A series of four audio and video works ​that explore new forms of composition, installation and performance aesthetics as responses to rural environmental atmospheres of Shetland. Sonic Interactions Project Info Sonic Interactions is a series of four audio and video works created in outdoor sites across Shetland that explore new forms of composition, installation and performance aesthetics as responses to rural environmental atmospheres of Shetland. Project type Audio / video work Created by Renzo Spiteri, 2021, Shetland (UK) Acknowledgements Commissioned by Shetland Arts as part of Refresh Now, and supported by Creative Scotland and Shetland Charitable Trust. Locations Launched: online in April 2021. Exhibited: Music and/as Process Conference, University of Glasgow, June 2024. "I feel that it is the distinct atmospheres that some places transmit - the particular scenario of stillness, quietness and the predominance of the natural environment - that resonate with me in a unique manner. The ruggedness, the presence of the sea, the minimal presence of humans and of man-made sounds are attributes and qualities that stimulate my creative processes. I am equally fascinated by the sonic possibilities of found objects and everyday materials that I like to re-image and re-use as creative tools that expand my musical language." Renzo Spiteri Sonic Interactions Loch of Brough Sonic Interactions Loch of Brough Sonic Interactions Wester Ayre Burravoe Sonic Interactions Loch of Brough 1/40 I love the sea. The more time I spend with it, the more I feel the need to engage with it, be with it, live with it. The sea speaks a language that resonates with me in a manner quite hard to articulate. So rather than string words together to express myself, I create work centred around it and around shorelines. Sonic Interactions is a series of four audio and video works, filmed and recorded on Bressay, Shetland and Yell. The works celebrate phenomena that are mundane in nature but which, through emphasis on the detail of materiality and movement, are the agents of complex events. I find a particular fascination in engaging with the visual and sonic possibilities that lie therein, in taking the time to observe the richness in the natural environments that I am surrounded by. The video and field recordings that I glean become my colouring palette, combining found sounds and everyday objects and materials that I like to re-image and re-use. In two of the four works I have also added my interventions on small percussive instruments or found objects, like wire fences, pebbles and metal gates. The experiences that emerge from time spent listening, observing and engaging with my surroundings have a strong influence on how I conceive and design site-responsive works like Sonic Interactions. Such sensorial elements quite often are part and parcel of my work as a live performer, and the particular atmospheres that I seek to generate are part of a journey that I share with audiences wherever and however I present my work. Sonic Interactions #1: Loch of Brough, Bressay In Winter 2020/2021 Shetland experienced a significant amount of snow and ice. For days and days on end, I visited various lochs around Bressay, monitoring the changes in condition of the frozen waters. I waited, knowing that at some point, these solidified water surfaces will start to crack and melt. That’s the moment I wanted to capture on my sound and video recording devices, an event that I had not yet experienced first-hand. On a bitterly cold February afternoon, Loch of Brough turned into a spectacle of movement and sound events and, with camera, microphones and hydrophones, I focused on a particular area of the loch to glean these occurrences. Ice plates moved like a giant muted chime, an instrument of immense proportions excited by strong winds and a-rhythmic waves. The sum of such events was, in my view, so sonically rich that the invitation was to sit back, record and listen. Sonic Interactions: Loch of Brough is a work based on field recordings and video as the result of my personal experience of the contrast between the water’s solidity and stillness while the loch was frozen, and its transitional state to fluidity. Sonic Interactions #2: Burn at Cullingsburgh, Bressay This burn, with its gentle flow of water down trenches, stones, cobbles and pebbles, is the right mood-setter for the rest of the wonderful walk at Voe of Cullingsburgh. This setting inspired me to create Sonic Interactions: Burn at Cullingsburgh that incorporates field recordings, visuals and my own intervention on found materials by striking pebbles, playing fence wire with a double-bass bow and recording a small metal gate which I resampled to create a drone effect for the piece. Sonic Interactions #3: Sumburgh Head I find that there is something quite stimulating and inspiring in the combination of strong winds and the sea, feeling the force of these natural elements while struggling to stand still on one spot. It was the particular orchestration of various aeolian sounds around the lighthouse that I based the sonic texture on, while I was drawn to the constantly shifting patterns of crushing waves and swelling sea contrasting with the immobility of rock and structures. Metal is a predominate exciter of sonic textures in the field recordings I made and to these I added my own on-site interventions of resonating metal gates, Chinese cymbals and long sustaining metal sound discs. Sonic Interactions #4: Wester Ayre, Burravoe, Yell One of the many wonderful things about the creative journey of Sonic Interactions is the balance between planned work and serendipitous encounters. The chance discovery of Wester Ayre at Burravoe offered a plurality of events that contrasted with the stillness of the coastline so close to where I was standing. I often think about how privileged I am to be able to experience places and their sounds through field recording equipment, to be able to listen to, see and share what might not be so easily accessible. Wading around the shingle beach at Wester Ayre as the water from the burn gurgled and gushed down to meet the sea, I listened and looked for different angles, features and sounds that I could capture with the only recording device that I had at hand – my GoPro. All sounds are therefore from the on-board microphone of the camera.

