The Royal Standard in collaboration with Drawing Paper and Liverpool Biennial present a 12-hour event exploring the relationship between sound, performance and drawing.

Join us for a live drawing session in response to a series of 12 hourly musical and sound based performances and interventions including:

Ian Bracken – Cello, Damian Johnston – Theramin, Volkov Commanders – Reactive and responsive sound costumes, Octopus Collective – Experimental strings, Naomi Kendrick – Live drawing to music, Sohrab Uduman – Compositions using surveillance software, Mark Wingfield – Jazz guitarist and composer, Chiz Turnross – Electronic pop/soul and Deep Hedonia – Interactive drawing ensemble. There will also be screenings and a presentation by Gavin Delahunty, Head of Exhibitions and Displays at Tate Liverpool.

Everyone can access paper, boards and easels, drawing materials and wall/floor space for drawing.There will also be a drawing exchange area for participants to swap or donate drawings and to consider or discuss the outcomes of experimentation with drawing.

Specially created drawing and sound devices using contact microphones attached to drawing materials will also be available.

Sideshows include:

Drawing Paper – back issues and free copies of the 6th issue co-produced with Tate Liverpool
Hilary Judd – artists small multiples and book production
Artist’s editions – an opportunity to buy CD’s books and prints by the days performers Zines and publications – artist’s magazines and published work

Performer and Artist Biographies:

Ian Bracken Suffolk born Ian Bracken began playing the cello at the age of seven. By the time he was fifteen he became a student of Leonard Stehn at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama ( GSMD ) in London. Later, during his time as an undergraduate and postgraduate student Ian played principal cello of all the GSMD orchestras including opera performances conducted by the legendary Russian cellist Rostropovitch and performances in Hong Kong with the Contemporary Music Ensemble. Ian was also principal cello of the Young Musician's Symphony Orchestra with whom he appeared as a soloist in a special performance at Covent Garden for Diana, Princess of Wales.

In 1992, two months before completing his postgraduate studies, Ian was appointed Assistant Principal cello of the RLPO. Since then he has continued to perform concertos and recitals, worked with other ensembles such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and Welsh National Opera and has appeared on numerous pop recordings with artists such as Gomez, Kings of Convenience, The Charlatans and Ian McCulloch. Ian has a keen interest in music education across all ages and has both coached and adjudicated at GSMD and the Royal Northern College of Music and has been involved in RLPO projects such as Music for Life, In Harmony and Tuning into Children. Ian plays on a Betts cello made in London c.1800.

Damian Johnston Damian Johnston currently abuses the theremin with the noise-pop trio Go Tell The Women, pounds the drums with psych-blues outfit Man in the Dark, and is also behind the cosmic noise project Roman Holiday. He also helps out with promoters The Wondering Eye. Apart from that he doesn’t do much else apart from sleep.

Octopus Collective A collaboration between sound artist Ryoko Akama, John Hall and Glenn Boulter of Cumbria’s Octopus Collective. The group will perform individually, in pairs and as a trio, combining improvisation and compositions sourced from various stringed instruments including Shamisen (Japanese three string lute), violin, guitar, autoharp, egg slicer and more. Participants will be invited to influence and change the direction of the music by drawing a series of large scale graphic scores that will result in a series of short contrasting pieces. www.octopuscollective.org www.ryokoakama.com

Naomi Kendrick Performance Info A live drawing performance from artist, Naomi Kendrick responding to improvised music by Dave Birchall and Dan Bridgewood-Hill. I am an artist based in Manchester; My practice includes drawing, performance, installation and participatory events. I have exhibited and carried out participatory events and performances throughout the U.K. Recent Exhibitions include Blank Media, Manchester and The Neo Art Prize, Bolton. Recent performances include Salford University Media City Uk and The Whitworth Gallery Manchester. My Participatory music drawing event Drawn to the Beat took place at Band on the Wall, Manchester and was then commissioned for Fabrica Gallery, Brighton. I have been collaborating with musicians David Birchall and Dan Bridgewood Hill In tiny dark studios and in front of live audiences since July 2011, exploring my drawn response to improvised music. www.naomikendrick.co.uk

Dan Bridgewood Hill I am an experienced musician, heavily involved in the vibrant Manchester music scene, having played over the last 10 years with dbh, NASDAQ, Burnst, Emphemetry, TG Elias and Irma Vep, to name but a few. Over the years, the partnership with Dave Birchall has been solid with numerous explorations into sound, improvisation, mining-based funk bands and musical interactions. www.dbhmusic.bandcamp.com

