Sound and Music and the Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Arts (CMMAS) in partnership with Supersonic Festival are pleased to announce the artists selected for Digital Bridge – a new collaborative project supported by the British Council.  

In April this year, we launched an open call for women and minority gender composers, music-creators and artists who work with electronic music and/or use digital technology within their creative practice. 

The project matched two composers based in the UK with two in Mexico and over the next year, each pair will be supported to explore a new international collaboration and create new sonic works. 

The collaborative pairs are  Cutzi Hamid & Freya Edmondes and Sarmen Almond & XEXA. 

The two sonic works created as part of this project will be co-hosted by all partners and will be premiered as part of a unique digital event. The works will be shared via our social channels and newsletters, and will be permanently hosted on the British Music Collection.

Cutzi Hamid 

[[{"fid":"56771","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"height":933,"width":620,"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]

Cutzi Hamid, Trans-Disciplinary Composer, Sound Artist and Little Noise Engineer, her work is mainly dedicated to the exploration of sound parallelisms with different branches of knowledge. 

She has studied at the EIAA Uruapan, at the UMICH FPBA Double Bass Propaedeutic, while she is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music and Artistic Technology at UNAM. 

She has participated in different activities such as the Flash ACT 2022 with the "Ensayo sobre la lentitud" project, in the ONEM as the first double bass player, in the Barranca Fest Uruapan and in her independent projects Cutzi Hamid and Micro Janikua. 

“I feel excited to be selected for Digital Bridge, I want to work with all the people I can - collaboration is the best way to learn and grow up. I hope that through it, I will gain new friends and collaborators, as well as new work that will open up new perspectives for both myself and the people that experience it.“ 

Find Cutzi on Facebook and Youtube

Freya Edmondes/Elvin Brandhi

[[{"fid":"56772","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"height":413,"width":620,"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2"}}]]

An improvising lyricist, sound, visual and performance artist originally from Bridgend, Wales.

She builds aberrant beats from field recordings, tape, vinyl, instrument and voice; as a language for the ineffable nervous intensities characteristic to the historic immediate. 

“I am really looking forward to being part of this collaboration, and nurturing a link to the scene in Mexico. sound is such an intimate tool for communication, allowing you to share invisible landscapes cross-contextually. It’s a great chance to weave together existential differences and similarities into a mutant thread defying cultural reductions and social stereotypes. I hope that the work produced can celebrate the versatility of being, and the complexity of feeling. Demonstrating the capacity for creativity to be an essential tool for extending empathetic intuition beyond your immediate environment.” 

Find Freya on Soundcloud, Bandcamp and Youtube

Sarmen Almond 

[[{"fid":"56773","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"3":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"height":349,"width":620,"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"3"}}]]

Photo by Monica Garcia

Mexican musician and voice-performer. Intermedial artist and voice teacher specialized in the Roy Hart tradition. Director of Alquimia Vocal and member of Man In Motion. 

Sarmen uses the voice in relationship with electronic media to create compositions and decompositions of the personality on stage. She constantly pursues the search for the infinite vocal possibilities that the human body emits as an instrument, as well as the reflection of these sonorities in physical and imaginary spaces.

Almond makes use of free improvisation resources, extended vocal techniques, programming and body work. She has performed in Mexico, England, Northern Ireland, France, Spain, Scotland, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Singapore, Canada, among others. 

“It is very gratifying to be selected for this project. I am happy and looking forward to what we can create together. I expect an honest and high-quality result. A collaboration with deep and meaningful listening, for both us and for the audience.Working with someone I don't know will help me increase my empathy as a listener, thinker and creator. It will nourish me with new resources and creative ideas.” 

Find Sarmen on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud and Youtube. 

https://sarmenalmond.wordpress.com 

XEXA 

[[{"fid":"56774","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"4":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"height":620,"width":620,"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"4"}}]]

XEXA, is a multidisciplinary Afrofuturistic artist with São Tomense ancestry. She is based in London where she is finalizing her studies in Sonic Arts at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her work reflects the exploration of sounds, combining African rhythms with synthesisers, sound design, programming and voice. In 2021, she released her first body of work ‘’ Sonic Calendar 2021 ‘’ in which a new track was produced between the lunar phases and released on every Full Moon night of the year. She is represented by the Portuguese record label Principe Discos and travels around Europe to perform. 

“I am happy and grateful that my work managed to be interesting enough to be shortlisted. I’m also excited and interested in the collaboration process. I hope to learn with the artist whom I am collaborating with. My artistic practice grows when collaborating due to the intellectual and artistic interchange of ideas and ways of practising music.” 

Find XEXA on Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Spotify. 

Learn more about Digital Bridge.