Ryan, Grant and Matthias win PRS Foundation’s New Music Award

Published Tuesday 22 April 2008 at 15:20 by Lalayn Baluch

BAFTA winning composer Nick Ryan, sound artist Jane Grant and musician and physicist John Matthias have won the PRS Foundation’s New Music Award 2008 and £50,000 for their proposed composition The Fragmented Orchestra.

The trio have until September 2009 to create the work, which will aim to mirror the function of the human brain and the way it processes sound, and present it to the public.

The project will involve taking recordings from 24 locations around the country - from football stadiums and cathedrals to dairy farms - using sound-boxes that will be designed to represent the way nerve cells in the brain function.

The audio clips will then be broadcast through a central space at FACT in Liverpool using state-of-the-art technology, where visitors will be able to listen to all of the collective sounds. The performance will also be heard at the 24 ‘neuron’ sites and online.

The award’s judges were Roundhouse chief executive Marcus Davey, BBC audio and music director Jenny Abramsky, former EMI chief executive officer Eric Nicoli, and musicians Jem Finer, Nitin Sawhney and Errollyn Wallen.