Thank you Fat Out for inviting FLUFF to Islington Mill this year. Meme Gold performed a magical and introspective set. Snuggle Ninja brought joy and smiles to people’s faces. Summer’s Groove took us on a sonic journey through various vibes and moods. SEZBENNY merged electronic music with her flute playing and the result sounded groovy and beautiful. thisvibrantbody served beats, energy and made us dance. I also enjoyed playing a DJ set with some of my own productions.
Thank you Norrisette aka my FLUFF partner in crime for curating the FLUFF Pride Summer Party at SOUP and Factory International for supporting us through their Factory Sounds programme. It was such a blessing to celebrate my 30th birthday on Pride Saturday in one of my favourite venues with our own event while I had family visiting. Shout out to the person who asked for the tracklist that one time I actually had one printed (which I didn’t follow)!
I am so excited to spread the word about our FLUFF Pride Summer party at SOUP on August 24th curated by Norrisette with support from Factory International through their Factory Sounds programme. It will also be my 30th birthday that day and my sister Sonja will be visiting from Germany. Expect live sets from Norrisette, Knowing the Oak Tree, Zolatec Ayeshah and HUSK from 8 pm and DJ sets from osk.png, thisvibrantbody, Meme Gold. and myself, Industries, after midnight. Grab your tickets now and come celebrate with us! 🐩
In Spotlight on Sonic Relations I shared my creative findings from the British Council funded Spotlight on Culture artistic and cultural exchange with Grenoble, France. The aim of the event was to inspire artists, academics and other creative workers to create new structures for their work beyond borders. The event began with a sonic intervention: attendees saw the soundmaps and listened to soundscape composition I created in response to the project. The theme was ‘productive tension’ which I felt both internally and externally throughout the week, given that there were many artists and organisations involved with competing interests and that there was political unrest in France as well. This sonic intervention was followed by a panel discussion with EU artists living in the UK on the roles of such cultural exchanges in the post-Brexit era. Roxana Sayyad and Polina Chizhova-Wright both shared their experiences as Europeans having moved to and working the UK. Both echoed the need for international cultural work which is not based on nationalities. The following discussion between the panellists and attendees opened up a dialogue about the role of the arts as a political tool of change, which I hope will continue beyond the event.
Photographs by Helen Davison.
Soundmaps and soundscape composition by Markus Hetheier (Industries).
Thank you Dyphons, Paulin Aloïse and is33n for playing at FLUFF #12 alongside me. Shout out to Heidi for managing sound as well as Nick from Mirage Bar and Factory International for their support.
Thank you to everyone who came and listened to Manchester’s queer sonic geographies at the sold out Intangible Sounds event as part of Manchester Histories at HOME in collaboration with the School of Digital Arts (SODA with other performances from Katie Chatburn, The Wyrding Module, Susan O’Shea and Bon Holloway who also took this photograph.
Thank you Gary Fisher for organising Electric Sandwich at The Carlton Club as part of Chorlton Arts Festival and shout out to Goëtia, Quick Drop and PHIA SKY for their exciting and inspiring performances. The whole evening felt quite punk, from helping each other set up and improvising when things go wrong to the energy that was in the room.
Norrisette is an art-pop artist whose work encompasses composition, classical piano, music production, DJing, performance and visual design. She has recently formed her own band to explore new creative and collaborative landscapes, with Ashley Garrod on bass and Matthew Hill on drums, and has also performed as a featured vocalist across Europe.
Industries is an electronic music project by Markus Hetheier. His music explores and subverts musical structures ranging from field recordings and distorted sounds to harmonic melodies and large beats. He is an electronic music producer, DJ, sound artist, workshop facilitator and practice-based PhD researcher at the School of Digital Arts (SODA).
Together, Norrisette and Industries set up FLUFF – a regular queer electronica night in Manchester. FLUFF aims to provide a platform for queer electronic music producers to perform and test out original music to a live audience, as opposed to being a club night, and has kickstarted the careers of many!
‘We are so happy to be a part of this recent artistic venture for Manchester. It will be amazing to meet local innovators and to receive mentorship for our work promoting and supporting the music of upcoming LGBTQ+ artists through FLUFF. We hope that being part of this year’s Factory Sounds cohort will provide us with a platform for our work as performers, music producers and promoters and that we will be able to connect with like-minded musicians for future collaborations both in the studio and on stage.’
Thank you Sacoya x Jade, Voxish, Nøelle and Kaoti for your wonderful perfomances. Thanks to Norrisette for curating this iteration of FLUFF, Jake for taking care of the sound and Fuel Cafe Bar for providing the space and of course thank you to the audience for turning up and celebrating with us.
Thank you Kiss Me Again for inviting FLUFF to play SOUP — it was a dream! Shout out to PHIA SKY who was up for representing FLUFF with me and to Norrisette who brought FLUFF to life with me.
If you don’t know about FLUFF, here’s how Kiss Me Again described us: “Our friends at FLUFF have been putting on groundbreaking queer electronica events in the legendary Withington space FUEL for a couple of years now, providing a more live performance focussed platform for electronic musicians from Manchester and beyond. If you haven’t managed to make it down before, you really should! Industries and Phia Sky will be representing them at KMA and we’re overjoyed to have them in the basement”.
