- Mira Calix
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Mira Calix, real name Chantal Passamonte, is an artist signed to Warp Records, specialising in mixing her intimate vocals with jittering beats and experimental electronic textures. She is married to Sean Booth of Autechre.
As a live performer and DJ, she has supported and toured with a broad range of acts, including Radiohead, Plaid, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Aphex Twin.
Contents
Recording history
The first Mira Calix release was the Humba single in 1996 on the Warp label, with her debut album, One on One, released by Warp on March 6, 2000.
In 2003 another full length album, Skimskitta, appeared, and in that same year she collaborated with the London Sinfonietta, performing her piece Nunu at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The program, titled Warp Works and 20th Century Masters, included live insects on stage, and was later released on the 3 Commissions EP, which also included the original version, commissioned by the Geneva Natural History Museum.
2007 saw the release of the third full length Mira Calix album, Eyes Set Against the Sun, again on Warp Records.
In 2004 she formed Alexander's Annexe - a band/ensemble with pianist Sarah Nicolls and sound designer David Sheppard. Their debut performance was at the Ravello Festival in Italy, followed by performances at the Aldeburgh Festival and Parco della Musica in Rome. Alexander's Annexe released the album, Push Door To Exit, on Warp in November 2006.
Mira Calix's earlier music is almost exclusively electronic. However, since 2003 she has incorporated orchestration and live classical instruments in her performances and recorded work. More recently she has concentrated mostly on collaborations and commissions. There have been several installation pieces, film soundtracks and works for theatre.
Mira set Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 to music for a project curated by composer Gavin Bryars for The Royal Shakespeare Company. Other participants in "Nothing Like The Sun" were Nico Muhly, Antony and the Johnsons, Gavin Friday, Natalie Merchant and Alexander Balanescu. During 2007 there were two Operas/Music Theatre pieces, the first Elephant and Castle, for the Aldeburgh Festival, was a collaboration with composer Tansy Davies, directed by Tim Hopkins, Libretto by Guardian writer Blake Morrison. The second, Dead Wedding premiered at the first Manchester International Festival. Extracts from these performances appear on the album The Elephant In The Room: 3 Commissions released in October 2008. The album includes pieces from a video installation work titled Natures, a collaboration with Quayola and cellist Oliver Coates.
In December 2008 My Secret Heart premièred at the Royal Festival Hall in London with 80 members of Streetwise Opera. The piece is inspired by Allegri's 17th century choral work Miserere. It is a collaboration with British video artists Flat-E and continues to tour as an installation.
She has written new commissions for the London Sinfonietta; Rock Music/Rock Art and Ort-Oard, part of the Sinfonietta Shorts series to Celebrate their 40th Birthday.
In February 2009 she created the soundtrack to an installation of swinging light pendulums. Chorus was produced by United Visual Artists for the opening of the Howard Assembly Rooms, Opera North's headquarters in Leeds. In 2009 she contributed a cover of a Boards of Canada song to the Warp20 (Recreated) compilation.
Later in the year she worked with Malcolm Middleton of Arab Strap on a session for BBC Radio 3's Late Junction.
In December of 2009, Mira Calix won a British Composer Award, in the category of Community or Educational Project, for My Secret Heart. It was described by a judge as "transformational, capturing raw humanity and giving voice to the disenfranchised in a sound-world which is original, absorbing and unsettling". My Secret Heart also won a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2009.
Discography
EPs/Singles
- Pin Skeeling (Single) (1998)
- Peel Session TX 09/03/00 (2000)
- Prickle (Single) (2001)
- Nunu (2003)
- 3 Commissions EP (2004)
- The Elephant In The Room: 3 Commissions (2008)
Albums
- One on One (2000)
- Skimskitta (2003)
- Eyes Set Against the Sun (2007)
- Lost Foundling 1999-2004 (2010, collaboration with Mark Clifford of Seefeel)
Soundtracks
- "Khala" - Shot List (2009)
Other work
Other than her releases on Warp, she has also composed music for the following:
- The circus production Lactic Acid, by The Generating Company.
- A video installation with Felice Limosani; Final Touch.
- A sound installation for the Barbican Gallery; Le Jardin d'Barbican.
- A soundtrack to accompany an exhibition by the origami artist Michael Jackson.
- Music for the National Theatre production of Free by Simon Bowen.
- Sonnet 130 commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company
- Elephant and Castle directed Tim Hopkins for the Aldeburgh Festival
- Dead Wedding produced by Faulty Optic for Opera North and The Manchester International Festival
- Onibus commissioned by Opera North
- Transparent Roads - film soundtrack
- Natures - video installation - commissioned by Faster Than Sound Festival
- My Secret Heart commissioned by Streetwise Opera
- Ort-Oard commissioned by the London Sinfonietta
- Chorus - installation- commissioned by United Visual Artists and Opera North
- Strata 2 - video installation with Quayola - Nemo Festival
- Late Junction Sessions - with Malcolm Middleton
- She'll Be Around - commissioned by the ICA
See also
External links
Categories:- British electronic music groups
- Experimental composers
- 20th-century classical composers
- South African composers
- Living people
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