[Nic Bullen live at Supersonic 2017 – image by Joe Singh]
Throughout the year, as part of our extended Sofasonic Festival celebrations, we’re releasing an array of playlists on Spotify that have been carefully curated by artists & friends of the festival for your listening pleasure!
Sofasonic Playlists: Radwan Moumneh | Mark Titchner | QUEEF | Gazelle Twin | Matt Ridout | Khyam Allami | Molly & Mabel | Decolonise Fest | Rocket Recordings | Mike Nelson | Faten Kanaan | Iggor Cavalera | Valentina Magaletti | Sex Swing | Mariano Sarine | Sofa King | Ben Sadler | Rosie Tee | Elle Donlon | Natalie Sharp | Matters | Bunny Bissoux | impaTV | Bryn Perrott | Dorcha | Hen Ogledd | Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs |
DRUM ROLL! We’re here to share with you our final Sofasonic Playlist of 2020, courtesy of Birmingham’s own Nicholas Bullen – a formidable composer with a career in sound and music spanning more than 40 years. From his beginnings as a founder member of the ‘extreme’ music group Napalm Death at the age of 13, Nic has since released over 40 recordings and performed internationally both solo and in collaboration.
His artistic work across a range of media (including sound, text, film, installation and performance) has been performed and exhibited both in the United Kingdom (including Tate Britain, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Hayward Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Chisenhale Gallery and Arnolfini Gallery) and internationally (including Art Basel, White Columns, Creative Time, Kunsthall Oslo, Schirn Kunsthalle, and MACBA).
He has been on haitus from public performance and exhibition since 2017 (with the exception of occasional concerts by the adverse punk group Rainbow Grave whose new album will be released in 2021) and is no stranger to a Supersonic Festival line-up. Here he tells us a bit about his selections…
“This playlist presents a fragmented selection of my listening in the last few months, flowing between ancient and contemporary, oscillating across an emotional terrain that is coloured by the ebb and flow of life during this period of lockdown: fear, energy, terror, stasis, resignation, transcendence.
Tune in here…