Diljeet Bhachu in conversation with Kevin Leomo

Episode Notes:

This episode is a conversation between Essential Blends host, Kevin Leomo, and musician, performer, researcher, and activist, Diljeet Bhachu.
Recorded in Glasgow, August 2022. Diljeet and Kevin discuss: exploring sound, relationship with and embodiment of your instrument, connecting with your instrument, physicality of playing; the concept of the whole self, unpacking all the layers in order to fit in and be a different person in different contexts; growing up with cultural difference, layers of awareness, sense of belonging, assimilation culture; parallel histories; layers of awareness, seeing and critically understanding race; enjoying the process of making music, not the product; coloniality and decolonising; positionalities, bringing lived experience into research and PhD work; teaching experiences; vulnerability; spoken word; what makes a creative practice; daytime performance, care.

Diljeet Bio:

Diljeet Bhachu is is an improvising flute player from Glasgow, Scotland. She is currently engaged in a long-term process of unlearning some of the limitations of her training, leaning into imperfection and process.  Her improvised playing has been described as “Stunning, transporting to dream realms of music and restfulness…” (Bell Lungs). Diljeet completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2019. It was during her doctoral research that she gained clarity on how race and colonialism are embedded in her life and her working contexts, following years of informal work and activism to address inequalities.

Diljeet has been writing music on and off since childhood, largely informally before being introduced to ‘composition’ as a concept in high school.  She is now engaging with this more pro-actively and formally, most recently writing pieces for the new Trinity College London Graded Exam Flute Syllabus for Exams from 2023 onwards.  She has plans to record an improvised EP in 2023, and is also developing a more composed concept album. Diljeet enjoys collaborating, and in particular working with poets both in live and recorded settings. She also performs regularly in Kapil Seshasayee’s live band, and features on both of his albums.

Diljeet has been a trade union activist for over a decade, alongside a portfolio career that has included freelance research, teaching in higher education, and being an arts producer. She co-founded the Scottish-Asian Creative Artists’ Network in 2017, to create space for Scottish artists with Asian heritage whose practices do not explicitly or directly draw on Asian artistic traditions, alongside those who do work within heritage traditions. Shortly after recording this podcast, Diljeet started working for the Musicians’ Union, where she is an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer.

Mark Vernon's special mix for Essential Blends. A deep dive into his immersive audio world. 

Mark Vernon in conversation with Adriana Minu

Episode notes

Mark is a fascinating sound artist based in Glasgow with a artistic sensitivity uniquely attuned to archival and found recordings. In conversation with Adriana, Mark generously unfolded the journey of his practice, meandering through his visual arts background, art school training, pirate broadcasts, hospital residencies, the value of giving new lifes to lost voices, how music recordings sometimes end up in the most unexpected contexts and much more.

Mark Bio

In his sound works Mark explores concepts of audio archaeology, magnetic memory and nostalgia. At the core of his practice lies a fascination with the intimacy of the radio voice, environmental sound, obsolete media and the re-appropriation of found sounds. A rich collection of domestic tape recordings; audio letters, dictated notes, answer-phone messages and other lost voices often find their way into his unorthodox soundworlds. These diverse elements are distilled into radiophonic compositions for broadcast, fixed media, installations and live performances.

A keen advocate of radio as an art form, he co-runs and curates Glasgow’s art radio station, Radiophrenia. He is an award winning radio producer who has produced programmes internationally for stations including Resonance FM, VPRO, Sound Art Radio, Radio Revolten, Deutschland Radio Kultur, Radio Cona, Kunstradio, Wavefarm, Radio Art Zone, RADIA and the BBC.

His solo music projects have been published through labels including Kye, Glistening Examples, Canti Magnetici, Flaming Pines, Misanthropic Agenda, Entr’acte, Gagarin, Calling Cards Publishing, Psyché Tropes, Granny, Persistence of Sound, 3Leaves and his own meagre resource imprint.

He performs regularly at venues and galleries in the UK, Europe and beyond including festival appearances at Full of Noises, Hideous Porta, Apologies in Advance, Delaware Road, Tectonics, Counterflows, Supernormal (UK), Radio Revolten (Germany), LUFF, SONOHR (Switzerland), Untape Me (Austria) Sonikas (Spain), Longueur d’ondes (France) and Soundtiago (Chile).

Weblinks:

Website:

http://meagreresource.com

Bandcamp:

https://markvernon.bandcamp.com

Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/markvernon

Collaborations

Hassle Hound, Limelight Cordial, Lucky Bugs Win Prizes - https://staubgold.bandcamp.com/track/lucky-bugs-win-prizes

Run by Mark

With Monica Brown: Lights Out Listening Group

https://lightsoutlisteninggroup.wordpress.com

Radiophrenia

https://radiophrenia.scot

Places mentioned

Sura Medura - Shri Lanka residency place: http://suramedura.com/residencies/

PRIM Montreal: https://primcentre.org/en/our-program

Pieces that have made an impact or that have influenced Mark

Gavin Bryars - Jesus Blood

Negativland - over the edge / dense audio collages

Graham Lambkin - listening to listening

Luc Ferrari - anecdotal sound

Janek Schaefer - recorded delivery - conceptual sound work / audio voyeurism

Pure field recording - Chris Watson / Toshiya Tsunoda

Upcoming projects:

Callback Carousel

A Loop Within a Loop (Glasgow Underground)

Clock Radio

https://radioart.zone/sunday-10-july