Few shots from our recent live sound workshop that we ran as part of the Calderdale Sound Women Network project called “The Valley”. The aim of the project is to engage women and non-binary folks in the Upper Calder Valley in music and sound activities. We’re growing the network and if you’d like to get involved feel free to say hi on Facebook (link) or check out our website here. 
less than 3 weeks away..! This year’s amazing Tor Fest 🙂 Only a few weekend tickets left now so grab one quickly here – TICKET LINK
Tor Festival returns to Todmorden, West Yorkshire once again for the sixth iteration of the eclectic underground music festival. This year to be held over three days at The Golden Lion from 30th August – 1st September.
Friday night will take place in the intimate live room with performances from experimental sound artist Lee Patterson, Afro futurist and winner of this years Oram award, Lady Vendredi and a special party set by Game_Program, the solo project of Jon Nash (Cowtown, Nope).
Saturday will be all day and held across two stages plus a special pop up space for the Mammoth Beat Organ led by Graham Dunning and Sam Underwood. Gnod will be bringing their usual brand of improvised psych and they’ll be inviting a group of special guests to join them on stage (Slomo, Aidan Baker, J.Charms & S.Cooper). French folk legend Emmanuelle Parrenin will be back at The Lion for another unforgettable performance. Natalie Sharp aka Lone Taxidermist will be performing her new piece ‘Body Vice’, her shows are always something to behold. Other highlights include drone doomers Nadja, an experimental bagpipe and electronics set from Vasco Alves, free folk explorations from Divil A’ Bit (Woven Skull / United Bible Studies), ambient synth voyages from Simon Fowler, stunning hypnotic viola by Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh, Exploratory electronic excursions from Helm, and a stack of amazing local performers- Dead Sea Apes, Marlo Eggplant, Plank, NikNak & Jo Kennedy all capped off with a DJ set from the awesome Space Afrika!
On Sunday we’ve invited Willie Stewart of Woven Skull to curate Floor Tom Fest, a day of pushing floor tom based music in new and weird directions, he’s invited a stellar cast of performers to drum their way through the day- Fritz Welch, Het Hek (Guttersnipe), Andrew Cheetham, Kathy Gray, Natalia Beylis, Graham Dunning and Sam Mcloughlin.
This years festival is in part sponsored by Sound & Music’s ‘Composer Curator’ Program.
Tickets available from Skiddle- https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Oldham/Golden-Lion-Hotel/Tor-Festival/13559292/
Weekend tickets- £30
New album out today! Listen to it on bandcamp or buy a tape 🙂
This is the third release from The Slowest Lift who are a West Yorkshire based band comprising of Sophie Cooper (Tor Festival) and Julian Bradley (Vibracathedral Orchestra).
This record is being self-released by The Slowest Lift on limited edition cassette and on digital download. There will be a vinyl version coming later released by Feeding Tube Records.
Julian and I are self-releasing our latest The Slowest Lift album called ‘Plutonic Shine’. It’s available on pre-order at the moment so click on our bandcamp link above to purchase one. The record is due a vinyl release later on this year so keep your eyes open for that. There are 2 tracks you can hear now and the rest will be up on the 2nd August which gives us time to dub the tapes.
I’m still obsessed with The Slowest Lift and constantly blown away by what can be artistically achieved through working with another human on a project like this. I couldn’t do this without Julian, it’s so unique to our collaboration and that’s really a special thing to have going on. I encourage new collaborations constantly so I hope this is inspiring to read, find a like minded friend to make something new happen, it’s a wild process.
New incoming… 19th July
Last time I saw Bong play with Bridget Hayden the lads from Bad Guys were crowd surfing and that’s quite impressive when the music is really slow –
Bong with Bridget Hayden
Stoner Doom legends Bong will be joined by Bridget Hayden, this is a rare chance to see them play together! If you caught their collaboration at Supernormal a couple of years ago then you’ll know this is not to be missed! Bong will be bringing their own brand of heavy droned out doom with Bridget bringing her signature feedback infused fuzzy blues guitar and haunting vocals.
Sat Nav Tod
A new collaboration from Roy Claire Potter and Sophie Cooper, exploring themes around travel and place through improvised trombone and spoken word.
I wanted to wait until all the shows were available until I posted about my great friend Alannah Chance’s amazing achievement called New Weird Britain which is a 4 episode documentary series on BBC Radio 4. Alannah has worked really hard on this series which involved doing a ton of research into the UK DIY and contemporary music scenes today. The shows are only half an hour each so obviously not everything can be covered but I think these shows do a fantastic job capturing a bit about what’s happening out and about. I hope people listening will be encouraged to do a bit of research themselves after hearing them and will perhaps do something like visit us at Tor Festival in Todmorden, our little corner of this weird island, which is discussed in the second episode. Anyway, great job Alannah, keep at it!
click on the link to buy tickets!! #VisitTodmorden! 