawing parallels to the increasing pervasiveness of the current climate crises.
“Fluchtpunkt, an audio landscape of extreme weather sounds — a recurring metaphor for conflict and resolution in 90s dance music — which, today, take on a stark significance. Underpinned by an ominously thudding beat, the exhibition prompts visitors to question the dreamworld of Eurodance and its disquieting rhetoric of utopia and emergency.” – Rowland Hill
Rowland Hill’s Set You Free: A Eurotrance Deep Listening Event will take place at Full of Noises’ Piel View House in Barrow-in-Furness on Friday 18th April 2025 from 7pm. Hill’s Fluchtpunkt (vanishing point, place of refuge) installation can be experienced at the same venue the following day between 12-4pm, Saturday 19th April 2025.
fonfestival.org
rowland-hill.com
Songbird (Raheel Khan, Mehmil Nadeem & Harmeet Rahal)
📍 Auto Italia, London
🗓️ 16 April 2025
Songbird is a collaborative performance from three diasporic artists based in London; Pakistani multidisciplinary artist Mehmil Nadeem, Mumbai-born artist and filmmaker Harmeet Rahal, and Nottingham-born sound artist Raheel Khan. Khan’s recent sound installations combine loudspeaker arrays and hand-built sound systems, often paired with bespoke acoustic treatment, and is influenced by the traditions of Islamic architecture and musique concrete. The development of Songbird has been informed by the trio’s collaborative research into songs of resistance, oral histories of displacement, and the “dissonant mechanics of migration.”
The event will offer visitors a hybrid format, creating conditions for collective deep listening, complimented with live performative actions from the artists. The event will take place at Bethnal Green’s Auto Italia gallery, where Nazanin Noori’s exhibition THE ECHO OF PROTEST IS DISTANT TO THE PROTEST is on show until 22nd June (see our feature in Issue #77 for the details).
“[Songbird will explore] how traces of displacement weave through time – embedded in songs, secrets, protest, and prayer – this session draws from the border-defying music of the Panjab region, inherited childhood melodies, and the submerged histories of Mirpur within the Midlands.” – Auto Italia
Experience Songbird at Auto Italia gallery in London on Wednesday 16th April 2025.
autoitaliasoutheast.org
raheelkhan.co.uk
mehmilnadeem.com
harmeetrahal.com
Confidence Man & Jimmy Cauty – Emergency Chill Clinic
📍 81 King's Road (Chelsea), London
🗓️ 17–21 April 2025
Artist, musician, and cultural provocateur James Cauty (the KLF, The Orb) has teamed up with Australian electro-pop band Confidence Man to create The Emergency Chill Clinic, an immersive sonic experience that promises to “recalibrate overstimulated minds and bodies.” The group have transformed a disused retail unit in central London into a hospital-like environment fitted with audiovisual, sound, and sensory installations designed to simulate the familiar feeling of leaving the club in the early hours of the morning with the inevitable journey of convalescence and recovery ahead. Whilst immersed in the installation, visitors (or “inpatients”) can expect to be subjected to diagnostic tests by in-house clinicians, and be tucked into beds to experience the audiovisual content. Visitors can voluntarily check in to the Emergency Chill Clinic to experience an hour-long slot of aural stimulation and re-balancing.
“The ECC bridges the frenetic energy of a rave and the serenity of recovery through a unique sensory approach. The accompanying film, a cornerstone of the event, provides a controlled overstimulation experience to balance and ground attendees, offering a transition from the chaotic energy of the night to a meditative state of focus and renewal. Patients will be guided through their ECC experience by ‘Chill Clinicians’, going through health reports, relaxation techniques and diagnostic checks before being tucked into bed to experience the film.”
Emergency Chill Clinic will be at 81 King's Road, Chelsea between Thursday 17th and Monday 21st April 2025. Availability is limited and tickets must be booked in advance.
illuminateproductions.co.uk
confidenceman.com.au
jamescauty.com
Echoes of Andover: Responses in Textiles and Sound
📍Andover Museum and Museum of the Iron Age, Andover
🗓️ 18–19 April 2025
Echoes of Andover is new community arts project produced by Hampshire organisation Chapel Arts Studios and the Andover Museum and Museum of the Iron Age. The project explores the cultural and technological legacies of historical textile production in the area, with three artists in residence who are responding to this theme through various tactile, multisensorial media.
Mixed-media textile artists Lucy Pick and Sharon Kearley have been exploring traditional weaving techniques on the museum’s Anglo-Saxon-era loom and experimenting with historical dyeing processes derived from natural materials. Parisian, Glasgow-based sound artist Boris Allenou is responded to the theme sonically, exploring sounds specific to the site and its technologies. Locally, Allenou has been creating field recordings and conducting research into archival sounds from the Wessex Film and Sound Archive. There are two open days for the project being held this weekend where visitors can speak with the artists, explore the collections, and take part in hands-on workshops with textiles and sound technologies.
