Eh up lockdown crew, or not? I dunno. Enjoy that pint responsibility if you’re going to bother or just sit at your house still would be my advice. Enough of that.

I’ve been ok! Had quite a bit of work on for various people so keeping busy. I guess this is a moment to put it out there that I’m responsibly good at delivering workshops online by this point so if you need someone for online teaching around music topics get in touch: sofiesea@gmail.com Sound creation, event management, creative advice.. that kind of area. Can also play trombone on your tracks so get in touch if you need someone like Heloise Tunstall-Behrens did:

Heloise Tunstall-Behrens · Virtual Beach

Not been too much movement here on the writing music front but I have been playing a lot of acoustic guitar and writing songs again. Just trying to work out how to put them into the world in an interesting way because who needs another singer songwriter? My studio reopened last week so I’ve spent quite a few hours making tape loops in there which might amount to something.

I did release a track on a Chocolate Monk compilation ‘Cabin Fever Cleansed My Mind Vol1″ http://chocolatemonk.co.uk/available.html It’s called ‘The Joke We Made Before’ which is a reference to my friends joking about never wanting to leave the valley we inhabit and how they got their wish.

I’ve been putting out Tor FM broadcasts on The Neon Hospice still, they have been a lot of fun and wildly entertaining, so much so that I am afraid to listen back although I’m sure I’ve got an ok radio voice.

I’ve joined the Daphne Oram Trust as a trustee which is exciting! We’re going to give the website a revamp and plan some activity which I’ll write about on here no doubt: http://daphneoram.org/ an honour indeed.

Ok that’ll do, just wanted to update my blog really and reach out to HUMANS ARE YOU LISTENING???

x S o f

Due to popular demand and because I can never say no to Jonny, we’ll be back on Saturday 16th May between 5.30pm – 7.30pm presenting Tor FM, self help for alien abductees! Now increased by a whole half hour to a 2 hour show!! Will I make it through ok? Tune in here – https://www.theneonhospice.com/ I got a new needle for the record player so this is gonna sound pro as.

Tons of stuff is already archived on The Neon Hospice, have a nosy through. 

Hey everyone,

Hope you’re doing ok out there in lockdown land. Doing ok here, got some work and live by a canal so can’t complain too much about my personal situation but of course I’m angered by our pathetic government as I’m sure you are too.

Been getting on with some music stuff which always keeps me going so here are a few updates.

Delighted to say Plutonic Shine is now out on lovely vinyl so thanks to Feeding Tube Records for making that happen! You can buy them via our bandcamp page and I’ll do my best to get them out asap. Don’t mind going to the PO in Tod for a bit of action.

Julian made an amazing music video for out apocalyptic themed hit, “I’m Born”, do have a look because he did such a good job.

I’ve finally released some recordings made with Delphine Dora during our 2017 residency in Co Cork which is the compliment album to our recent ‘Greywood Miniatures’ released on The Dark Outside. Digital only for now, check it out here on another bandcamp page!

I did a live stream gig on Friday just gone on The Old Police House’s excellent weekly Twitch show, it was a right laugh, I’ve not played a gig in a kitchen for many years. I’m sure if you dig around TOPH’s Twitch channel here you could probably find a recording of it. In many ways though, maybe you had to be there?

Finally, I’ve started doing a spot of DJing for my old pal Jonny Mugwump on his new adventure ‘The Neon Hospice’. Imagine I’ll do it every other week, early slot. I’m no raver.

That’s it for now I guess! Please send me your thoughts and comments, lovely to hear from people.

All best,

Sof

Hello all, hope you’re coping out there. Big ups to everyone making great online noise content at the moment, Theo Gowens, Mariam Rezaei, Ali Robertson, Graham Dunning, “Keith Heineman”. I’ve been watching loads and it’s been great to feel part of the community so thanks a lot for putting the effort in. Can’t wait til this pandemic is all over and we can get out to see live music and friends again.

Anyway before I start crying I’m here to post some new videos made by the house of Tor.

First up Harry Wheeler documented the last gig we put on in Hebden Bridge which was the final piece of our Sound and Music, curator composer residency. The gig featured Alison Cooper, aka Magpahi, as lead jammer on a big folky improv event at The Fox and Goose. It was such an excellent event that Harry has captured perfectly in the vid.

