The Art of Noise

• 26th Dec 2005

The UK's newest electronic music and art festival, THE NOISE OF ART, is to launch this February at the newly refurbished De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex. Involving contemporary musicians, producers and DJs playing live to a selection of silent movies – made at the start of the last century – from the bfi's Mitchell & Kenyon Collection.

The films and videos will form part of a club event and the DJs taking part in the visual performance will return to play DJ sets.

NOISE OF ART has been in development for three years. It celebrates the convergence of different disciplines brought about by the digital age. A moveable feast there will be Noise of Art events throughout the year at De La Warr Pavilion and in different venues across the country. A major Noise of Art event will be taking place on Friday 5 May at Tate Britain in London and on Saturday/Sunday 6 and 7 May at De La Warr Pavilion. More club dates and events in London are to be announced shortly.

Easily the most exciting film discovery of recent years, the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection has been restored by the bfi National Film and Television Archive. Pioneering film-makers Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon filmed scenes of everyday life between 1900 and 1913 – including holidaymakers in Morecambe, miners in Pendlebury and the first filmed Manchester United game. Put to music played live by some of the UK's top club players, the movies and the people featured in them are brought strangely up to date, as miners congregate to Vector Lovers' industrial techno and holiday makers promenade to Lemon Jelly's
nostalgic seaside music.

De La Warr Pavilion is a newly restored Modernist/ Art Deco International arts building located on the beach at Bexhill, East Sussex. Built in 1935 by renown Berlin architect Erich Mendelson, it is a uniquely beautiful building and is a natural home for Noise of Art.

Alan Haydon, Director of the De La Warr Pavilion says: “At its core this event is about many of the things the De La Warr building stands for. It's about different branches of the arts world approaching the same things from different angles. It's about artistic pioneers using technical innovation to create something for public use and it's about providing a good quality experience for those watching and taking part – whether they're 21st Century clubbers or turn of the 20th Century barrel jumpers.”

Founder of Noise of Art, Ben Osborne, says; “For the launch event we've chosen to focus on the work of two innovators who were using cutting edge visual technology 100 years ago. By matching their images to the music of today's innovative DJs and techno producers we're able to celebrate the old in a new way, while we also reflect the recent rise in popularity of silent film – made possible by the digitisation of archives and the advent of DVDs. It represents another way in which digital production makes bedfellows of once distinct worlds, this time reaching across a hundred year divide.”

“The De La Warr Pavilion is the perfect home for the Noise of Art, encompassing in one building the multi-disciplinary approach of the festival. And the line-up of musicians taking part in this and the on-going project is fantastic. We are grateful to all of them and all the visual artists and musicians who are starting to work on collaborative projects for events in April, May and later this year.”

The Noise of Art would like to acknowledge the valuable support of the British Film Institute in the selection and preparation of films for the festival.

About February's line up:

Fred Deakin (Lemon Jelly)

Apart from being one of the UK's top electronic chill out acts, Lemon Jelly have a long association with visual art. Fred Deakin, who is half of the Lemon Jelly duo, is as much a graphic artist as he is a musician, so not surprisingly he's jumped at the chance to be involved in the Noise of Art adventure. The scenes he has selected deal with the leisure activities in Mitchell and Kenyon's work – days at the beach, cricket games, the first ever Manchester United game to be filmed and barrel jumping. All the things Lemon Jelly enjoy on their days off.

Nathan Fake

Currently the name on every tipsters lips for 2006, Nathan grew up in East Anglia, but makes music more reminiscent of Northern hemisphere bands such as Mogwai, Boards Of Canada and Sigur Ross. His debut LP, released in February 2006, is already being described as an album of the year. This will be the first time that he has performed his new live show with specially commissioned video projections.

Chris Coco

Originally the man behind one of Brighton's first acid house clubs, Coco, Chris Coco is currently a Radio1 DJ and a producer of records that span everything from classical to dub and house. He has recently been working with art collective PAM and painter She One and, when he's not DJing for Robbie Williams, presents the Blue Room on Radio 1.

Vector Lovers

Signed to Scotland's Soma records and famous for live techno club sets and producing the music for car adverts, Vector Lovers is as equally adept at shaking the dance floor as he is at making plaintive ambient electronic music. Like much techno music, his work is about subtle social commentary as well as dancing. His recent LP, 'Capsule For One', was a released to an avalanche of critical praise. His a soundtrack to films made one hundred years ago uncannily underpins the similarities between the human condition then and now.

Les Hommes du Train

Les Hommes Du Train produces live and pre-recorded electronic music, swapping between DJing and playing live, with a great deal of buffering and shunting in between. The live act can feature up to seven members and at full compliment includes upright bass, guitars, keyboards, decks, beats, vocals and trumpet.

Temposhark and Justine Pearsall

West London's hot electro act debut their new video by artist Justine Pearsall and perform live to a section from Justine's 'Clip Test' – an underwater video of synchronised swimmers that was exhibited as part of the De La Warr's opening season. Collaborations between artists and musicians that will form the focus of future Noise of Arts festivals.

HK 119

Iceland's extraordinary art-pop act and One Little Indian singing, HK119 is as stunning visually as aurally. Her attention to visual impact, and ability to turn things such as bin liners into unearthly fashion statements, means that she will be the only one of this event's performers not to use projections. She will be showing her videos in the Pavilion bar though.

A Man Called Adam

Ibiza's much loved sunset duo recently signed to Brighton's Skint label and have a long association with the sea. As well as creating the chart topping anthem 'Barefoot In The Head' in the Nineties, they've been continually involved in music and art and currently live and write music in Cornwall. For the Noise Of Art festival they will put music to some of the earliest known British film, shot in 1985. Called 'Rough sea at Dover' it was filmed along the coast from the De La Warr Pavilion and, despite its brevity, is considered a major landmark in the history of cinema.