Iain Chambers is an English composer, producer and performer. Iain has composed and performed since the 1990s. He formed the duo Bow Mods with Philip Clayton Smith, releasing an album and 2 EPs on Drunken Records. He produced programmes at

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

between 1999 and 2007, including Andy Kershaw and Late Junction. With Kershaw he made programmes in

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

and

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

, winning a Gold award for best Specialist Music Programme at the Radio Academy Awards in 2003. In 2003, with Radio 3 colleagues Felix Carey and Philip Tagney, he co-founded

musique concrète Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic ...

collective Langham Research Centre. The trio sought to breathe new life into experiments with reel-to-reel tape, producing two editions of Between The Ears: Gateshead Multistorey Carpark, and guest+host=ghost written by and starring Peter Blegvad, and featuring

Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer, and actor who fronts the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety ...

. In 2005 the trio were joined by Robert Worby, and began to perform new realisations of work by

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

, Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff and others, using their instrumentarium of obsolete analogue equipment, alongside their own new music made from the same sources. Iain won a second

Radio Academy The Radio Academy is a registered charity dedicated to "the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK broadcasting and audio production". It was formed in 1983 and is run via a board of trustees, with a chair and a deputy chai ...

award for his 2011 radiophonic drama written by Peter Blegvad, Use It Or Lose It. Broadcast by

and starring Harriet Walter and David Horovitch, the drama also received a

Prix Europa PRIX EUROPA – The European Broadcasting Festival – is Europe's largest annual tri-medial festival and competition. The event takes place in the third week of October in Berlin, Germany. PRIX EUROPA awards the best European Televisi ...

Special Commendation, and was a finalist in the 2013

BBC Audio Drama Awards The BBC Audio Drama Awards is an awards ceremony created by BBC Radio to recognise excellence in the radio industry, in particular in Radio drama, audio dramas. The inaugural awards were presented in 2012 and the ceremony hosted at the BBC Radio ...

. In 2010, Iain began making music using location recordings as compositional material. His piece The Regent's Canal – featuring pitched-down bicycle bells – was a finalist in the 2012 Europe – A Sound Panorama competition. In 2013 he was commissioned by Musicity to make a site specific composition – Operahuset – to be permanently housed on the sloping roof of

Oslo Opera House The Oslo Opera House () is the home of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, and the national opera house in Norway. The building is situated in the Bjørvika neighbourhood of central Oslo, at the head of the Oslofjord. It is operated by S ...

. Iain founded the media cooperative Open Audio in 2012 with Nina Perry and Vivienne Perry. The company produce multimedia content alongside dramas, documentaries and features for BBC Radio and international broadcasters. Since 2014 Iain has led the project Recomposed, creating live recompositions of concerts in time for the audience's exit from the first show. The project has received critical acclaim for performances at Cheltenham Jazz Festival and Vossajazz In 2015 Iain staged the first concerts ever held in

Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Listed building#Grade I, Grade I listed combined Bascule bridge, bascule, Suspension bridge, suspension, and, until 1960, Cantilever bridge, cantilever bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones ...

's bascule chamber. The huge subterranean space housed 12 sold-out concerts featuring Iain's new work Bascule Chambers, deploying the sound of Tower Bridge lifting as compositional material, alongside trumpets and trombones playing the pitches sounded by the bridge. A recording of the concert was released by Touch Music. Iain continues to curate the Bascule Chamber Concerts, now an annual event. In 2017 Iain created a large outdoor radiophonic work, The House of Sound, for performance outside the

Guildhall, London Guildhall is a municipal building in the City of London, England. It is off Gresham and Basinghall streets, in the wards of Bassishaw and Cheap. The current building dates from the 15th century; however documentary evidence suggests that a ...

, supported by

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's f ...

, Cheapside Business Alliance,

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

and the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. The work was also commissioned for broadcast by

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (; "West German Broadcasting Cologne"), shortened to WDR (), is a German public broadcasting, public-broadcasting institution based in the States of Germany, Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a const ...

, and had an accompanying sonic trail of Mythophone speakers, created by Dan Fox and Dave Young. Iain composed a new version of the House of Sound for the reopening of Reading Abbey in 2018. In 2019 Iain launched the independent record label, Persistence of Sound, celebrating

, field recording and the interplay between these disciplines. The label's first releases included his radiophonic work, The Eccentric Press, commissioned by

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, a finalist in the EBU's Palma Ars Acustica awards. and its follow-up piece, Maudslay Engine, commissioned by

Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

in Australia. Iain's album Secrets of Orford Ness was released by Flaming Pines in 2020. Ivry-sur-Seine, Iain's Hörspiel for

exploring Paris's concrete architecture through sound, won the Prix Palma Ars Acustica in 2021.PALMA ARS ACUSTICA, https://www.ebu.ch/projects/radio/palma-ars-acustica

Selected compositions

References

External links

Langham Research Centre website

Iain Chambers on Soundcloud

"Take it to the bridge: making music out of a London landmark", The Guardian, 24 September, 2015

"LIVE REPORT: Tower Bridge Bascule Chamber Concert", The Quietus, 14 October, 2015

"New label Persistence Of Sound releases London Sound Survey’s Thames LP", The Wire, 21 March, 2019
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chambers, Iain English composers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people)