PRESS RELEASE

WET SOUNDS
New UK Tour, 27 January – 26 March 2011
Bangor, Newcastle, Brighton, Oxford, Glasgow, Birmingham, London

WET SOUNDS
The world’s only underwater sound art gallery is setting off on the third tour of the UK in January 2011.

Wet Sounds transforms public swimming pools into listening galleries in which the public can experience a range of live performances, music, and specially commissioned and selected sound art pieces, while swimming or floating in the water, with ears submerged, and absorbed in sound. Wet Sounds is a deep listening experience. The swimming pools are divided in two: one sound system is used underwater, and another above, and lighting is specially designed for the events, transforming the pools and creating an immersive environment.
 
REVERSE SOUND ART GALLERY AND SPECIAL PERFORMANCES
Wet Sounds brings a variety of audio experiences to a wide audience in a unique setting. The new tour will present both open access and special events. For the open events (accessible to the public at a price of regular pool admission), curator Joel Cahen has created ReVerse, a sound art gallery of works by international artists. Cahen plays a live collage, mixing recorded environments, film soundtracks, sound fx, dialogue and sound textures to create a rich cinematic soundscape. Within this mix he will include works especially made for Wet Sounds, by artist including Jessica Rowland (UK), Liam Quinn (UK), Daniel Blinkhorn (AU), Julius Holtz (D), Riz Maslen (UK) and Philip Mantione (USA).

The concert-events will bring together a range of internationally renowned artists, including Pierre Henry (who contributed significantly to the development of Musique Concréte in the 1950s and has created a new work Analogy for the tour), Mira Calix & Andrea Parker, Eric La Casa, and Nurse with Wound.





In the 2011 tour, Wet Sounds will come to:
Bangor (with Bangor Sound City festival), 27-28 January
Newcastle, 5-6 February
Oxford, 13 February
Glasgow (with Glasgow Film Festival), 19-20 February
Brighton (with Brighton Science Festival), 2 March
London, 6 March
Birmingham (with Fierce Festival), 26 March

MORE INFORMATION AND CONTACT
For full details of the tour, associated programmes, and artist profiles, please see the attached document. For more information, sound samples and interviews, please email wetsounds@newtoy.org and see www.wetsounds.co.uk, or call Joel Cahen on 07908374952.