Gertrud Grunow (1870–1954) was a music teacher and theorist who was responsible for developing harmonisation theory – a system of producing creative balance within her students, by using music to trigger movements that are responses to a set of colours and emotions. Her work spanned 60 years of development and, unfortunately, the unpublished manuscript of her life’s work was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War. Until recently, very little was known about Grunow and harmonisation theory, and the remains of her legacy have been kept in the archive of the Staatliches Bauhaus, the German art school where she worked as a teacher from 1919 to 1923. Little has been done with this archival material or to establish Grunow’s motivations for harmonisation theory; references to harmonisation theory have been limited to vague allusions to a teaching method that “worked between colour, sound, and movement”.
AFRODEUTSCHE (Henrietta Smith-Rolla), is a British born Ghanaian/Russian/German artist, composer, producer, and DJ based in Manchester, UK. Her polyrhythmic compositions integrate a wide array of musical genres, including Afrofuturistic electro and techno, classical solo piano and Detroit legacy house; all memorable journeys into deep, abstracted sound.
Praised by the Guardian for enacting a new wave of club music, named by Dummy Mag as one of 2019’s most exciting artists, Afrodeutsche’s spectacular debut album ‘Break Before Make’ was released on the legendary Skam label in 2018, followed in 2019 with the debut release on Eclair Fifi’s label River Rapid and a much praised remixes for artists as diverse as Marie Davidson (Ninja Tune), Joep Beving (Deutsche Grammophon) and Nathan Fake (Cambria Instruments).
AFRODEUTSCHE has written and performed scores for films and documentaries including the BAFTA nominated ‘Kamali’ about a young girl skateboarder in India, and a live rescore of renowned Earth documentary ‘Baraka’ at The Royal Northern College of Music.
The soundtrack for ‘Kamali’ was released by SA Recordings in September 2020, alongside a sample library for Spitfire. The audio library illuminates much of Henrietta’s writing process as a self-taught musician and composer. Inspired by her work with the Kyma sound design environment, it’s a set of tools for composition based around colour. Her aim is to offer a new perspective and a sense of freedom for those delving into the library, no matter their level of experience.
In the summer of 2022 she scored Bottega Veneta’s SS2023 collection runway show, during Milan Fashion Week working, closely with head designer Matthieu Blazy throughout the process.
After years hosting a regular radio show ‘Black Forest’ on the renowned NTS, AFRODEUTSCHE now leads BBC 6 Music’s Friday night schedule with the Peoples Party, a peak time show that entrances listeners with her idiosyncratic combinations of crate dug party tunes from any point in the last 50 years, acid, rave, electro, breaks, footwork, ghetto tech and jacking house. In 2022 she has regularly presented BBC 6 Music live coverage of festivals at Glastonbury and Cardiff. At the end of the summer she curated the 6 Music stage for London festival ‘All Points East’.
Alex Jovčić-Sas is a research curator and PhD Candidate who's work focuses on revising marginalised figures from history. Working as a freelance curator, Alex has created a wide variety of exhibitions and events, aiming to create an increased visibility, and a renewed understanding of forgotten figures, and their artistic practices.
In May 2018, Alex curated "Bertha: Seen and Heard" an exhibition that presented the work of Bertha Hindshaw, the UK's first paid female curator. This exhibition in collaboration with the University of Manchester's Institute for Cultural Practices, and the Horsefall presented Betha's story. This included a public programme that examines the problems of gender diversity in the cultural sector, with a focus on contemporary curators working across a variety of institutions across Manchester. In addition, Bertha: Seen and Heard displayed artworks created by groups working with 42nd Street Charity, on the themes of identity.
Alex has also presented the research undertaken into Gertrud Grunow and Daphne Oram as part of Nottingham Contemporary's public programme. In November 2019, he hosted a talk as part of the Sonic Bauhaus series that accompanied the Still Undead global exhibition. This talk introduced a lineage of optical sound which came from the Bauhaus, as a way of establishing the connection of the school to British pop culture. This talk was also presented as part of "Upload Festival", which was a digital series of talks and workshops which took place in June 2020.
Alex has also worked with some of the UK’s biggest festivals including Edinburgh Fringe, Brighton Fringe, Louder Than Words Festival, and Pangea Festival.
Martin Thomlinson is the former frontman of the indie-punk band ‘Selfish Cu*t” and was involved with the art punk scene in London, Manchester, Blackburn since the early 2000s, and holds a BA (Hons) in Dance and Theatre Performance form the University of North London. In his own words “I went on to explore the arts in dance acting musical production and film. To be in a creative dialogue with dedicated passionate people is one of the greatest blessing which I always remind myself never to take for granted”. Martin has been involved with projects such as How to Talk to Gils at Parties, UR Feeling at Camden arts Centre, and performances at Somerset House.
Daphne Oram (1925–2003) was a composer and engineer who created her own synthesiser, the Oramics Machine. This instrument was unique in the way that it allowed the user to draw sound, using pen on 35mm film strips that the machine would read and convert into sound. The development of the Oramics Machine was something Oram pursued through most of her career, which started at the BBC in 1942. The BBC failed to support her interests in creating electronic compositions, as they believed that prolonged exposure to electronic music would cause psychosis. Oram abandoned her newly founded Radiophonic Workshop in 1958 to pursue her passion for electronic music, and particularly the Oramics Machine. Unfortunately, whilst construction of the Oramics Machine was completed, it was not continuously in full working order, and the project proved too expensive to maintain. Little has been done with Oram’s archival materials to attempt to establish her motivations for creating the machine.