Visit the Echoes of Andover: Responses in Textiles and Sound open days at Andover Museum and Museum of the Iron Age on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th April 2025.
chapelartsstudios.co.uk
hampshireculture.org.uk/museum-iron-age
borisallenou.com
Opportunities
• The Museum of Loss and Renewal offers a week-long residency programme in the Orkney Islands on the theme of ‘Soundings and Surroundings’. The residency will be led by Tracy Mackenna and Erasmus Mackenna alongside local experts in Orkney, and will take place 30th August until 6th September 2025. The residency costs £1500 to attend which includes accommodation, local travel, catering. Deadline: 14th April 2025. tracy.mackenna.studio
• Seismograf is a Danish magazine dedicated to new music and sound art. Thy currently have an open call for proposals seeking audio papers and texts that explore notions of ‘Sonic Citizenship.’ Deadline: 1st May 2025. seismograf.org
• The newly-launched Sound + Environment Research Group at Newcastle University is seeking papers, workshops and artwork contributions for its inaugural symposium in September 2025. Deadline: 29th May 2025. blogs.ncl.ac.uk/sound-environment
• The Sound in Museums conference will take place in October 2025 at the National Museum of Music in Mafra, Portugal. The conference is seeking papers and multimedia installations from academics, curators, arts professionals, sound artists, composers, sound designers, audio engineers, technology developers, heritage specialists, and acousticians. Deadline: 30th April 2025. soundinmuseums.com
Full listings
Everything on this week: 14–20 April 2025
This week we’ve found over fifty sound art exhibitions, events, performances, public lectures, and workshops taking place across the UK and Ireland.
Events and exhibitions are sorted by closing date. Opening hours may vary so please check with venues before venturing out! All London events are grouped together at the top, scroll down for events for all other locations.
🔊 LONDON LISTINGS 🔊
Unfolding Narratives
📍 London College of Communication, London
🗓️ 19 March – 16 April 2025
Songbird (Raheel Khan, Mehmil Nadeem & Harmeet Rahal)
📍 Auto Italia, London
🗓️ 16 April 2025
Darkfield – Arcade
📍 The Ditch, London
🗓️ 01–17 April 2025 (extra dates added)
Margaret Fiedler McGinnis – Present Participles
📍 Three Rooms, London
🗓️ 15–21 April 2025
Confidence Man & Jimmy Cauty – Emergency Chill Clinic
📍 81 King's Road (Chelsea), London
🗓️ 17–21 April 2025
David Sappa – TAMESIS!
Winter Sculpture Park 2025
📍 Thamesmead, London
🗓️ 02 March - 26 April 2025
Alvaro Barrington – Back Home / I Am... I Said (feat. Tiffany Calver, Naima Nefertari and Friendly Pressure)
📍 Sadie Coles HQ, London
🗓️ 05 March – 26 April 2025
Louis Morlæ – $ID3FA££ $YNDR0M3
📍 Rose Easton, London
🗓️ 15 March – 26 April 2025
SORB: Hardcore Uproar
📍 SET Lewisham, London
🗓️ 10–27 April 2025
Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights
📍 Wellcome Collection, London
🗓️ 19 Sept 2024 – 27 April 2025
Katarzyna Krakowiak – Oh no, please don’t
What is it Like?
📍 Arebyte Gallery, London
🗓️ 28 Feb – 04 May 2025
R.I.P. Germain – Anti-Blackness Is Bad, Even The Parts That We Like
📍 Cabinet, London
🗓️ 14 March – 10 May 2025
Pete Gomes – Does the River Listen to the Trees?
In House: Ree Bradley and Pete Gomes
📍 Studio Voltaire, London
🗓️ 02 April – 25 May 2025
Send & Receive
📍 Hypha Gallery Newham (1 Sugar House Island), London
🗓️ 18 April – 25 May 2025
Nora Turato – pool7
📍 ICA, London
🗓️ 09 April – 08 Jun 2025
Nazanin Noori – THE ECHO OF PROTEST IS DISTANT TO THE PROTEST
📍 Auto Italia, London
🗓️ 10 April – 22 June 2025
You Make Me Feel (Jeanie Crystal, Zein Majali & Emily Pop)
📍 Southwark Park Galleries, London
🗓️ 05 April – 29 June 2025
Nassim Azarzar – Hayat al Noujoum / La vie des Étoiles
📍 The Showroom, London
🗓️ 26 July 2024 – 07 July 2025
Black Sound London: The Story of British Black Music
📍 Barbican Library, London
🗓️ 10 March – 19 July 2025
Ed Atkins
📍 Tate Britain, London
🗓️ 02 April – 25 August 2025
Abbas Zahedi – Begin Again
Gathering Ground
📍Tate Modern, London
🗓️ 29 January 2025 – 04 January 2026
Felix Taylor - Hydraulis!
