I'LL CADENCE WHEN I DIE!

Simon Thacker is a virtuoso guitarist and composer who is acclaimed for his genre-defying music. As the leader of Simon Thacker's Svari Kanti, he has worked with some of the world's leading Western and Indian classical musicians to redefine cross-cultural collaboration. In this episode of ICWID!, Simon talks about how listening to records as a child growing up in Scotland opened his ears to the music of other cultures. He also speaks about the human spirit that transcends time and place, and how he met a master of the 800-year Bengali Baul tradition on Facebook.

In this last podcast from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015, PianoPiano (AKA Karen Maciver and Hillary Brooks) talk about their show Dedicated, a series of new works for two pianos which celebrate the lives of women who have changed history.

In the fourth episode of ICWID! from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, we speak to Scottish/Burmese producer-vocalist Fiona Soe Paing about her multimedia work Alien Lullabies which blends other-worldly live vocals with detailed electronica and mesmerizing animations by Zennor Alexander.

In this third show from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, John De Simone talks about his work Independence, an exploration of cultural and political identity in Scotland from his perspective as an English-born Scottish-Italian whose grandfather, John McCormick, was instrumental in founding the Scottish National Party.

In this second podcast from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015, John Harris talks about his opera The Garden which is being performed at the Traverse Theatre. Based on an original play by Zinnie Harris, The Garden is set in a dystopian future where a husband and wife find a plant growing through the lino in their kitchen. Originally performed in a real kitchen, this intimate and moving work is scored for two singing actors accompanied by a trusty Yamaha DX7.

In this first podcast from the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Matthew Collings talks about his work A Requiem for Edward Snowden which is being performed as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase at the Fringe before performances at the Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Utrecht) and Sound Festival (Aberdeen) later this year. The piece uses live audio-visual processing to explore issues raised in the fallout of Edward Snowden's revelations of mass covert surveillance and memorialises the death of the innocence of the Internet.

In this first episode of the second series of ICWID!, David Fennessy talks about his piece Hauptstimme which recently received its first performance at HCMF//. A sort-of viola concerto, the piece explores David's interest in the relationship between the voices of an ensemble, and between the individual and the crowd. He also discusses how a work conceived in the Pearl River Delta came to feature the clacking sound of a Scottish loom, and how he was inspired to create a trilogy of works based on the writings of film director Werner Herzog. This episode features performances given by the Red Note Ensemble, Talea Ensemble and Ensemble Klang.

Timothy Cooper, Matthew Whiteside and Nicholas Virgo—the composers behind Edit-Point, Scotland’s only touring electroacoustic ensemble—share their recent sound recordings made in Scotland, along with those by Nick Fells and Pete Stollery. But to what extent are these “sonic postcards” honest documentary? Do a composer's instincts to edit and refine ever take over? Edit-Point reveal all.

To describe Francois Sarhan as just a composer doesn't convey the huge scope of his output: aside from writing music, he is a photographer, writer, film maker and performer who blends all these elements to create unique and often political music theatre. In this episode, Francois discusses his upcoming show Enough Already! (or, Lachez Tout!) - a surreal work which combines film, speaking musicians, an actor and two Foley artists - which is to be performed by the Red Note Ensemble this winter in Glasgow, Edinburgh and at HCMF// before touring to Germany France and Belgium.

In this episode, composer Bill Sweeney discusses his recent work for cello. Recorded and released by Delphian Records, this music takes as its influence such diverse interests as poets Hugh MacDiarmid and Jorge Luis Borges, the music of Robert Schumann and Gaelic psalm singing. Bill talks about how he captured the darkness of Borges' poetry with the help of Pure Data and also explains why he believes there's no such thing as atonality.