The Laptops Meet Musicians Festival happened just over a year ago (11-12th July 2011), and now a video/documentary has surfaced
You can catch the bit about BiLE from 5:10.
On a non-laptop-music note, Venice really is a beautiful city. Birmingham may claim to have more canals than Venice, but the canals in Venice are definitely more picturesque. Staying on an island, however, was not very practical for those who suffer from seasickness (i.e. me)
Earlier in the year I produced some illustrations of BiLE, Glitch Lich and Benoît and the Mandelbrots for a mini booklet about Network Music Festival. The whole magazine, which includes the mini booklet, has recently been released as Something In The Water:
Something In The Water is a magazine that delves into the past, present and future music scenes/clubs/creativity of Birmingham. The magazine unveils long forgotten, eye-opening events, allowing a new audience to understand the importance of Birmingham’s musical history, while allowing another audience to reminisce. Something In The Water contains no photography and is illustrated by talented creatives from across the world.
On Thursday 26th January I performed with Freecode at the Network Music Festival pre-festival party.
For this set at any one time there were two people doing audio and two doing video. We also had the theme “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”. To try and explain further:
The world of BiLE is a busy one recently! On January 3rd we were featured in an article in the Financial Times about Laptop Orchestra’s
Thanks to Alex Newman for writing the article. The article also makes reference to Network Music Festival, which is taking place in from 27-29th January in various locations around Birmingham.
BiLE will be performing alongside a whole host of musicians at SONICpicnic on 29th July at VIVID.
BiLE had their very first performance at the first SOUNDkitchen event - see, we’ve got proof - so we’re really happy to be performing again.
We’ll be performing a few pieces including XYZ, which was recently played in Venice at the Laptop Meets Musicians Festival. You can see a preview of the visuals that I’ve prepared for it below:
From 10th-13th July I’ll be in Venice (which is in Italy, apparently) with another three-sevenths of BiLE for the Laptops Meet Musicians Festival.
We’ll be performing two pieces, Partially Percussive (recording below) and XYZ, which was recently performed when BiLE was in Norway for NIME:
XYZ (or ‘Sonic Arm Wrestle’) is a structured improvisation using motion capture devices such as iPhone, Wiimote and Xbox Kinect. Each player can fight to take control of another players sound.
BiLE will be performing alongside Thee Moths and Noise Research at Light House Wolverhampton on the 18th of June
As well as performing with BiLE I’ll be doing visualness throughout the whole night. Did I mention it’s all free?
Aside from a brief post announcing our performance at SOUNDkitchen a few months back I’ve failed to actually talk about the Birmingham Laptop Ensemble (BiLE).
BiLE (Birmingham Laptop Ensemble) are a collaborative group of composers and performers of instrumental and electroacoustic music. Six artists were brought together through their shared interest in live performance and desire to perform and improvise together in an interactive ensemble.
On Thursday 17th March from 8pm I’ll be providing visuals for BiLE (Birmingham Laptop Ensemble) at SOUNDktichen Balkan Fusion at the Hare and Hounds 
BiLE are a collaborative group of composers (instrumental and electroacoustic), performers and programmers who are all active members of BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre). The core group of six artists were brought together through their shared interest in live performance and desire to perform and improvise together in an interactive ensemble.