David Birchall I am a guitarist and improvisor based in Manchester. I am self taught on my instrument from the age of 14 using improvising as a learning and performing model along side writing and performing music in a wide variety of bands which exist at various points along the continuum between composition and improvisation. I have toured widely in the UK and Europe playing free improvised music, anglo scandinanvian folksongs, free/avant/noise rock, my own solo work for guitar and with a band whose instruments were made entirely from bicycles. Some of this music has been featured on BBC1, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 6 Music and Resonance FM. I have also worked with dancers, performers, filmmakers and visual artists in The Lowry Theatre, Salford, The Greenroom, Manchester, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, Whitworth Gallery and the Arnolfini, Bristol. www.davidmbirchall.wordpress.com

Andrew Brooks Photographer, Digital Artist and Film-maker www.andrewbrooksphotography.com

The Volkov Commanders We are the Volkov Commanders, a unified alter ego from a future of our own making who have travelled from the Moon on the Volkov, a large mechanical woolly Mammoth. As a group we strive to continuously evolve by allowing ourselves to indulge our imaginations and encourage the indulgence of others. We entertain and excite through making work centered on characters that celebrate movement, sound and costume. This takes form through enacting rituals, ceremony, séance and offerings. We have been working together putting on performance events around Manchester for two years. It all started with curatorial projects, two large-scale live performance exhibitions called Panoply. During our most recent project we were commissioned by the AND festival to make costumes for Jeremy Bailey’s Master/Slave Invigilation System. We also worked closely with Jeremy, Trixxie Carr/Honey Mahogany to make costumes performed live on stage at the festival closing party, Trixxie Carr’s Right To Rule. Other shows have included a future disco party from the moon, a Royal banquet with traditional Moon food and folk dancing, our own stage at the Sounds From The Other City festival, which we continually interrupted with a mobile orchestra made up of percussive costumed creatures. Through our performance work we strive to be accessible to the audience, often handing over the performance to them by giving out costumes and masks, empowering them to feel included in the work. Sometimes this means that ultimately they take over the performance.

Deep Hedonia Drawing Ensemble #1 is a semi-improvised piece for three microphonic pencils, electric guitar and computer sequencer. The piece composed by members of Deep Hedonia and artists from The Royal Standard connects the physicality of drawing with music, thus enabling the drawers to become performers whilst creating. During the performance the audience will hear how artists can manipulate sound through their mark making whilst watching the process of receptive action drawing.

The concept for Drawing Ensemble #1 was conceived by Thom Isom, Sam Twidale and Jon Davies, and will be performed for the first time at Drawing Sessions #2 for the Liverpool Biennial 2012.

Sohrab Uduman Sohrab Uduman was born in Sri-Lanka in 1962. He began his musical life as a clarinettist, at the University of Surrey, and went on to study composition at the University of Birmingham with Vic Hoyland and Jonty Harrison . His music has received several awards, including an international prize at the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music, The Bourges International Competition for Electro-acoustic Music, the George Butterworth Award, the Oskar Back Foundation Prize for Young European Composers and first prize in the Prix Annelie de Man 2012 Composer’s Competition. Sohrab Uduman’s music has featured at many festivals, including the Oxford Festival of Contemporary Music, The Spitalfields Festival, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Cheltenham International Festival of Music, Darmstadt , Britten Festival Brugges and Agora Festival at the Centre Georges Pompidou Paris.

Mark Wingfield Mark spent his early musical life moving back and fourth between England and the US, playing with bands in Boston, Bristol and London. His developing jazz interests soon took him to Europe where he gained considerable experience as composer and performer with jazz groups SMQ and Scapetrace. Playing around Europe with his group, Mark also spent time studying western and non-western classical forms, developing further a long standing interest in Indian, African and Japanese music. Mark now splits his time between playing with his band (The Mark Wingfield Group) and working as a contemporary composer in the U.K.

Chiz Turnross chizturnross.tumblr.com/ http://soundcloud.com/chizturnross

The Bantam Lions Liverpool based electronic musician and producer Bantam Lions makes warm and colourful house and techno music and curious abstract beats and soundscapes. For Drawing Sessions 2 he will conjure mysterious vibrations to stimulate your senses. www.soundcloud.com/bantamlions

Visit www.the-royal-standard.com or Drawing Paper for more information.