- country:United Kingdom
- region:Scotland
- style(s):Alternative, Contemporary
- label:no fans
- gender:male
- artist posted by:AC Projects
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Alasdair Campbell is the Creative Producer and Director of AC Projects/Alternative Currents Ltd a new independent arts organisation he launched at the CCA in Glasgow in October 2011. This new company continues the work he established as artistic director of the Tolbooth in Stirling, a post he held for six years, creating a challenging year round programme, commissioning and devising new music projects, curating The Le Weekend
Festival of experimental music and creating opportunities for bringing artists together to develop new ways of working in music and the arts in general. One of Alasdair’s main achievements as artistic director was developing the Tolbooth as a hub of artistic excellence, championing the commissioning of new work and ideas and supporting artists through this creative process.
Alasdair believes in art’s capacity to create new experiences that in turn can develop and stimulate in the individual a sense of worth that can ultimately contribute to the future well-being of a community. With this in mind he has a reputation for creating new work that brings artists and community together. Some of these commissions from the last few years have included: The Wallace by Allan MacDonald; Sonic Bed Scotland with Kaffe Matthews, Clothes Line Saga Blues by Brian Irvine, poet Billy Letford and Allan’s PS; Big Lung by David Fennessy; Candy Shop by Lina Lapelyte; Telescope by Buffalo, Buffalo for the Stirling Astronomical Society and Facing the Atlantic by Julie Fowlis. He is currently a Director on the Board of Comar on Mull, advisor to GIO and Lau-Land, a fellow of The International Society of the Performing Arts (ISPA) and an honoury member of the board of Allan’s Primary School.
Since then he has created and produced a new festival, Counterflows, and now collaborates with conductor Ilan Volkov and the BBC SSO on the Tectonics festival in Glasgow.
Counterflows:
Counterflows is a contemporary experimental music festival produced by AC Projects. Initially devised in 2012 as a collaboration between two organisations, AC Projects and Café Oto in London (Café Oto are now advisers to the festival), Counterflows is committed to promoting challenging and thought provoking work in the context of what might be called the experimental music scene, looking at marginal music practice within an extensive list of music genres.
The festival, though primarily devised and programmed by AC Projects, is collaboration between a number of organisations – Cry Parrot, Café Oto & CCA.
The festival is about exploration and collaboration and investigates networks of artists, audiences and producers internationally and locally who share an adventurous outlook to the arts and are willing to participate and examine different practices and methods with the goal of creating new experiences within music and the arts.
With the festival now established the next three years offers the opportunity to devise new strands and expand the programme. We will also develop our online presence, increasing with digital access and engagement.
Commissions for 2015/16
- Evan Parker & Sten Sandell – Improvisations/ a series of improvisations for saxophone and organ performed at 3 locations around Glasgow.
- Angharad Davies & Sebastian Lexer – Archive/ a work devised with the Welsh National Library exploring the idea of the archive, what it is and what it is for.
- Aby Vuillamy – A Lover’s Complaint/ the sound of the emotional impact of the complaint for voice and improvising ensemble.
- Richard Youngs – Experiment for Demolished Structures/ a new choral work looking at Brutalist Architecture.
Tectonics:
Tectonics is the brainchild of Ilan Volkov principal guest conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The festival focusses on the orchestra and its role in 21st century music and is broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
The BBC and Ilan asked AC Projects/Alasdair Campbell to become a partner and collaborator in the festival, focussing on co-curating and co-producing new work /commissions over the three days of the festival from artists from the local scene that may never have worked in the context of the orchestra or with the BBC previously.
The Tectonics Festival 2014 was nominated for the RPS Music Awards for Concert Series and Festivals and for Ensembles.
For 2014 and 2015 the remit of AC Projects has extended to co-producing the Friday event with the BBC to extend the festival out of the City Halls complex, creating opportunity to explore further collaborations between local artists, the BBC and international guests. This initiative will be developed over the next three years.
This is an excellent opportunity for AC Projects and for Scottish based artists to work in collaboration with an organisation like the BBC, with international artists and to have work showcased on national radio
All artists considered for AC Projects’ New Works and Commissions series for Tectonics are Scottish based artists or Scottish artists based in the UK. They will be working alongside international guests and others at each of the performance opportunities.
Commissions 2015:
Daniel Padden & BBC SSO
Mariam Rezaei, Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and BBC SSO players