Sonic Lecture 7: The beautiful heuristic: Brian Eno, the 'non-musician' and his systemic approach (Daren Pickles)

Daren’s lecture (6^th May 2012, 7pm) addresses Brian Eno’s oblique influences and explores his oracle like abilities to pick artists, musical genres and working systems that have become part of the mainstream continuum. Daren Pickles has worked with creative audio technology for 25 years, from an apprenticeship as a sound engineer to a career in the music and film industries as a recording artist and sound designer. He has been a senior Lecturer in Music Technology at Coventry University since 2009 and is about to commence a PhD in musical feedback systems.

Sonic Lecture 6: So can music really change the world? (Nathalie Gravanor)

Nathalie Gravanor’s Sonic Lecture (Sunday 29th April 2012, 19.00) ponders the question with a sub title: rallying calls and anthems, pranks, opening alternative spaces and modes of distribution.

She covers both pro- and opponents of this thesis and questions whether either camp has any new ideas:“What exactly constitutes change? That seems to be a key question. This lecture will propose different possibilities for music to impact a larger group than just the singer and his entourage and thus hopes to offer some stimuli for a fresh discussion.”

Featuring the unavoidable protest singer pantheon Seeger-Guthrie-MacColl-Dylan-Baez, John Cage, James Brown, Beatles vs. Stones, Crass, Laibach, Plastic People of the Universe, a selection of election campaign songs, Ton Steine Scherben, Kraftwerk, M.I.A and others.