Join an ensemble of sound makers for an afternoon exploring ways of playing together!

Inspired by the compositional and sounding possibilities they explored in 2025 for the Fashion Film Festival 2025’s Chimerical Garden performance (Barbican, June 2025), machinaloci space London 2026 Fellows Andy Cowton and Isabelle Pead create The Sound Garden Collective – an environment where it is possible to play with sound and voice in an unpressured setting, together.

Recording will be integral to the collective’s activities. Recordings made while exploring ideas will be collected into a sound resource archive for further development within the group and/or in individual members’ personal projects.

The first sessions will focus on the material of sound making, through sonifying materials. Participants will be invited to bring raw materials and/or constructed sounding objects to each session. The group will be invited to explore the breadth of each noise and to see what happens when materials are combined with voice or body. Each session will dedicate some time for recording with zoom recorders and shotgun mics.

Each sesssion,builds on earlier sessions to continue to develop textures both from things that sound and explore spontaneous and structured compositions for playing, listening and voicing. The emphasis is on non-traditional instruments, but this is not exclusive and participants are encouraged to bring anything they think sounds great - as well as things that make other things sound great!

No prior experience or attendance required!

Description supplied by the event organiser.