Music performances and interdisciplinary performances by Renzo Spiteri Live Events Music performances and interdisciplinary collaborations Nordic Resonance Music | Experimental / Improvised Terra Verunt Contemporary Dance / Theatre Now Here | Nowhere Sound & Spoken Word Heiligenstadt Contemporary Dance Nordic Nights Music & Storytelling Silence Sounds & Spaces Music | Solo Percussion The Eyland Project Music | Folk/World

Storytelling and music performance inspired by the myth, magic and mystery of stories written and told in Nordic region. Nordic Nights Nordic Nights is an immersive storytelling and musical experience myth and music intertwine, where the flicker of northern lights illuminates ancient tales, and where the echoes of the sea and the wind shape stories that have stood the test of time. Inspired by the mystery, magic, and rugged beauty of the northern landscapes, Nordic Nights weaves together spoken word and live music in an evocative performance that celebrates Scotland’s rich storytelling heritage. Drawing from Nordic and Scottish folklore, this performance brings to life tales of witches and robbers, ghosts and seafarers, light and darkness - all infused with the wild spirit of the natural world. Renzo’s captivating soundscapes, blending percussion and atmospheric textures, enhance Jan’s spellbinding storytelling, transporting audiences to windswept shores, starlit skies and northern lights. Together, they create a deeply engaging and unforgettable journey, inviting listeners to soar into the skies and plunge into the depths of the sea, carried by stories of trickery, wonder, and hope. "Wonderful! Thank you." "I really enjoyed the immersive sounds that transported the words around the room in a warm manner." "Mesmerizing- thank you so very much." Photos: Gaby Giacchino shot at Bigton (Shetland). Project type Music & storytelling Created by Stories: Jan Bee Brown, Hilde Eskilde Music: Renzo Spiteri Performed by: Jan Bee Brown and Renzo Spiteri Acknowledgements Nordic Nights was presented in Shetland to celebrate 2022 as Scotland’s Year of Stories, delivered by Curious Pilgrims as part of its Reconnect! Programme supported by the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, with additional support from Shetland Arts. Events Nordic Nights was presented between February and March 2022 at various locations across Shetland, including Hoswick, Bigton and Hillswick.

A sound and spoken word multimedia collaborative project. Now Here | Nowhere A cross-artistic project that amalgamates sounds, spoken word and visuals, centring around the common terrain of the human and natural world, memory, time, love and lie/truth cycles. Now Here | Nowhere is a spoken word and music performance that takes on the shape of a personal journey, performed by three artists, three separate worlds that open up to each other to create emotional and artistic overlaps that centre around the common terrain of the human and natural world, memory, time, love and lie/truth cycles. The project is a product of reflections and resonances that stem and vibrate from the words of poet Giulia Privitelli. Renzo Spiteri, the project’s creative director, placed himself in between the poet’s poignant, powerful words and his personal interpretation of being lost in a ‘homeland’ that is no longer recognisable. Giulia writes that ‘words collide and break into letters, lines and dots, grains that ebb away’. So, beyond words, what are we left with? Through Now Here | Nowhere, Renzo sought to create a sonic world of spoken words and sounds to draw imagined places that exist in between light and darkness, in between life and death, in between hope and fear, in between sea and land. Audience Feedback “A huge well done once again to everyone... the performance was beautiful, touching and so inspiring.” "A performance from the heart of the Earth. Thanks to you all for the special moments put together so beautifully." "I saw your concert yesterday or I should rather say I experienced it. I just want to thank you for it. It was amazing! As a dancer and choreographer automatically I imagine movement to your piece and I am absolutely inspired by your work." “Experiencing you play has always been like watching an alchemist do his magic.” “Renzo with your experience and sensitivity I believe that your work can surely capture any one and take them into deeper realms; it took me to similar places yesterday but on a lighter level ... but still managed to capture me and show me certain truths and realities ... good or bad that is not the matter.” Photos: Lisa Attard shot at Valletta Campus Theatre (Malta) Project type Sound & spoken word Created by Sounds and percussion: Renzo Spiteri Guitar: Fabrizio Fedele Spoken word: Erica Muscat Text: Giulia Privitelli from Walking in Circles Visuals & light design: Renzo Spiteri Concept, artistic direction and creative production by Renzo Spiteri. 2019, Malta Acknowledgements The creation and launch of Now Here | Nowhere was supported by Arts Council Malta - Multi-Annual Support Grant (Malta Arts Fund). Events Premiere performance: May 2019, Vallletta Campus Theatre, Valletta (Malta).

