My collaboration with fashion photographer Nick Knight and digital artist Daniel Brown, interactive artwork “Synaesthesia” is featured in SHOWstudio’s FASHION REVOLUTION exhibition at Somerset House in London, 17 September - 20 December 2009.
The project began as a photographic shoot destined for POP magazine, featuring designer Nicolas Ghesquière’s Spring Summer 2006 collection for Balenciaga.
The Fragmented Orchestra is a huge distributed musical structure modelled on the firing of the human brain's neurons. The Fragmented Orchestra connects 24 public sites across the UK to form a tiny networked cortex, which will adapt, evolve and trigger site-specific sounds via FACT in Liverpool. The project was the recipient of the PRS Foundation New Music Award 2008.
In November I scored two Louis Theroux documentaries for BBC 2. It’s the first time the team have commissioned bespoke music for a Louis Theroux documentary. The two documentaries were presented on BBC 2 as a ‘double header’ entitled ‘Law and Disorder’. My good friend Danny Collins, who edited the films, brought me in as composer.
Nick Ryan scores the 2 part documentary “Dawn Porter: My Breasts Could Kill Me” for SKY 1. This groundbreaking 2 hour documentary follows TV presenter Dawn Porter as she embarks on a very personal and emotional journey exploring the nature of breast cancer and the treatments, stigmas and genetics connected to the illness.Broadcast: Sky1 and Sky1 HD on Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th July at 10pm
Nick Ryan and John Matthias perform Cortical Songs with the Elysian Quartet at Le Poisson Rouge in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2009. The performance was the first of two dates on Non Classical Records’ US debut tour. The piece was performed a few days later at the South By South West Festival in Austin Texas with combined ensemble of The Elysian Quartet and Tosca ensemble.
New York Times: “For “Cortical Songs,” by John Matthias and Nick Ryan, tiny lamps pulsed with the unpredictable rhythms of firing neurons, prompting responses from the Elysian Quartet and Shawn Conley, a bassist. The results, moody and lovely, sounded a bit like Renaissance consort music played in a water tank, with folksy violin improvisations by Mr. Matthias.”
Cortical Songs is a work in four movements for string ensemble and solo violin written by Nick Ryan and John Matthias in which the orchestra is partially controlled by a tiny computer brain. Cortical Songs features the String Ensemble of Trinity College of Music, conducted by Nic Pendlebury.
The Cortical Songs album includes remixes of the four movements by Thom Yorke, Simon Tong (Gorillaz / The Good The Bad & The Queen), John Maclean (The Beta Band / The Aliens), Jem Finer, and Gabriel Prokofiev. This is set to be one of the most unique and fascinating releases of the year (NME).
The album will be released on Nonclassical Records on 21st
July 2008 - CAT Nonclss004 ...read more
Nick Ryan, Jane Grant and John Matthias win the highly prestigious PRS Foundation New Music Award 2008 of £50,000 for the realisation of The Fragmented Orchestra, a visionary new work which will enable us to hear the human brain at work and the sound of the UK as music.
“This is a truly intriguing musical adventure. These are outstanding creative musicians using technology to its fullest and exploring the sound of our own consciousness. It’s an exciting prospect that people all over the UK will be able to be involved in this unique score. It was a unanimous decision.” [Marcus Davey, Chairman, New Music Award judges and Director of The Roundhouse.]
Nick Ryan created all the audio content for Orange's Unlimited website with Poke Agency. The site has been named as one of the Top 100 Designs of 2008 by the Design Museum.
If you ask most people they'll tell you that good things do come to an end, but if you ask the creators of Orange's Unlimited website they'll tell you it shouldn't be so. The site Good Things Should Never End website aims to be the longest visual website in the world