Just want to say a massive thank you to Sound and Music for including us on their project this past year. It’s been so great to be supported and mentored throughout the year and it’s opened up a lot of opportunities for us so yeah, many thanks.

I’ve been trying to get some music done during this lock down situation and it’s not been going too badly. Julian and I have started working on some new The Slowest Lift material going for that perfect apocalyptic scorched out vibe as always. The vinyl version of Plutonic Shine is coming out on the 24th April via Feeding Tube Records so really excited for that. Head over there for a preorder but I think we’ll add some copies to our bandcamp as well. Tape is now sold out thanks to receiving props from Kim Gordon on Instagram, ta love.

Throughout my lockdown I’ve been thinking about performance, putting on shows, the restrictions you now have on these things and one afternoon, with Jake’s help, I put together a new trombone stunt video called Duvet Day. I wanted it to express some creative isolation concerns and hopefully make people laugh a bit.

Right that’ll do for now. All the best, and thinking of everyone going through a rough time at the moment.

Sof x

Hello friends, hope you’re all doing ok out there in isolation land. Things are fine in Todmorden, we’ve had to close Tor Beers for a bit, gigs have been cancelled, the same as what a lot of other people are going through. We’ll be alright. I’m on here to tell you that Feeding Tube have put our The Slowest Lift record ‘Plutonic Shine’ up for pre-order and it will be available after the 24th April. If you review records  or have a radio show and want to have a DL just ask.

Link: http://feedingtuberecords.com/releases/plutonic-shine/

Loving this description by Byron Coley:

“Vinylization of last year’s cassette by UK duo, The Slowest Lift. Comprised of Julian Bradley (Vibracathedral Orchestra, etc.) and Sophie Cooper (whose Divine Ekstasys LP, FTR 342, is a dang classic), The Slowest Lift has been producing high-quality avant-pop form-waffling for several years. Their eponymous debut album was on VHF, and Plutonic Shine continues their drive into the heart of some very weird beast.

Sophie’s vocals sometimes breath like the air itself, although they can also surface as distorted puffs of lung-powered color, melodically-oriented, but trapped by no ordinary sense of song structure. The instrumental portion seems to be built with electronics and guitars, which create mounds of sound for the vocals to hide behind and dodge around. 

Although the sound is as “now” as any hep cat could wish. there is really very little to date this music archeologically. The basic tools for what The Slowest Lift do have been around for decades. It is what Julian and Sophie choose to do with these tools that will knock that beaver hat right off your head.

Gorgeous stuff.

-Byron Coley, 2020″

Take care, Sof x

Not been to the Kirkgate Centre for ages so looking forward to this..

Hey folks,

Just wanted to say Happy New Year and to have a bit of a reflect on what I’ve been up to this year. Feels like it’s been a year of addressing work / career, getting my house in order, that kind of thing. Honestly, I don’t feel like I’ve done enough of my own creative stuff as I’d like to but I’m going to sort that out for 2020.

That said, I’ve put out 3 releases in 2019…

One solo jams CDR – The Little Room. Quite pleased with this one and sort of defines a new direction I want to take guitar playing in. Sometimes I forget I even play the guitar but here we are:

God bless you Jeffery Davison at the legendary wfmu for giving it a few spins on your show – https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/88180

The Slowest Lift, Plutonic Shine. I love this album and am looking forward to seeing it come out on lovely plastic (soz) vinyl in the New Year on Feeding Tube Records.

Greywood Miniatures, by me and Delphine Dora. Been sitting on this for ages if I’m honest. There’s like another 13 tracks we should release at some point. Maybe we’ll do a part 2 in 2020.

I played 17 gigs this year, a few in new collaborations including a big jam with Gnod at Tor Festival, with Emmanuelle Parrenin at Cafe Oto, with Roy Claire Oto = SatNavTod and with new Vibra/ Slowest Lift spin off group (?) Caravan Comedown. Got the recordings of these as well knocking around. Lots of improvisation in structured and non structured ways has gone down.