Music composed for the solo dance piece, Hieligenstadt - Another World Inside, commissiones by The Three Palaces Festival 2020, Malta. Beyond Sense Inspired by Beethoven’s The Hieligenstadt Testament, the music is an expression of the tensions between an inner and outer self, a within and without. The experiential self is in a divide, where the within can hear the music, can feel what the inner world is all about and can negotiate with that reality. On the outside, the experience is of suffering, of loss and of fragility. My music for this project conveys the emotions, the tensions and releases of a being in this state of loss, of isolation and desire. It’s very rhythmic and unsettling at times and there’s an element of aggression that comes as a result of the desire to release tensions that are building inside a person who is experiencing suffering, despair and loneliness. I also used filtering processes as a reflection of the auditory frequencies that we start losing in different stages of our lives but which, naturally, are more aggressive in someone who is becoming deaf. The filtering of sounds at times leaves us with very muted sound textures and this is a concept that I sought to develop in two of the three tracks, ‘Within Without’ and ‘You Wrong Me’. The major source of inspiration was the testament itself. Over the countless times that I read this letter, different layers, thoughts and inspirations emerged. Through a continuous level of engagement with the writing, I knew that I needed to commit myself to giving this writing a new life, a new perspective that although coming from the early 1800s, is relevant in this present age. In my head, the letter started morphing into a score. And like a music score, the printed notes can only become alive through interpretation and performance. This is exactly how I felt about the Hieligenstadt Testament, sonically conveyed in the particular treatment and the sculpturing of words and phrases from the text as sound within an inner headspace. The music is born out of these thought processes and is a journey of struggles and of disquiet until, at the end with ‘A Dark Sense’, the music conveys a reflection on the idea of surrender, of filtering emotional conflicts as a solution that would ‘free me from a state of endless suffering’. Beyond Sense was released in November 2020 and is available for streaming and download on all digital platforms including Bandcamp , Amazon Music, Apple Music, iTunes and Spotify. "The music rages, deliberately discordant at times, with Spiteri’s flawless technique and an innate affinity for exalting contemporary sounds, revealing layers of beauty. The work as a whole, which is Spiteri’s composition, is pulsating and introspective at the same time. Spiteri is masterful in his craft and artistry, creating a work that is as powerful as what it is trying to convey." Ramona Depares, www.ramonadepares.com Project type Music Album Credits Created, recorded and produced by Renzo Spiteri at Orange Dot Studios, Shetland. Total time: 18:10 Cover photo: Renzo Spiteri Acknowledgements Beyond Sense carries the music composed for the solo dance piece, Hieligenstadt - Another World Inside commissioned by The Three Palaces Festival 2020, Malta. Events Album released November 2020.

From A Silence Within merges music, and selected field and hydrophone recordings, gleaned from Noss and Noss Sound in Shetland. From A Silence Within My work explores the inter-relationship between silence, the spatiality of nature’s sounds, presence, perception, and focused listening. From A Silence Within merges selected field and hydrophone recordings, gleaned from Noss and Noss Sound, and my music. As often happens with sites around Shetland that inspire my work, I am drawn by what I observe and what I listen to around me as I wander through the particular atmospheres of Noss, and the Sound that separates Noss and the island of Bressay. Personally, it’s inevitable that such elements find their way into my music. The minimalistic sound textures that I immerse myself in - from bird calls to sheep and the sea - feed into the creation of From A Silence Within. As I spend more time walking along Noss Sound observing Noss from different viewpoints, the more profound my experience of it becomes. This work expresses an interpretation of such experiences. A sound texture that tickles our memory of time and space, a play on the real and illusionary while engaging with the wonderful richness of Noss and its immediate surroundings. From A Silence Within was released in May 2020 and is available for streaming and download on all digital platforms including Bandcamp , Amazon Music, Apple Music, iTunes and Spotify. In Tune with Nature was judged by a panel of well-known faces from the Scottish music industry, including Julie Fowlis, Vic Galloway, Gill Maxwell and Karine Polwart: "This is great, I love the approach! Lots going on, and a beautiful vibe. Atmospheric soundscapes." "Love the hydrophone sound and watery textures - undeniably of the place." "Minimalist, percussion and ambient, I will be seeking out more of his music. " Project type Digital track Credits Created, recorded and produced by Renzo Spiteri at Orange Dot Studios, Shetland. Total time: 05:07 Cover photo: Renzo Spiteri Acknowledgements From A Silence Within placed in the top three entries in the competition In Tune With Nature: Noss Category , organised by Nature Scot and Fèis Rois as part of the celebrations for Year of Coasts and Waters 2020/2021. Events Track released May 2020.

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