Hummm, the title of this blog Untitled Noise seems more applicable to this post than any other thus far.

Last night I was was lucky enough to sit through a talk on the history of sonic art delivered by David Rogerson from Sound and Music. It was most enlightening for someone such as myself who mainly works with visuals (apart from working on the radio). Appreciating modern music you see how the avant garde work of the past has worked its way into mainstream punk and modern electro. I won’t write at length about it but if you’re interested take a look at some stuff from the Noise scene, Microtonal Music and artists such as John Oswarld, Harry Patch and People Like Us.

Apart from being exposed to all this interesting stuff, the talk was to tie in with the launch of this weekend’s Sound Expo in Leeds. It starts today and all the events are free. Looking down the program there are a few I would suggest you pop along and see. Electrical Walks on Magnetic Consumption sounds particularly interesting. Collect your headphones from the light and you will be able to walk around the city and hear exactly how much electronic interference passes through our heads. With modern Wi Fi this is likely to be a noisy trip.  Also do not miss the installations that are taking place on Sunday in the courtroom and cells. If you have never seen these locations then the trip is worth it alone. Below Leeds City Hall lie some fine Victorian prison cells that with echoing acoustics will provided the backdrop for some very sinister work.

I will probably do a full follow up feature to the expo on The Show in the next few weeks. Also remember to tune in tomorrow afternoon myself and co-host Theoretical Girl.

I am interested in  how others feel about the experimental sound and music thing, Is it important to mainstream music production or just a load of chin stokers in rooms doing there own thing? Post a comment if you have any thoughts…