Sound poetry / Sonic art / Improvised vocalisation

My work was featured in the The Liberated Voice exhibition at Palais de Tokyo : Paris (2019) which recounted the history of sound poetry in the 20th and 21st century.

Live sound works include performances at Cafe Oto, Conway Hall, Iklektik Artlab, Kings Place, The Festina Lente in Paris and on BBC Radio 3's The Verb.

Hipoglote sound poetry podcast ran a special edition in 2020 covering ten years of my sound poetry works and collaborations ^^^

Collaborators include Sharon Gal, Dylan Nyoukis, Benedict Taylor, Maja Jantar, Nathan Walker and Phil Minton. I am a member of Minton’s Feral Concord and was a member of Cobbing’s Writers Forum. Some more links include

Utsanga publish 3 sound poems (2019)

The Italian avant garde hub kindly present three of my sound works online https://www.utsanga.it/fowler-sound-and-video-poems/

including this never before published beaver god noise poem video.

Tapin2 publish 3 sound poems (2016)

The French avant garde hub kindly present three of my sound works online tapin2.org/fowler-steven-j 

including this before published dogface god noise poem video.

10 years of sound poetry - HIPOGLOTE podcast August 18, 2020

This is something I’m really happy with - a podcast in the remarkable HIPOGLOTE series, thanks entirely to the amazing Tiago Swabl - which recounts my ten years in sound poetry this year, 2010 to 2020. A unique audio document, I was invited to provide performances and commentary explaining my path though the noise poems as part of their Carte Blanche series.

It traces my first steps as part of the post Bob Cobbing Writers Forum, my early improvised vocalisation work with Ben Morris and Dylan Nyoukis and at the British Museum, then my travels around Europe working with Zuzana Husarova and Maja Jantar amongst others, then my Soundings project with Wellcome Library, my participation in the Palais de Tokyo sound poetry retrospective and works with British artists I admire like Nathan Walker and the legendary Phil Minton. All this with brand new works made for the show, loads of solo works I’ve dug out of my archive and cover versions of Cobbing and bp nichol, also new for this ambitious hour.

It’s pleasing to not only have had the invitation, but to have Tiago’s editorial assistance (he did it all!) in making this document. It succinctly looks back on so much work I’ve found myself doing in a field which has always intimidated / excited me and it’s made me realise things, in making this summation, that had escaped me. More than anything, it’s made me realise I want to do more sound poetry. https://www.mixcloud.com/Hipoglote/183o-hipoglote_2020-08-17_-carte-blanche_-steven-j-fowler/

Sounds performances for the launch of Nemeses / November 2019

My book Nemeses : selected collaborations 2014 - 2019 contained sound poetry scores and visual documentation, and collaborations with Phil Minton, Maja Jantar, Nathan Walker and other brilliant sound poets. For the 5 launches the book had, sound collaborations were part of the proceedings on two occasions.

The Liberated Voice Exhibition at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (March to May 2019)

I'm very happy to have a sound poetry installation in this upcoming exhibition - The Liberated Voice - at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, which charts the modern history of sound poetry, and features works by poets like Henri Chopin, The Four Horsemen, John Giorno, Ernst Jandl, Jackson MacLow, Seiichi Niikuni, Gerhard Rühm, Carolee Schneemann et al. It runs March 22nd to May 12th. https://www.palaisdetokyo.com/

"In the 20th century, phonetic and then sound poetry always stood as an act of emancipation. Sometimes ready to abandon semantics, the avant-garde turned it into a spearhead of a struggle against systems, beliefs and dogmas. What is now left of their heroic combats?"

www.stevenjfowler.com/palaisdetokyo

Feral Concord at Cafe Oto, London / October 3, 2018

By far the least experienced vocalist in the circle, I was so happy to be so. To be asked by Phil Minton, one of the world’s foremost improvised vocalists and a kindly golden ghidora of the avant garde music world, to be one of a dozen artists involved in a Feral Concord, that is an entirely improvised choral performance at Cafe Oto, meant a great deal to me. I have a toe in many pools, so naturally I’m ankle deep in none. I am therefore often at a remove, which is a grand thing most of the time, but also cautious, in this case, to not be the chimp whistling when others are singing or singing when others are whistling. In the group were friends like Dylan Nyoukis but also many others I had not met but whose work I knew and very much admired.

