A music project that will form a major part of FACT’s final exhibition of 2008 has been named the winner of the PRS Foundation’s New Music Award, and its £50,000 prize money.
The Fragmented Orchestra set up recording units at 24 different locations – including football stadia, cathedral and a farm – across the UK, capturing their sounds. Those sounds will then be transmitted back to FACT for an exhibition opening in December until February 2009 exploring the power of sound in art.
Mimicking the way the brain understands and transmits sound, the piece will be completed by sound artist Jane Grant, musician John Matthais and composer Nick Ryan by September.
The New Music Award – described as the Turner Prize of the music world – was set up by the Performing Right Society in 2004 and aims to stimulate creativity and innovation in the creation of a piece of contemporary British music.
Mike Stubbs, Director of FACT says “It is fantastic news that The Fragmented Orchestra is being recognised in this context. The artists have developed an innovative and futuristic way of interfacing sound with the public and I am sure the FACT audience will be inspired by their ability to use creative technology to turn the whole of the country into the instruments of an orchestra”.
Watch a film on The Fragmented Orchestra here
Read more on the New Music Award here