Festival of New, now in its second year, is a two-day event on 6 and 7 September, hosted at Snape Maltings in Suffolk. It features panel discussions, installations and concerts of folk, rock, jazz, contemporary, world music, musical theatre and rap. All featured artists are showcasing work that have been developed as part of Snape Residencies. The festival programme therefore includes a combination of completed projects and works in progress. 

Interactive and immersive
On Friday 6 September, contemporary Dutch jazz trio Tin Men and the Telephone will present a musical, visual, digital and interactive experience that fuses jazz with hip-hop, classical and electronic and sees the audience as active members of the performance, connecting with the on-stage happenings through a custom mobile app. 

Voicescolourmotion is another of the festival’s participatory events, taking place several times on each day. The immersive sound and light installation is the work of singer and composer Fran Lobo and sound artist and set-builder Gawain Hewitt and is designed to work with the surroundings, transforming them into an instrument that anyone can play. Eight people at a time can experience Voicescolourmotion, where they will create their own sound and light show. 

Music and science
Pianist Sarah Nicolls and cellist Maja Bugge will present work that focuses on environmental issues faced by Norway and the UK and include a performance on Nicolls’ inside-out piano. Their residency involved them collaborating with climate scientists, allowing them to gather data which will be exhibited through their performance on 7 September. 

Also on 7 September, Shama Rahman (sitar) and Anya Yermakova (piano) will showcase their work, described as the ‘seeds of a sitar concerto informed by neuroscience’. Both Rahman and Yermakova are multi-instrumentalists and neuroscientists. This concert will see them present the initial musical results of their residency, which will see the creation of a concerto for sitar and orchestra.

Panel discussions, field recordings, rap, and folk songs
Pianist and composer Kit Downes will perform the music he has been creating for his ECM album, Dreamlife of Debris. The long-form compositions combine with field recordings and explore the idea of peoples’ emotional connection to objects. 

Poet and rapper Reload has spent his residency working on his upcoming show focusing on hip hop chronicles of Britain today, while folk singer Sam Lee will perform the closing concert of the festival, featuring a collection of British and Irish folk songs that connect with current social issues. 

There will also be a series of discussions that will take place on Saturday afternoon in the centre’s cafe, featuring artists talking about their work in the areas of music, film and health.

For full details on the festival, visit: snapemaltings.co.uk