Saint Abdullah & Eomac is a long distance, ongoing collaboration between Mohammad and Mehdi, New York based Iranian-Canadian brothers who make up Saint Abdullah and Eomac, aka Ian McDonnell, a producer based in Wicklow, Ireland.

Saint Abdullah’s practice is rooted in sonic storytelling, and media, blending geo-politics, religion, and social behavior. Eomac's sound draws from obscure samples and raw synthesis in an ongoing exploration of intense, visceral music for body and soul. Initially starting work together in 2019, they were mutual fans of each other's music and found that their own productions, Saint Abdullah using outboard analogue gear and Eomac in the box, complemented each other with a sense of rawness and heavy use of samples and extreme contrasts.

Mohammad says of the collaboration: "As a collective, we exist to test the revolutionary possibilities within sound and sonic storytelling. As a means to finding a vision of the future and for building cultural dialogue today.” This explorative attitude has led to a number of releases so far - 2021’s ‘Patience of a Traitor’ on Nicolas Jaar’s Other People label, two releases in 2023 on Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu - the EP ‘A Vow Not to Read’ and the album ‘Chasing Stateless' – and the album 'Light Meteors Crashing Around You Will Not Confuse You' on Drowned by Locals in early 2024.

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Make some Noise! Look out for the roaming Noise Technicians who will show you how to rock a bass riff on a distorted rubber band, or strum a beautiful melody on an egg slicer.  Can you create music on upcycled e-waste? Or just a horrendous cacophony? It’s all the same to us ‘cos we like NOISE! The Audio Assault Buggy is loaded with strange and wonderful up-cycled instruments for you to try.  If you are feeling brave you can hold onto the robotic arms and attempt the infamous Noisy Toys Nose Test. Why not electrocute your friends and family too? Then everyone can win the ‘Nose Tested’ stamp.

Artist Profile.

Experimental Sonic Machines is Peter K Rollings & Ernie the Robot Drummer, based in Lincoln UK. It started in 2010 with performances at open mics using homemade instruments & costumes & has progressed to machines that play paper discs to create original basslines & rhythms. To this, he plays a single-string guitar made from oak from a skip, & old keyboards given to him, & the WUI (Wind-Up Instrument) that has a homemade generator on it such that it doesn't need a battery. Over the 16 years of Experimental Sonic Machines he's made over 27 masks, & has drawn a poster with them on which is available. Ernie was created in 2013 & has played at lots of gigs, festivals & busking sessions.

Artist Profile.

Rimski & Handkerchief are a curious spectacle indeed, as they meander among the crowds with their marvellous musical machines: the Piano Bicycle and the Double Bassicle… Singing timeless songs of momentous, melancholic & magical magnitude, while performing an extraordinary dance on wheels.

Artist Profile.

M@HoT was established in 2011 to research and revive the lost folk music and dance traditions of the Durham Dales, unearthing over 250 tunes, songs and dances that highlights the wealth of our regional cultural heritage. Through their dedicated work with young people in SW Durham, M@HoT have brought new life into the music they share - establishing 3 youth folk bands, encouraging young people’s potential to explore their heritage, develop a sense of place and ideas of home through access to music making opportunities. M@HoT also creates opportunities for artists and community groups to co-create work together, delivering artists commissions and partnership work with cultural institutions, heritage sites and local schools; and hosting a wide range of public concerts, ceilidhs and music masterclasses suitable for all ages and stages.

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Bowing water with a found feather, Jasmine Padgett and Jorge Boehringer have been heard flying south making unsightly specific sounds. Like a swarm of budgies, a flock of alligators, or a flash of finches, these goldfish let loose on the high street bringing low and hifi sounds and found instruments into cooperative association, an antique yard of treasures for your ears.

Artist Profile.

Glyn Maier is a sound artist and field recordist living in North Carolina, USA.

Non-city outdoor spaces are essential to Maier’s practice. With a formal education in physics and music composition, Maier’s preoccupations with natural objects, landscapes, and their social histories guide his recordings, which are then integrated into ambient electronic works utilizing organic rhythms and complex timbres. Maier’s abstract synthesis work is deeply informed by sound design, but his larger focus is on the agency of environment and the fragile symbioses between humanity and our shared spaces.

Another facet of Maier’s sonic practice is enmossed, the label he founded in 2017. Dedicated to contemporary sound, all profits are donated to positive causes of the artist’s choice, and materials for the tapes and records are hand-constructed out of recycled materials. Its catalogue of records and cassettes is distributed internationally by shops such as Industrial Coast (UK), Rope Editions (Korea), and Tobira Records (Japan).

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Join us for a special Community Day celebrating food, creativity, storytelling, and shared experiences. The day begins at 12pm with a free shared community meal, welcoming everyone to come together, connect, and enjoy good food in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

Throughout the afternoon, visitors can experience Common Ground Sound, an exhibition developed through the Common Ground programme in collaboration with participants from across Middlesbrough. The exhibition brings together recordings gathered during Saturday sessions, Creative Community Meals, and workshops with the Creative Minds group at Newport Community Hub. These sounds and stories have been woven into immersive audio pieces exploring community food growing, memory, and personal food stories. Sound artist Nell Catchpole worked closely with participants to capture and co-create the project alongside Teesside storyteller Rumana Yasmine.

