The Experimental, Underground Music Scene in Wales

Last week was the initial kick-off meeting of the CoDI Off-Grid project and it was great to see so many people from the Experimental, Underground Off-Grid Scene in the same place. Although there were some gremlins in the system for Sarah Algliss's talk, Deborah skilfully navigated us to through this and we went into our own 'rooms' to discuss experimental music in Wales and the issues that the community face and what they'd like to see happen. I think that overall I came away with a few things that I'm thinking about: How do we promote what we do in Wales to others and ourselves? Can we share practice, tools, skills and software? Can we share and make use of our knowledge and experiences? How do we engage with people 'outside' of Wales, but who are part of the scene, or want to support? How do we make ourselves inclusive, and receptive to new ideas? One thing was really clear. We should be proud as a community about the great things that are happening in Wales! The experimental music scene has connections that reach beyond Wales, people are interested in what's happening and want to be involved all over the world. Recently I'd released an album on the fantastic Recordiau Prin label based in North Wales, so it's been an interesting time, as some of the issues that were raised really resonated with me. Promotion, being part of a small community, trying to share knowledge and build the community.

I was also commissioned by the National Library of Wales to work with some of their archival content as part of the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project. I really enjoy this sort of work and I think that open free access to archival content is something that is great for creatives and the economy, so I was very pleased to receive on of the awards. Promoting this sort of work is key to getting people to understand the importance and value of the experimental Welsh music scene. You can see the piece below (it's been played at Ocilloscope (with interview), and I was also recently interviewed on the radio about the piece. I think that the music starts at 3.40, it's me talking up until that point.

There's a really good feeling about the the CoDI Off-Grid Network, I can't wait to see what happens next.

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