Speaking Tubes Online: New Commissions

Experience new music commissions online, in immersive surround sound recordings in a virtual installation space.

From May 2020 over a period of six weeks, IOU released three new commissions by emerging and established musicians and sound artists originally developed for Speaking Tubes.

Speaking Tubes is a large-scale sculptural sound installation made of gleaming galvinised steel and air-ducting tubes, designed to create a vortex of travelling sound. Audio versions of each composition were created using spatialisation technology to mirror the feeling of being immersed in sound within the physical sculpture as each musician intended. Listen at home and feel as if you are standing in the centre of a virtual 360° sculpture  to experience the music in a similar way to how it works within the Speaking Tubes installation.

The original work commissioned for Speaking Tubes when it first launched in 2012, was ‘Shooting at Clouds’ created by internationally acclaimed composer Yannis Kyriakides. For Speaking Tubes Online: New Commissions three new original soundscapes were commissioned and released by composers Jo Thomas, Loui Binns and Katie English.

Listen to each of the spatial recordings and read more about each composer below.

In conversation with the composers.

A recording of a live event which took place on Thursday 11th June 2020. IOU lead a conversation featuring Artistic Director David Wheeler and four composers who have created music commissions for Speaking Tubes: Yannis Kyriakides, Katie English, Loui Binns and Jo Thomas.