Jamie Hamilton and Phaedra Ensemble: A Mouth In Search Of A Voice

A Mouth In Search Of A Voice is a new performance by composer Jamie Hamilton and Phaedra Ensemble, made with the voices of people who stammer. Over the past year Hamilton has worked with seventy stammerers across the UK, recording their speech as compositional material, which is then collaged, layered and woven into a score for live ensemble, electronics and video. Live strings, bass clarinet, keyboard and electronics play through and around these recordings, accompanied by a two-screen video diptych by Matt Spendlove. Hamilton's electronics draw on physical modelling of the human vocal tract - recreating the voice at different stages in its evolution - and repurposes medical speech analysis software as a musical instrument. Hamilton, who stammers, has long worked with phonemes and sub-syllabic sound, in a practice shaped by his own dysfluent speech. Commissioned by Cement Fields and Phaedra Ensemble, supported by Arnolfini and STAMMA. It is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.