Festival Programme
Festival Programme
Mozzen Jammer Presents Divorce Finance, Motherman, Offscreen Dog & Yoshizawa
‘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.
Me Lost Me
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.
Tuaim
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.
Izzy Neish
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.
We Make Sound
Inspired by all the Sonic Arts Week artists and performers? Come and make your own sounds at this drop-in workshop. You don’t need any previous experience - our friendly team will get you making your own fun sounds in no time. Listen in headphones or join in with others, We Make Sound will introduce you to different easy-to-use sound and music making machines and technology. Have a go, have fun and find your inner sound artist.
We Make Sound is based in Hartlepool and offers free creative music making opportunities to local young people.
Suitable for ages 8 and above.
Jack Supertramp
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.
Industrial Coast Presents Blare Weigh Unit + Support
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!
Industrial Coast Presents Zurkas Tepla & Moa Pillar + support
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.
Foraging For Stories
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.
Community Day
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.
rimski & handkerchief
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.
Music, Memories & Stories of the Station
A day of local tales, theatre, epic poetry and extra-fun folk music. This programme brings together performers from up and down the railway and river celebrating local artists and heritage. 3-Minute Arts present Ironstone Tales – a new short play dramatising real and imagined events during the rise and fall of Glaisdale’s ironstone industry (with music and soundscape). Everwitch brings Bomb Happy: Smudger's Story, a WW2 and mental health themed spoken word & song performance that uses first-hand verbatim testimony of D-Day Veteran Ken Smith and his widow Gloria Smith to tell the story of his D-Day & other WW2 experiences and its impact on his mental health and marriage through the lens of lifelong sleep trauma.
Acclaimed local poet, Bob Beagrie, performs poems from The Hand of Glory: a biography: An absurd narrative relating the adventures and exploits of the infamous mummified and supposedly enchanted human hand currently displayed in Whitby Museum. Aisha Lama brings her distinctive spoken word exploring nature, love, loss and identity. And if this isn’t enough to fill your ears, the amazing young musicians of M@THOT (Music at the Heart of Teesdale) perform their own arrangements of local folk melodies and songs.
noisy toys
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.
moments in sound
Griffin’s practice centres on live experimental composition, combining augmented harp, voice, and modular synthesis to create immersive and evolving performances. For this exhibition, they are developing a new performative installation that consolidates their live-driven approach into a recorded work marking their first official music release & extending their practice beyond the immediacy of performance.
Vanhoof presents the award winning Antenna, a striking installation that transforms a grand piano into a receiver of electromagnetic waves. Using a custom-built antenna & electromagnets, the instrument is activated by signals present in the surrounding environment. Influenced by Alvin Lucier’s Sferics, the work reveals a constantly shifting sonic landscape shaped by natural and human-made transmissions, making audible the otherwise invisible infrastructures of the information age. Griffin & Vanhoof will also take part in a public in-conversation event discussing their practices and expanded approaches to sound installation.
Nell Catchpole brings Gongs of Teesside, which began with forging steel gongs by local blacksmiths and has evolved through solitary and collective soundings with places and communities across Teesside and East Cleveland. The gongs serve as resonant objects and gathering points, opening encounters with place, memory, and ecology while amplifying local voices and stories.
common ground sound
Common Ground Sound has been developed during the Common Ground programme in collaboration with participants from across Middlesbrough. Recordings made at Saturday sessions, Creative Community Meals and at special events with the Creative Minds group at Newport Community Hub, have been co-created into two sound pieces. Firstly, the story of Common Ground, a community food growing initiative being developed at The Auxiliary, and secondly, food stories developed by the women of Creative Minds with Teesside storyteller Rumana Yasmine. Sound artist Nell Catchpole has worked across Common Ground Sound capturing the sounds, stories and ideas of the Middlesbrough Community.
Opening Event
Join us for the opening night at The Auxiliary as we launch Moments in Sound, an exhibition bringing together immersive sound installations by Floris Vanhoof, Nell Catchpole and Vivienne Griffin.
Exploring the boundaries between music, sculpture, technology and place, the exhibition presents three distinct approaches to listening and sound-making. From electromagnetic transmissions and expanded instruments to resonant objects rooted in the landscapes of Teesside. The exhibition opening is accompanied by a special evening of live performances featuring Vivienne Griffin with Oona Loweth (cello) & Nell Catchpole (violin), Dale Frost with a light-reactive drum solo, and Floris Vanhoof, presenting a 16mm film and synthesiser audiovisual performance.
