Heloise Tunstall-Behrens is a composer, singer, performer and installation artist, working in the field between vocal and instrumental music, electronics and performance.
She writes for ensembles and soloists, creating works which investigate timbre and the relationship between sound and natural dynamics found in ecosystems. Recent performances include ‘Picea 433’, a solo piano commission for Riot Ensemble at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (HCMF) in 2020. Her electronic composition has encompassed working with modular synths and electronic processing as well as field recordings. Her multi-speaker piece, ‘Petroglyph‘, was premiered at HCMF 2019 on Huddersfield Immersive Sound System.
Heloise finds inspiration from collective organisation and is fuelled by interspecies collaboration. In June 2021, she collaborated with choreographer Hannah Wallace to create a site-specific movement/sound performance responding to Sydenham Woods. In 2016, she received Arts Council England funding to write ‘The Swarm’ with Auclair, a choral work about swarming honey bees. This was performed in Brunel Museum in 2016 and VAULT Festival in 2017 and was released on Amorphous Sounds in September 2020.
She currently sings and composes with Deep Throat Choir (Bella Union), Blood Moon Project and Landshapes (releasing ‘Contact’ in December 2021 on Bella Union) and Vertical Foliage (releasing ‘Love is a Grasshopper Nearby’ in May 2020 on CAMP Editions). She also has a movement/sound duo with Franziska Boehm.
In November 2021 Heloise was a recipient of a Sound and Music Seed Award – read a Q+A with Heloise here.