Musicians and sound-artists defied the ravages of Storm Bert in Aberystwyth’s bandstand for an experimental music ‘audio camp’.

On Saturday, 23 November about 20 experimental participants came from as far as Cardiff, Bangor and Herefordshire, joining local musicians for a day of ‘off-kilter sounds’, live performances, discussion and networking.

The event was organised by the Welsh Experimental Music Alliance (WEMA) with funding from Ty Cerdd (Music centre for Wales), the Arts Council for Wales, Lottery and the Welsh government.

Highlights included performances and Q&A sessions with four featured artists.

Henry McPherson, composer, improviser, artist, and researcher, explores creative relationships with the natural world through sound, movement, and visual media, often focused on plant ecologies and the sights and sounds of woodland and coastal ecosystems. His performance featured sounds created from natural elements, particularly moss, combined with music generated from his own DIY naturalistic instruments.

Sound artist Leona Jones explores the hardly-heard and under-seen, the conscious and not-so-conscious to create installations and events/performances centred around language, voice, sound, spatiality and improvisation. She presented two pieces featuring recorded voices to create a mesmerising sound-scape, exploring the natural musicality of the spoken voice.

Free improvisation vocalist Maggie Nicols, from the Spontaneous Music Ensemble and a founder member of the Feminist Improvising Group, presented a performance of free vocal improvisation, interspersed with keyboards, dance and audience participation.

May Swoon, a rising star in the Cardiff music scene who focusses on the experimental, “shoegaze”, dream pop and rock vibes, creating a dreamy, haunting, and otherworldly atmosphere, presented a lively end to the day’s proceedings with a high energy performance blurring the demarcation between contemporary pop and experimental music.

After the bandstand, many attendees went to Bank Vault for an evening of free musical improvisation in an open mic setting, arranged by Lyndon Owen of NAWR Aberystwyth.

Organisers consider this day a success and an important element for the longer-term development of experimental and improvised music and sound art within Wales, with Aberystwyth identified as one of the major hubs for such developments.