The actual experience was profound. It’s hard to describe. I was struck this time, during our 30 minute performance, just how remarkable it is to communicate with others so directly, following as the piece varies and alters and shifts like fish in the ocean, without any language or movement being the thing that makes the moves. A friend in attendance described it as a solemn seance that made everyone else not move.

Episode 87 in the Hipoglote series - an interview with Tiago Swabl and Nuno Neves

A brilliant series of audio interviews from Portugal exploring 21st century sound poetry practise

https://www.mixcloud.com/Hipoglote/87o-hipoglote_2018-06-18_interview_-steven-j-fowler/

Soundings project : wellcome library

Soundings was a series of collaborative sound poetry and sonic art performances held in seven different venues in the city of London. 

Each edition of Soundings begins with Wellcome librarians suggesting images, manuscripts and books from the Library’s collections in response to a title initiated by Hubbub curators. These sources form the basis of a theme, or are responded to, in each of the collaborative public performances.

All videos and blogs www.stevenjfowler.com/soundings

Sound installation at Mile End Art Pavilion

stevenjfowler.com/lunalia
with Maja Jantar

Over 30 new pieces of collaborative sound art - Lunalia is a brilliant sound art project founded by Maja Jantar. It traces lunar cycles, with Maja and a collaborator exchanging recordings – be they found, sung, murmured, burbled, read or cried – each day of the cycle, somehow responding to the moon. I was the 12th Lunalia. I participated for one whole lunar cycle, lasting August 18th to September 18th 2016, a notorious summer, full of full, blue, white, half, blood and wolf moons. 

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huellkurven sound poetry magazine

Huellkurven is an online sound poetry magazine and a series of events dedicated to sound poetry, poésie sonore, lautpoesie, noise poetry, sound-text composition, auditive poesie, audio poetry etc.

http://www.huellkurven.net/issue2.php bring your guns we will exchange them / This is a live recording in situe at a modern museum, in their ethnographic gallery, which through found radio and installation noises, as well as responsive, guttural sound poetry aims to ambiguously compliment / satirise / criticise the anesthetised western usage of african sound culture

http://www.huellkurven.net/issue4.php Iroquois / Unpulled sound art that refracts a glorified spiritual ghost nation who enjoyed scalping en masse, and slow torture of those too weak to win.

Duets with Nathan Walker and Leonce Lupette in Liverpool and Buenos Aires

Festina Lente sound poetry festival in Paris : Solo & with Zuzana Husarova

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A note on: The Improvised Vocal Forum April 6, 2017

The Improvised Vocal Forum is a brilliant web resource and community based in Sweden bringing together, with short profiles, some of the world's most interesting sound poets and vocalisers. I'm chuffed to have a small slice of the pie, with a new cool name and such. Check it out https://www.improvisedvocalforum.com/ endless exploring

A note on: The Cast of the Crystal Set - X marks the bokship record

February 24, 2017

The Cast of the Crystal Set: Readings, Radio, Recordings, Interviews and Performances from: / Jenny Moore & House Music, Sinkhole, Marcia Farquhar with Anne Bean and Judy Clark, / Drawing Room Confessions, Maia Conran, Jessica Worden, SJ Fowler, Denise Hawrysio and Kriswvyd.

The Crystal Set was an evolving structure oscillating between a sound studio for recording and an open stage for live listening events. Between June – August 2015 at X Marks the Bökship & Matt’s Gallery, it hosted a series of recording sessions, workshops and performances. The invitation to a cast of artists and publishers was to use the studio as a resource to translate material from the printed page into sound. This record is a collection of extracts from some of the readings, live radio and interviews all recorded or performed in The Crystal Set.

The Cast of the Crystal Set / 12" Vinyl Record / Published by X Marks the Bökship, 2016 / Edition of 200 / Price £10 http://bokship.org/xaudio.html