Workshop: All About Sound
A workshop to experiment with unusual sound equipment - microphones that pick up electric currents; speakers that vibrate the surfaces you place them on; underwater microphones…and more! If you are curious about the unusual techniques sound artists and musicians use, this is your chance to find out. No previous experience needed. Come and make some crazy sounds!
Age 11-16
Street Performance with Jayne Dent AKA Me Lost Me
Electronic Musician Jayne Dent brings her heady mix of future folk and loop pedal madness to the streets of Middlesbrough. Listen out for a specially commissioned song celebrating the mining traditions across East Durham and the wider North East. Find out more about Jayne here.
Performance starts at 1pm & 3pm on Saturday 22nd July
Gig: Industrial Coast presents Russell Haswell
LIVE PERFORMANCE - Russell Haswell + Support from Monocrete, Natural Orthodoxy, Kenosist, Brb>voicecoil, Burning Pyre
Russell Haswell is an English multidisciplinary artist. He has exhibited conceptual and wall-based visual works, video art, public sculpture, as well as audio presentations in both art gallery and concert hall contexts. With a background steeped in computer music, black metal, noise, techno and solo improvisation, his practice is renowned for broaching the extremities of visual and sonic arts.
He’s performed in noted live and HDJ [hard disc jockey] actions with Aphex Twin, Gescom, Pan Sonic and Masami Akita (Merzbow), among others, and worked with Florian Hecker on Iannis Xenakis’ UPIC system in their Haswell & Hecker duo, whose Blackest Ever Black LP is widely considered a milestone of modern electronic music composition—and zweikommasieben Magazin has been a fan ever since.
industrialcoast.com
instagram: industrialcoast
Gig: Industrial Coast present Nick Klein
LIVE PERFORMANCE - Nick Klein + Support TBA
Over nearly a decade, Nick Klein has been building his sonic practice between numerous releases on labels such as L.I.E.S., Viewlexx, Alter, and iDEAL, and curating his own eclectic imprint Psychic Liberation. Klein draws upon cross-disciplinary experience in the totemic physicality of sculpture and installation.
industrialcoast.com
instagram: industrialcoast
Shout Softly & Listen Loudly!
Summat For The Bairns - Free Workshop
Shout Softly & Listen Loudly! Join artist Sue Loughlin on this free, drop-in workshop as she leads three days of sound and craft workshops. Let the barns' imagination run wild as they make giant ears for listening and megaphones for shouting. Earplugs advised!
10am - 4pm
Thursday 20th, Friday 21st, Saturday 22nd July
Gig: Industrial Coast present Samuel Kerridge + Support
LIVE PERFORMANCE - Samuel Kerridge + Support TBA
Samuel Kerridge, with his signature sonic arsenal, stands alone in the worlds of rhythm and noise. His productions find a strange poetry in illegible communications, stripping meaning down to raw emotional response. Each track is a visceral slab of power, aiming to deconstruct any preconceived notions by means of a cross pollinated methodology. Support: TBC
Pineapple Black
Hillstreet Shopping Centre
(Primark Entrance)
Workshop: Ambulation sound walk with Tim Shaw
Ambulation is a sound walk that uses field recording techniques and listening technologies to create a walking performance using environmental sound. Ambulation engages with the act of recording as an improvised performance in response to the soundscapes it is presented within.
This headphone-based sound walk adapts field recording equipment and DIY listening technologies to explore the sonic quality of different environments through an expanded performance practice. The performer collects acoustic and electromagnetic signals from the immediate environment and transmits them to audience members who are each wearing wireless headphones. By doing this, Ambulation configures field recording as a live, performative act. This project has been in continuous development since August 2014. Age 12+
Workshop happens twice on Wednesday 12th July at 12pm & 2:30pm
Booking Required: sonicartsweek.eventbrite.com
Event: Sonic Cruise on the River Tees with Tim Shaw
"Forward as One" is a performance-installation set aboard a small boat, navigating the different waters of the River Tees. As the boat sails the river, an improvised response to the waterways unfolds, incorporating floating speakers, self-constructed instruments, underwater resonances, and hydrophonic listening. The performance-installation integrates sound, light, and found materials salvaged from the river, strategically placed around the boat and on the water's surface. This allows sound and light from the piece to interact with and respond to the ever-changing environments encountered along the river's course.
