Sound and Music and the Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Arts (CMMAS) in partnership with Supersonic Festival are pleased to share Digital Bridge – a collaborative project between Mexico and the UK, funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grants.
In April last year, we launched Digital Bridge, a project for women and minority gender composers, music-creators and artists who work with electronic music and/or use digital technology within their creative practice. The project saw us matching two composers based in the UK with two in Mexico, and supporting them to create new sonic works through these international collaborations.
The collaborative pairs are Cutzi Hamid (MEX) & Freya Edmondes (UK) and Sarmen Almond (MEX) & XEXA (UK). You can read more about them below.
Composers
Cutzi Hamid, Trans-Disciplinary Composer, Sound Artist and Little Noise Engineer, her work is mainly dedicated to the exploration of sound parallelisms with different branches of knowledge.
She has studied at the EIAA Uruapan, at the UMICH FPBA Double Bass Propaedeutic, while she is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music and Artistic Technology at UNAM.
An improvising lyricist, sound, visual and performance artist originally from Bridgend, Wales.
She builds aberrant beats from field recordings, tape, vinyl, instrument and voice; as a language for the ineffable nervous intensities characteristic to the historic immediate.
Mexican musician and voice-performer. Intermedial artist and voice teacher specialized in the Roy Hart tradition. Director of Alquimia Vocal and member of Man In Motion.
Sarmen uses the voice in relationship with electronic media to create compositions and decompositions of the personality on stage. She constantly pursues the search for the infinite vocal possibilities that the human body emits as an instrument, as well as the reflection of these sonorities in physical and imaginary spaces.
XEXA, is a multidisciplinary Afrofuturistic artist with São Tomense ancestry. She is based in London where she is finalizing her studies in Sonic Arts at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Her work reflects the exploration of sounds, combining African rhythms with synthesisers, sound design, programming and voice. In 2021, she released her first body of work ‘’ Sonic Calendar 2021 ‘’ in which a new track was produced between the lunar phases and released on every Full Moon night of the year.
Works
Digital World by Cutzi Hamid (MEX) & Freya Edmondes (UK)
Digital World asks: "how does the digital world that connects us sound?" Beyond the zeros and ones, beyond the modem noise, the artists imagine ‘the means of transport for the zeros and the sound of the ones’. They consider how the lives of these technologies, controlled by our lives, often have an impact on the environment and our development as humanity that, most of the time, is ignored.
Grain of Sand by XEXA (UK) & Sarmen Almond (MEX)
Grain of Sand is a binaural audiovisual piece that invites you to explore the world through the lens of a tiny fragment of the earth. Working in English, Spanish and São Tome’s, the artists imagined themselves each as a grain of sand, connecting two worlds and imaginary spaces through words and gestures becoming sounds.
Q&As
Cutzi Hamid (MEX) & Freya Edmondes (UK)
Cutzi Hamid and Freya Edmondes talk to Ray Morrison about the art of digital collaboration, finding a common creative goal, and taking field recordings of motorbikes.
XEXA (UK) & Sarmen Almond (MEX)
XEXA and Sarmen catch up with Ray Morrison about building linguistic trust, telepathic WhatsApp messages and recording their environments through binaural sound.
Visiones Sonoras Festival
Held annually since 2005 in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico, the Visiones Sonoras Festival focuses on artistic proposals that include new technologies at the core of artistic creation, offering a current perspective of what is happening globally in artistic creation. Watch the panel discussion below to find out more about the artists and their projects.
Thanks to our partners
Special thanks to our Digital Bridge collaborators at CMMAS and partners at Supersonic. This project was funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grants.
See also
New Voices is our artist development programme that supports composers at pivotal stages of their careers to explore new ideas, new sounds and new music.
Composer-Curator is a composer-led and curated national touring programme which supports outstanding live and digital music projects and events.
Explore Composer-Curator and how to apply
Adopt a Music Creator is a unique scheme that pairs composers with leisure time music ensembles and groups to collaborate on the creation of a new piece.