Secrets of the Thames
📍 London Museum Docklands
🗓️ 04 April 2025 – 01 March 2026
🔊 LISTINGS FOR ALL OTHER CITIES 🔊
Listen Club: Will Montgomery – Sound, Scores and Poetry
📍 The Rose Hill, Brighton
🗓️ 16 April 2025
Field Recording & Listening with Sara Wolff
📍 FACT, Liverpool
🗓️ 16 April 2025
50th Anniversary of the Fall of Phnom Penh: Cambodia’s Cultural Resilience
📍 PINK, Stockport
🗓️ 17–18 April 2025
Echoes of Andover: Responses in Textiles and Sound
📍Andover Museum and Museum of the Iron Age, Andover
🗓️ 18–19 April 2025
Rowland Hill - Set You Free: A Eurotrance Deep Listening Event
📍 Piel View House, Barrow-in-Furness
🗓️ 18 April 2025
Rowland Hill - Fluchtpunkt (vanishing point, place of refuge) installation
📍 Piel View House, Barrow-in-Furness
🗓️ 19 April 2025
Everyday Algorithms
📍 NewBridge Project, Newcastle
🗓️ 22 Feb – 19 April 2025
Radiophrenia 2025
📍 Glasgow/online
🗓️ 07–20 April 2025
Invisible Flock – The Sleeping Tree
📍 Wakefield Exchange, Wakefield
🗓️ 03–21 April 2025
Debjani Banerjee – Jalsaghar
📍 KARST, Plymouth
🗓️ 01 March - 26 April 2025
Emma Critchley – Soundings
📍 John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
🗓️ 08 Feb – 03 May 2025
Paul Nataraj – Repetitions of 108: Counting Almost Nothing
Jerwood Survey III
📍 Collective, Edinburgh
🗓️ 28 February – 04 May 2025
Alliyah Enyo – Aphotic Archaeology
Jerwood Survey III
📍 Collective, Edinburgh
🗓️ 28 February – 04 May 2025
Maryanne Royle
Umbrella
📍 Ebor Studio, Littleborough
🗓️ 12 April – 04 May 2025
Christopher Kulendran Thomas – Safe Zone
📍 FACT, Liverpool
🗓️ 21 Feb – 11 May 2025
Martin Osman – Free Abel
Reject Reflect Reclaim
📍Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend
🗓️ 22 February – 11 May 2025
Henna Asikainen – Lintukoto/Haven
📍 Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster
🗓️ 24 March – 16 May 2025
Leap Then Look – Play Interact Explore
📍 BALTIC, Gateshead
🗓️ 12 Oct 2024 – 01 Jun 2025
See Here Now: Art in a Time of Urgency
📍 Grizedale, Lake District
🗓️ 04 April – 08 June 2025
Imran Perretta – A Riot In Three Acts
📍 HOME, Manchester
🗓️ 22 Feb – 08 June 2025
Sound and Silence: An Exhibition of Contemporary Bells
📍 MAKE Southwest, Bovey Tracey
🗓️ 22 March – 14 June 2025
Colin Woods - I Just Called
📍 Belfast (various libraries)
🗓️ Oct 2024 – June 2025
Mary Hooper – The Sun Feeds the Wind
📍 Hastings Contemporary, Hastings
🗓️ 29 March – 14 Sept 2025
The Secret Lives of Bottle of Notes: Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen📍 MIMA, Middlesbrough
🗓️ 14 March – 05 October 2025
Maureen Jordan – On The Lookout
📍 The Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park, Yorkshire
🗓️ 08 April – 02 November 2025
Lizzie King – Connecting the Tree and the Foot
Fragments of Time
📍 Salford Museum & Art Gallery, Salford
🗓️ 22 March – 21 Dec 2025
Resonant Forms
📍 The Hepworth, Wakefield
🗓️ 08 March 2025 – January 2026
Soundmarks York
📍 DIG, York
🗓️ on-going
Jamie Jenkinson – Nattering
📍 Millom Library, Cumbria
🗓️ on-going
Susan Philipsz - By Sound Near Seawall
📍 Whitehaven Harbour, Cumbria
🗓️ on-going
SoundEscapes
📍 Sainsbury Centre, Norwich
🗓️ 06 Dec 2024 – on-going
Justin Wiggin – Echo Point
📍 Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro
🗓️ 20 January 2025 – on-going
These listings are created by the Sound Arts UK team in an effort to support the UK sonic arts community and to help bring the artform to a wider audience. Our focus is to cover the work of under-represented artists. If you find these listings useful please share!
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Thank you for reading! 🔊
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