Apartment House Soundings with Apartment House

CAMP is a residential arts facility in the French Pyrenees. It's a place where great art is made, new movements are formed, new ideas are explored and groundbreaking people are nurtured. CAMP is located in Aulus les Bains, the last village before the France/Spain Pyrenean frontier chain. The location is spectacular - we are nestled at 750m above sea level, surrounded by snowcapped peaks over 3000m high, ancient forests and cascading waterfalls. There are eagles, lammergeiers, vultures, ibex and bears. Walk out of the residency, and within ten minutes you are completely alone in one of the most beautiful mountain landscapes in Europe. Aulus les Bains is also a spa village - there are hot water springs, and a thermal spa in the village to take advantage of the healing and relaxing properties of the water.
    
Workshop dates: 23/10/2019 - 28/10/2019
    
Last year's Apartment House session was a highlight of the 2018 program - intense discussion, playing, scoring and experimentation led to a performance on the final of the workshop by the whole group. Participants on the 2018 session are still working with us, notably performing at CAMP Mountain Music Festival this September.

"Just wonderful. Just the right mixture of remoteness and populace. Stunning views in every direction. A massive change of pace and a welcomed one." (James McIlwrath, UK)

"The location was beautiful, surrounded by mountains, lakes and rivers. Between the sessions, there was chance to go walking and I went river swimming too. The equipment was brilliant, everything needed for the sessions. The accommodation was lovely, very comfy bed, good kitchen, shower and study facilities." (Sarah Westwood, UK)

Apartment House has been captivating audiences with performances of avant-garde and experimental music for more than 20 years. The group, created by cellist Anton Lukoszevieze in 1995, has performed all over the World - the ensemble is the most frequently featured UK ensemble in the history of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and its 2011 concert of music by John Cage sold out the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre (the latter success resulted in the ensemble receiving the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music in 2012). They've made a substantial number of live and studio recordings for BBC Radio 3 as well as live recordings for many European stations including Danish Radio DR, Swedish Radio 2, WDR Cologne, ORTF Austria, Radio France and Deutschlandfunk, Berlin.

Championing music by emerging or undeservedly little-known composers, the group has commissioned over 100 new works; highlights include Jennifer Walshe's radical 'Barbie' opera XXX_LIVE_NUDE_GIRLS!!!, with performances in six countries, and Saskia Moore's Dead Symphony, a fusion of social documentary, art, biological science and music on near death experiences. Unusually for a new music ensemble, Apartment House is equally at home at classical music venues (Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre), crossover venues (Cafe Oto), art galleries (Serpentine Galleries, Turner Contemporary, Whitechapel Gallery) and international festivals (HCMF, MaerzMusik, Wien Modern, Ultima, Witten New Music Days), demonstrating its appeal to a wide range of audiences.

2017 sees Apartment House performing in France, Norway, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and the UK. The group also participated in a large scale research project in collaboration with Huddersfield University, culminating in a full performances of John Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra and a new work by US composer Christian Wolff, commissioned by the Hinrichsen Foundation and the Ernst von Siemens Foundation. As part of Sound and Music's Embedded scheme, they have also commissioned new works from Polish composers and sound artists Robert Piotrowicz and Michal Libera, recently performed at the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Krakow. They will be resident ensemble at the London Contemporary Music Festival in December, 2017.

For their session at CAMP, Apartment House present a course exploring contemporary and experimental music performance practice through a large range of different works composed during the past 60 years, all of them taken from the last 20 years of Apartment House performances, and examining alternative notations, indeterminacy, theatre, virtuosity, tuning, simplicity, rhythmic invention and a general all-inclusiveness. Experimental music and art is liberating, fun, disciplined, challenging and life changing. We will work on a vast range of pieces by composers such as Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Christian Wolff, Louise Bourgoise, Julius Eastman, Joseph Kudirka, Jennifer Walshe, Luiz Henrique Yudo, George Brecht, Marc Sabat and George Maciunas. There will be an informal performance event at the end of the course, and participants will go on to take advantage of post-course opportunities including full release/publication on our in-house imprints, performance at Fuse Art Space, broadcast opportunities on our radio station, and much more.