Boom is OCM’s annual professional development scheme for music / sound artists / musicians and producers who are interested in creating and presenting inspiring contemporary music or sound based work outside of the concert hall and gallery (i.e. in unconventional spaces, outdoors, and in the digital realm). The scheme supports the development of artists (at any stage of their career) who are passionate about engaging with large and diverse audiences with contemporary performance, digital practice and installation work.
This year's BOOM artists are:
ARDAL BICNIC
We are Ardal Bicnic, a sound duo based in Cardiff, Wales. We are interested in accessible experimental sound and music performance. We are residents at SHIFT in Cardiff and have worked on sound design, soundscapes and performance for National Museum of Wales, Green Man Festival, SURGE Festival Glasgow, Spraoi Festival Waterford, National Trust, Stammermouth Theatre and more.
BILGE NUR YILMAZ
Bilge Nur Yilmaz is an international artist creating music under the moniker Tendertwin, a solo project that combines elements of chamber-folk and avant-pop. Hailing from the Aegean shores of Turkey, her artistic interests lie in aleatoric performances, spatiotemporal configurations of liveness, and the concept of nostalgia across geographies. Nested in the middle of the curious triangle of composer, performer, and audience — Bilge is inspired to interpret live performance and composition as a canvas for coincidences, aiming to create pieces that are melodically effective, but also tap into the audience’s unconscious aural perception with an intent to model overlooked social dynamics of music.
Following her completion of a MSt in Music (Performance) at the University of Oxford, Bilge is currently based in London. Recent collaborations include EMPRES’ Art of Noises, Roundhouse Music Collective, and DocuLab. Recent works include Correspondences (2019), a multimedia exhibition created with Jixin Jia, exploring the depths of distance over various collected instances of transatlantic conversation; and Observatory (2021), a two-part series of immersive and distant performance explorations that aim to encourage the audience to discover themes of privacy, memory, and perception.
Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Spotify | Bandcamp | SoundCloud
KEVIN LEOMO
Kevin is a Scottish-Filipino composer of experimental music based in Glasgow. His creative practice involves exploring collaboration, improvisation, silence, fragility, perception, and liminality. Kevin recently completed his PhD in composition at the University of Glasgow, where he currently teaches.
Kevin runs the experimental music series Sound Thought, co-hosts the practice-research podcast Essential Blends, and coordinates The Dear Green Bothy programme of arts and humanities responses to the climate crisis. Kevin is collaborating with the Scottish Chamber Choir as part of Sound and Music and Making Music UK’s Adopt a Music Creator programme. He plays in the experimental duo Dronehopper and participated in Wandelweiser’s Composers Meet Composers in 2022.
RAWZ
Rawz is an MC and Poet. Growing up in one of the UK’s most deprived areas, Northfieldbrook (Greater Leys) in Oxford, he first discovered lyric writing in his early teens.It was an essential way to channel his emotions and organise his thoughts. A self guided therapy.
Since then, Rawz has performed his craft all over Europe both as a solo artist, and with the Inner Peace Records collective which he helped to form alongside other artists from Oxford and London’s hip hop scenes in 2015. He has collaborated with musicians from all over the world and shared stages with some of his childhood heroes. Rawz’ music and lyrics share his exploration of our interconnected worlds, and his responses to them, promoting outer change and advancement through inner reflection and positive action. Rawz does this while covering an unlimited range of topics including love, capitalism, nature, community, crime, science, religion and more.
From leaving school with no GCSEs, to becoming Resident Sound Artist at one of the world’s most prestigious learning institutions, Rawz’ story is one of extreme contrast, determination, and triumph against the odds. Themes that he expertly explores with his lyrics and Spoken Word. An experienced youth worker and teacher, Rawz set up The Urban Music Foundation in 2009, through which he delivers a wide range of creative learning activities in a variety of settings.
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Bandcamp
SIMON JAMES
Simon James is a self taught sound artist and musician from a working class background and over 25 years has released works on vinyl and cassette on labels such as Lo Recordings, Golden Ratio Frequencies, Castles in Space and Death Waltz Records, and also created pieces for radio, podcast and location specific sharing. His work mixes field recording with sound design and electronic sources such as the Buchla Electric Music Box, which over 10 years has become Simon's main instrument. Simon's compositional approach is exploratory and instinctive, focussed on timbral shaping, finding the sounds in between the sounds and exploring the relationship between these and field recordings. Simon's work has been featured on BBC Radio 3 and 4, in the Lowry Gallery, Salford, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill and he has performed at the Royal Festival Hall and at Shenzhen’s OCT Loft Gallery as part of a British Council funded architecture and sound project in China, which also involved a short residency in the cities of Shenzhen and Shanghai.
OCM is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner supported by PPL.
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Past BOOM artists/producers were:
Hannah Fredsgaard
Joshua Le Gallienne
Marcus Joseph
Simone Seales & Rylan Gleave
Charlotte Marlow
Fionnuala Dorrity
Liminal Creative (Lousie Cole & Carl Cole)
Calum Perrin
Emily Jones
Rie Nakajima
Nicholas O’Brien
Steve Urquhart
Breathing Space
Iain Chambers
Sarah Nicolls
Tim Hill
Mike Blow
Errollyn Wallen
Kate Halsall
Kate Romano
Sam Underwood
Kathy Hinde
Emma Smith
Eleanor Hooper
DIM Productions (Esther Tew & Harriet Wallis)
LINKS
Photo credits: Karina Stevens (Rawz)