Clocking In: Ash Murphy

Performance-based installation, Clocking In, worked to combine the sights and sounds of manufacturing and industry with live electronic recording.

Under the curation of Ash Murphy and More Music, music producers working in genres from hip hop to jazz each had one hour in front of a live audience to create a brand-new piece of music, all starting with the same stimulus: a sample pack of machines, factories and folly recorded at manufacturers in Lancashire.

As a precursor to the 2022 festival weekend, Murphy directed a group of emerging talent from More Media Collective to visit manufacturing facilities and capture sound. From the processing machinery of Cardboard Box Company to the switching technology at Cookson and Clegg – each provided unique beats and tempo.

Access to historical recordings and interviews from the North West Sound Archive melded industrial heritage with modern manufacturing in this eclectic mix.

Invited producers scheduled throughout the weekend were challenged to use these sounds to create brand new pieces of music with added instrumental and vocal recordings.

Taking place in a temporary live studio at 29 Northgate, each producer had the same starting point and ‘desk’ but brought additional equipment – creating tracks as unique as each of their specialisms.

Music Producers

Shunya

Alan Keary is a multi-instrumentalist and producer with a strong musical heritage, writing and producing music from the age of fourteen.  Performing under the alias Shunya, his sound is a contortion of influences, stemming from his background in classical violin and jazz bass, and growing with the sounds of Manchester’s electronic music scene.

Paddy Steer

Paddy Steer is a Zelig-like character along the timeline of Manchester’s musical activity. It’s a testament to his musicality that he has played with such a wide range of music and artists over the years, be it as a bass player, drummer, Hawaiian guitarist etc. or all these roles at the same time.

OneDa

OneDa’s signature lyric ‘Manny on the rise’ applies to the rapper herself, too. She’s on the rise with high-vibration collaborations (Gabe Gurnsey, Mr Scruff) that combine catchy wordplay and gold-plated flow, all fired by an empowered philosophy that she shares in her regular Pussy Power talks. The music bumps and rolls, bringing pumped-up basslines, snare drums and grimey synths that provide the perfect landscape for her vocal vibe energy.

Semay Wu

Semay Wu is a composer, cellist, improviser, and media/sound artist. Influenced by free improvisation and often interdisciplinary frameworks, Semay performs and composes primarily in electroacoustic sounds.

Often using graphic scores and field recordings, previous compositions have become video-works, performance/interactive installations, as well as producing an online audio cookbook for Manchester’s communities: Sounds Like Scran, in 2021.

Guerrilla Biscuits (collaborating with Paddy Steer)

Dave Shooter is a bass player and electronic musician based in Lancaster. In the guise of Guerrilla Biscuits, his performance-focused solo electronic project, he utilises a laptop and controllers to create everything from immersive sound beds to glitchy, filthy grooves – all mixed and mashed in real time. He is a music educator and workshop leader and runs Hymns for Robots, a live electronic music session and is a part of the Ableton Global Educator Initiative.

IORA

Manchester-based artist IORA makes alternative electropop, a combination of vocal and instrumental harmonies, married with electronic samples, sounds and field recording; she is also a Roundhouse Resident Artist alumnus. EP “How did we get here?” (supported by the PRS Open fund) was released in 2022 as well as a UK headline tour and screening at HOME in Manchester of the multi award winning short film Time Bascule of which IORA played the singing voice of one of the leading characters. IORA’s collaboration, ‘Waiting’, received support from Radio 1’s BBC Introducing with Gemma Bradley and the Chillest Show with Sian Eleri.

About Ash Murphy and More Music

Ash Murphy is a producer, DJ and projection artist working as a Project Manager and Music Leader at More Music –  a community music and education charity based in the West End of Morecambe, working throughout Lancashire, the North West and internationally.

Their year-round programme covers a breadth of music-making activity involving people of all ages and all backgrounds.

More Music has a history of over 30 years of national and international projects that demonstrate flexibility, belief, imagination, partnership and connection.

Sound Recordings

Sounds for this project came from a number of sources.

Sound collection by More Media Collective at Cardboard Box Company and Cookson & Clegg

Sound recorded by Sarah Hardacre at Surface Print as part of her Art in Manufacturing residency

Sound material collected by Manoli Moriaty and Nicola Ellis as part of ‘Incidental Rendition‘, captured at Ritherdon & Co.

Historical recordings and interviews from the North West Sound Archive.

Photography by Robin Zahler, Bea Davidson and Ash Murphy.