Counterflows 2021
1-30 April
The 10th edition of Counterflows offers a new way to explore artists’ work. A temporary online space featuring new works by a host of local and international artists working across sound, film, text, illustration and at new intersections between, all accessible freely at this site from April 1 and throughout the month.
Commissions
Annea Lockwood
(Featured Artist)For Ruth
Mazen Kerbaj
The Musical
SERAFINE1369 & Young Nettle
Sounds 4 Survival Audio Book – We Make A Way To Invent The Rhythm Through Versions Of Our Shared Name
Helena Celle
Music For Counterflows
Soft Tissue
Circle To Map
Michele Koppes
Susie Ibarra
Water Rhythms – Listening To Climate Change
Josie Vallely
Things that happen every year in a cycle
Nakul Krishnamurthy
Lal̩itam Varn̩n̩am Asuram ലളിതം വർണ്ണം അസുരം
Nazar
It Ends And Starts Here
Edward George
Kuduro – Electronic Music From Angola
Counterflows Community Interventions
Yan Jun
It’s Ok if it’s Not
Thefuries
In This Moment, I’m Living
Posts
Counterflows on Paper 2021
Counterflows on Paper is a collection of specially commissioned pieces spanning text, poetry, illustration and comics, collated into a limited edition Zine. Spanning a wild range of topics across its 30 pages, the Zine was edited by Joel White, designed by Oliver Pitt and printed and bound in Glasgow by Good Press. The Zine also […]
Conyach
This is a 2 part podcast exploring the cultural context of Nawken (Scottish Traveller) song traditions and their links with wider social justice struggles for Scottish Travellers. This is part of a wider piece of work that me and Davie have been doing looking at the relationships between Nawken cultural ‘outputs’ (song /storytelling/craft) and access […]
Nakul Krishnamurthy in conversation with Khyam Allami
Nakul Krishnamurthy and Khyam Allami discuss the intercracies of tunings and the construction and methods behind non-western modes of music as well as Nakul’s commission for Counterflows At Home. Khyam Allami is an Iraqi-British multi-instrumentalist musician, composer, researcher and founder of Nawa Recordings. Primarily an Oud player, his artistic research focuses on the development of […]
It’s Not Music
The artist Yan Jun guides us through the ‘non music’ scene in Beijing, starting from the four walls of his studio and travelling out to a busy underpass and a local restaurant to meet artists in the city to talk about what non music means to them. Yan noticed things starting to happen a few […]
Conversation with Mrudula Devi S – Lal̩itam Varn̩n̩am Asuram
Mrudula Devi S is an activist from Kerala and an editorial board member of Pat̩habhedam magazine. She was a teacher by profession, but retired to focus on and engage with Dalit-Adivasi-Bahujan issues. Here Mrudula talks about the invisibilisation, marginalisation, and exclusion of certain communities in India and talks about the relevance of projects like Lal̩itam […]
Conversation with Dr. Davesh Soneji – Lal̩itam Varn̩n̩am Asuram
Dr. Davesh Soneji is an Associate Professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, who is trained as a historian of religion. His work focusses on the history of interface between religion, performance, and forms of cultural nationalism that developed in India in the late 19th century to the middle of 20th century. […]
Reimagining Ramayana
“I am from a Brahminical background. Nrithya comes from a marginalised community. So, how do we work out those politics?”. Composer/singer Nakul Krishnamurthy embarks on an ambitious project with dancer/activist Nrithya Pillai. Can they successfully navigate caste politics and class-based structures, reimagine an Indian epic, and subvert “classical” art forms – at a physical distance […]
Water Rhythms: Listening To Climate Change
Susie Ibarra and Michele Koppes present a podcast of soundscapes and stories in Water Rhythms: Listening to Climate Change. Water Rhythms is the story of climate change as told by the ice and water. It is the acoustic story of our entanglements with a changing climate and changing landscapes of our own making. Through Water Rhythms, we […]
Conversation with Pushpavathy – Lal̩itam Varn̩n̩am Asuram
Pushpavathy is a singer and songwriter from Kerala who has been associated with Carnatic music for over 34 years. Apart from being a successful playback singer in Malayalam movie industry, she composes, releases, and performs her own music that talk about the plight of marginalised communities in an attempt to create wider awareness around the […]
Requiem For Survivors
What are the sonic manifestations of trauma? In this podcast the artist and musician Thefuries explores how the experiences of sexual violence can manifest in sound and in the act of listening. We hear their journey through the making of a series of intensely personal pieces for Counterflows At Home, including the making of several […]
Yan Jun with Edward Sanderson
An interview with Yan Jun, by Edward Sanderson, exploring the making of the podcast for Counterflows At Home, “It’s Not Music”, and Yan’s relationship with Beijing’s underground music and art scenes. Expanding on his collaborations, work, processes and ideas behind his thinking, the interview offers another window into Yan Jun’s multi-faceted life and practice. Yan […]
Helena Celle by Stewart Smith
Helena Celle is the electronic music alter-ego of Kay Logan, who has emerged as one of the most exciting talents and deepest thinkers on the Scottish music scene. The first Helena Celle album was released on Night School in 2016 and she recently followed it with Copy Music, a collection of oddball rhythmic bangers. This […]
Kuduro: Electronic Music of Angola – Part One
Kuduro is the electronic dance music of a generation born and raised during Angola’s traumatic and protracted civil war. It started life on Angola’s margins, in the clubs and ghettos of the nation’s capital, Luanda, but its influence can be heard in Angolan hip hop, R&B, and techno. In the twenty-first century Kuduro is the […]
Mazen Kerbaj by Mazen Kerbaj
A video interview with Mazen Kerbaj, by Mazen Kerbaj. In keeping with Mazen’s approach to his whole commission for Couterflows At Home, ‘Mazen Kerbaj – The Musical’, Mazen has produced a novel and creative interpretation of the idea of an interview. Is this megalomania or genius? Only Mazen himself can answer.
Nawken
This is a 2 part podcast exploring the cultural context of Nawken (Scottish Traveller) song traditions and their links with wider social justice struggles for Scottish Travellers. This is part of a wider piece of work that me and Davie have been doing looking at the relationships between Nawken cultural ‘outputs’ (song /storytelling/craft) and access […]
Updates
Thank You
Since the cancellation of the 2020 edition of Counterflows we have puzzled over what we could possibly deliver for our 10th edition of the festival “Counterflows At Home April 2021”. How could Counterflows be realised without performance or gathering together? Quite early on we agreed that we didn’t want to present something that would attempt […]
Nakul Krishnamurthy interview with Khyam Allami
Please to announce this very special interview between two fascinating musicians discussing at length the inner workings of their art, taking in: non-western tunings, Nakul’s new commission, experimentation and tradition as compatible creative forces for musicians working outside the established hierarchies of western contemporary music and a whole lot more.