The programme also features a spoken word performance by Alia Gargum, When I Think About Libya / عندما أفكر في ليبيا, exploring memory, identity, language, and cultural change through translation between colloquial Libyan Arabic and English.

Across the day there will also be opportunities to take part in workshops and activities in the garden, celebrating growing, sharing stories, and connecting with the local community through food, conversation, and creativity.

More info.

Foraging For Stories is an exploratory workshop inviting young people to connect with nature through words, sound, and sensory experience. Guided along a sensory trail, participants will respond to creative prompts, experiment with writing, and take part in deep listening activities using microphones. Together, they’ll create a “word journey,” where individual contributions come together to form a shared piece. As part of the wider Foraging For Stories project, voices and sounds gathered during the workshop will contribute to a larger audio experience exploring the ecology of Teesside.

This workshop offers a space to slow down, notice, imagine, and create in response to the environment around us.

This workshop is for people ages 11 - 16 years old. 

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Previously Moscow-based but now residing in London, Zurkas is an idiosyncratic persona and founder of independent label CANT. His artistic multimedia practices combine music, found footage collages, text, and experimental films. His liquid world which is full of uncertainty and paranoia is fascinating and bizarre. His appearances are as unexpected as his “methods” of work

Fedor Pereverzev (Moa Pillar) hails from Moscow & is now London based. Deconstructed trance, techno, IDM & experimental sound design, with a body of work both diverse & intertwined in nature.

Support from Monocrete...a very rare appearance from the alter ego of Auxiliary head honcho, LIAM SLEVIN.

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BWU is MICK HARRIS

Soundsystem destroying filth dirt
earthmoving in sheer weight
apocalyptic dread mutations of crushing intensity

Mick's first live performance for 3 years. His 1st show in Boro since drumming with Napalm Death in 1989

We will be utilising the TEESSIDE DUB CLUB SOUNDSYSTEM for this one!

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Welcome to the world of Jack Supertramp, a street performer and live looping guitarist known for his playful pedalboard packed with an array of wonderful sounds. He explores a wide range of genres, including but not limited to Drum and Bass, Hip Hop, House, and UK Garage. Oh, and sometimes he’s in a gorilla suit. 

Artist Profile.

Izzy is an actor-musician and multi-instrumentalist from Stockton. She is interested in intertwining acoustic and natural sampled sounds with synthesised elements and a whole load of saxophone. She was recently selected to take part in The Green House Residency and is currently composing for various theatre and film projects. Izzy is excited to be recording and releasing a solo EP in 2026.

Artist Profile

Translated from Irish as “sounds that occur in nature”, TUAIM is a new solo project by neuro-queer artist and musician Rupert Philbrick - a performative thesis exploring the resonance and vibrations through which all sound is experienced. Improvised live performances weave together drones, field recording, guitar and voice to create soundscapes that transport the listener into an uncanny realm, aiming to bridge the gaps between the ambient, experimental & electronic music they have absorbed since their teens, and the folk and traditional music that has become an integral part of their artistic / teaching practice over the past 10 years.

Artist Profile.

Me Lost Me delights in experimenting with songwriting, creating a beguiling mix of soaring vocals and atmospheric electronics that playfully push the boundaries of genre. The Project of Newcastle-based artist Jayne Dent who takes influence from folk, art pop, noise, ambient and improvised music, her work has been described in The Guardian as "stripping folk back to its bones while letting its future echoes bleed out".With her prolific writing and extensive touring schedule, her unique sound has won much support across the musical spectrum. Dent has notably performed live for BBC Radio 3's After Dark Festival and as part of the 2022 BBC Proms alongside Spell Songs, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Voices of the Rivers Edge Choir. She received the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers and was 2020-2021 Artist in Residence at Sage Gateshead.

Me Lost Me’s fourth full-length album, This Material Moment, was released June 2025 on Upset the Rhythm. An “emotionally raw” album, it’s her most honest and vulnerable yet, akin to rummaging through a box of long-forgotten trinkets. With each song, Me Lost Me extracts something from the box and asks us to consider and interpret it from every angle. Whilst Jayne Dent’s music as Me Lost Me has previously presented time stretching back and forwards in opposition (noticeably on 2023’s album RPG), on This Material Moment she does away with linearity altogether, evoking rather than narrating, and presenting feelings, happenings and moods with no clear beginning or end point - “like experiencing a vista, trying to capture a moment that is unfolding all at once”. Instead, each track on This Material Moment exists entirely in media res, adjacent to past and future, and instead sprawling across the endless now. 

Artist Profile.

‘Themeless' - celebrating genrelessness in an industry that seems intent on putting artists in boxes.
Yoshizawa is a Leeds based experimental post-prog band based in Leeds, UK, with a focus on idiosyncratic composition and authentic performances. They connect with audiences via a dichotomy of highly structured, complex themes and atmospheric - entirely improvised - passages.

Divorce Finance - Leeds's premium country band.

Motherman - North-east genre-benders bearing punk laden psychedelic art rock, with soulful bronze-eyed tales of freaks and of folk.

Offscreen Dog - a band from Newcastle Upon Tyne. They use a mix of driving rhythms, spooky looped vocals and noisy experimentation to create eclectic sound, with a sprinkling of pop sensibility for good measure.

Ticket Link.