Andy Ingamells is an experimental musician who develops unusual methods of composition that blur the line between composer and performer. He has filled taxis with recorder players reading traffic lights as notation, played gold-painted pianos overflowing with buckets of red wallpaper paste, invented the game of violin cricket, and been tickled by improvisers playing his ticklish body as a musical instrument. His work is rooted in traditional elements of music making and Western classical concert conventions, but implemented in a different way. Traditional elements such as score-reading, performance and improvisation often do not give way to recognisably musical material. His is a musical practice that does not privilege the sounding result, but sees it as one amongst many different and equal possibilities.

His work has been performed in the National Portrait Gallery, the Handel & Hendrix House Museum and Café Oto in London, the Orgelpark and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, the Lapidarium of Kings in Copenhagen, Walled City Festival in Derry, Birmingham International Dance Festival, and Cheltenham Music Festival. Ensembles that have played his work include Apartment House, Orkest de Ereprijs, House of Bedlam, Bastard Assignments, The Hermes Experiment, soundinitiative, Kirkos, BLOCK4, Ensemble x.y and Mocrep. Since 2018 he has performed in Private Hire, a duo with flautist Kathryn Williams. In 2019 he formed a collaborative partnership with composer Seán Clancy.

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Andy Ingamells - Petting Zoo (extract)