Throughout the performance, the boat itself becomes an instrument, serving as a resonating chamber that amplifies and manipulates the sound. Limited to a maximum of 40 audience members per journey, this live event offers a rethinking of the river soundscape. In collaboration with Rivershack and Sonic Arts Week.
Please book in advance here: sonicartsweek.eventbrite.com
This event happens multiple times throughout the week
7pm - 8pm (18-20th) 1pm - 2pm (21st)
Tue 18th, Wed 19th, Thurs 20th and Fri 21st
Performance: Project Lono perform The Shrouded Republic
The Shrouded Republic is a 40-minute epic performance piece that guides the audience into the realms of Faery. Featuring folk songs, sonic distortions and a narrative poem, it is inspired by the legend of Reverend Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle, author of 'The Secret Commonwealth: A Study in Folklore and Psychical Research' (1691), who was allegedly abducted by the fairy folk of Doon Hill as punishment for revealing their mysteries.
We Make Sound is a creative proiect based in Hartlepool. Young people work together to make new music, sounds and words for radio and performance.
For SAW23, they take inspiration from Bob Beagrie, poet/lyricist for Project Lono, and share their creative interpretation of his work. Find out more about Project Lono here.
Workshop: ‘Making a Racket’ Sound experiments with Nell & Rupert
A workshop for creative and/or curious adults to experiment with unusual sound equipment - microphones that pick up electric currents; speakers that vibrate the surfaces you place them on; underwater microphones...and more! No previous experience needed. Join sound artist, Nell Catchpole & composer, Rupert Philbrick and make some crazy sounds!
Artist Talk with Vision 25-C artist Andy Newcombe
Join artist Vision 25-C AKA Andy Newcombe for this artist talk. Vision 25-C is a queer artist, performer and musician making work that is harsh, confrontational and experimental. Their live improvised performances are often disruptive and transgressive, producing a sound that has been described as ‘filthy, rhythmic, industrial noise.’ This artist talk will include a listen/viewing element of their installation, on-view at Pineapple Black. Find out more about Vision 25-C here.
Artist talk Tuesday, July 18 / 1:00 PM - 1:45 PM
‘An Echo’ is a new audio visual artwork created by artist Vision 25-C and commissioned by Sonic Arts Week. The work continues the artists focus on emotive sound design and expansive sonic landscapes while exploring new visual elements and filmmaking techniques. Thematically the work places emphasis on the built environment in contrast to the natural world and how we, as humans, interact with both of these environments.
The piece will be displayed in the window of Pineapple Black throughout Sonic Arts Week and will utilise the windows surface turning it into both a screen and a speaker. Find out more about Vision 25-C here.
10am - 6pm / 15 - 22 July
Gig: Industrial Coast present Torn Relics + Support
LIVE PERFORMANCE - Torn Relics + Support TBA
Torn Relics are an experimental electronic duo based in London, composed of Romek Boyer (AKA Rommek) & Aimée Boyer. The body of their work is a mixture of cyber-punk electronics with tribalistic violin, rhythms and tones.
Location TBA
industrialcoast.com
instagram: industrialcoast
Walkshop: Walking, listening, noticing: a walkshop with ATOM
An invitation to explore the environment around us in playful and attentive ways through listening, walking, noticing, touching, sharing. ATOM are art duo Alisa Oleva and Timothy Maxymenko. They invite you to to explore the environment around us in playful and attentive ways.
How does the town move us and how do we move it? How long can you follow a line? And a stranger? What are the routes you take every day? Where would you really like to go? How do the streets sound?
You do not need to bring anything. Try to travel light. Dress to move and for the weather as the walkshop will go ahead in any weather. Find out more about ATOM here.
Booking required, book your free space here.
Electronic street performance art by ‘Oceanallover’
Oceanallover invites you into an altered reality of unique costume, visceral dance, visual poetry, gritty sub-bass music and live vocals.
Ecdysis (In Vivo), is a thrilling performance and invites you to step out of your everyday skin. The project is a collaboration with leading electronic music producers and is an energetic invitation to dance. With strong dub-step elements, sparse syncopated rhythmic patterns and prominent sub-bass frequencies the tracks are headed up by legendary MC Sgt Pokes, founder of CROYDUB alongside singer-songwriter Breezy Lee. Their musical styles are joined by dancers, live brass section and unique costumes from Alex Rigg and Mr Pearl. Find out more about Oceanallover here.
12pm, 1:30pm & 3pm
Roaming around Middlesbrough Town Centre