I had an almost year long residency at Huddersfield Uni creating a piece for hcmf// (who I’ve ended up working for since, cheers guys!) and I put an insane amount of hours into creating ‘Intact’ which is a trombone/vocals piece for 66 speakers. The live playback reception was really great at hcmf//, full house there to hear my intrusive thoughts related to my situation with immediate family members. A problem shared? It was an amazing experience, would love to do more of this if anyone knows how to go about that…?? I’ve not put the track online anywhere yet because I’m not sure what to do with it. If you wanna hear it ask and I’ll send you a link. It got played on BBC Radio 3 which was a nice surprise!

Jake and I had our Composer / Curator residency with Sound and Music which has all gone very well. I had an interview with them about Tor Festival if you fancy a read here.

Oh I dunno, guess I’ll stop going on about myself and head to the Golden Lion v soon. Expect more solo guitar stuff from me and who knows what from The Slowest Lift in 2020. Plus tons of gigs in Todmorden.. intend to keep all this up. I did a survey of all the gigs I put on last year and 69% of the artists were women or non-binary which I’m proud of. I aimed for 50:50 so goes to show what you can do if you are mindful of a situation.

Enough, enough. Lots of love and hopefully see you in some way or another in 2020.

Sof x

photo taken just yesterday by Robin Smith:

Greywood Miniatures is a new tape made by me and Delphine Dora. Our 4th release together! We recorded the bulk of this back in 2017 at Greywood Arts Centre in Co. Cork, Ireland during a residency there. We then took the recordings back to our homes and added extra bits and bobs to them and here are the results. This came out on a tape via The Dark Outside but sold out really quickly. Digital available whenever you want it. Enjoy x

hey all,

Been meaning to do a blog update for a while but been so busy lately. All good though, it’s been a grand productive time.

What’s been happening? Well Tor Fest went really well! This was the first year we did it with any funding outside of beer and ticket sales so cheers to Sound and Music for putting their trust in us as part of their Composer Curator programme. I ended up performing twice over the weekend. As Nwando Ebizie’s back up dancer / trombone player / bubble blower and with Gnod on trombone. Both really amazing experiences. I didn’t get to see tons of stuff at the festival because I was mostly chained to the door handing out tickets but everything I saw was ace. Especially loved Space Afrika at the end of the night. Hopefully we’ll get Josh back in Tod again.

We put on a show for Richard Dawson last week on Jake’s birthday. Richard wanted to organise a charity show to raise money for RNIB and I’m happy to say we took £800 on the door as entrance fees and almost £200 in poster sales. Still got some of them left if you want one, get in touch if so. Would be great to hand a cool grand over to the charity at the end of this week!

Next gig we have up is Tola Custy, Hawthonn and Birds & Ships at the lion next week. This is another of the Sound and Music sponsored events. Check out the event on the new West Yorkshire gig directory here – http://westyorksdiymusic.org/wp/event/tola-custy-hawthonn-birds-and-ships/

I’ve been playing some gigs as well. I performed with the amazing Roy Claire Potter a week or so ago under the name SatNavTod where we’re working with a mix of sound design and spoken word. The show went really well and it’d be ace to work with Roy again sometime.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on a new composition for hcmf// which will be premiered this year the festival on the 18th November. Check out the details here on the hcmf/// website. All the programme looks brilliant this year and I’m so excited to be a part of it as a composer and as part of the team working on the new Young Curator project.  It’s really wonderful to be working somewhere I really believe in. All this amazing music happening in Huddersfield is a really wild thing to be part of.

Next gig I’ve got will be at No Bounds Festival in Sheffield where I’ll be performing as part of an event curated by Sandhya Daengen http://noboundsfestival.co.uk/artists/sandhya-daemgen I’ll be performing a solo piece inspired by Laurie Anderson during the event. Kelly Jayne Jones will be there as well.

I’ll be performing with Kelly again in December on a new interpretation of a piece by Rebecca Lee. We’re revisiting the micro opera we were working on last year in Pendle, will post about all that nearer the time.

Plutonic Shine by The Slowest Lift is still available here on our bandcamp page https://theslowestlift.bandcamp.com/album/plutonic-shine and Julian has just sent off the artwork for the vinyl version so will be posting about that when I know the details soon! This time with lyric sheet so you can sit and read our brains at your leisure.

Ok that’ll do for now. Happy Libra everyone! My bday soon 🙂

Love, Sof x

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.