Giles Perring
In 2021 I had the pleasure of co-curating a touring exhibition with Kirsty Law called ‘Exposure’ at Baile na Cille church in Uig. A collaboration between musician, sound artist and photographer Giles Perring and filmmaker and painter Andy Metcalf, with work carried out, principally, on the Isle of Jura. Kirsty had seen one of Hulabhaig’s earlier curated shows at the church and had immediately contacted me asking to bring her touring show to Uig. An opportunity I couldn’t miss. And in return Giles gifted me one of his approval prints (Pelt), which I’m now proud to include in the collection.
Giles Perring
Giles Perring is a musician, composer, educator and cross media artist. He is founder member of the sonic sculpture collective Echo City.
Their pioneering work in the creation of giant outdoor musical instruments and participatory music making, via their sonic playgrounds, saw them traverse play, performance, community and inclusive arts, installation art and recording over a career that began in Bethnal Green London, in 1983.
As well as his work in Echo City, Giles has worked in sound and multimedia installations with collaborators like Susie Honeyman, John Cayley and Melanie Pappenheim. Giles and Susie installed the sound work ‘Marsh Music’ in their joint show with Jock MacFadyen, Iain Sinclair and Anthony Gormley at London’s Wapping Project, which they followed up with a Jerwood Commission for music to accompany ‘Black Flag’, an exhibition of monolithic images by photographer Annabel Elgar at the Wapping Project. With the digital text artist John Cayley and the singer Melanie Pappenheim, he has created various works for installation in the UK, Brazil, US and Germanys and online.
His composition credits include commissions for Salisbury Festival Chorus and La Folea, Covent Garden Festival, and in 2011, The Tall Ships Race. He composed a very successful portfolio of music for the Extreme Music Library which located his work in TV shows like ‘Sex and The City’ and ‘Lost’. As a performer, he has worked with performers and groups as diverse as industrial music’s enfant terrible Fad Gadget/Frank Tovey, the electronica duo Unmen, which he founded with Nick Cash, award winning contemporary choir The Shout, and free jazz titan Alan Wilkinson.
Since the turn of the 80's, Giles Perring [born 1961] has explored a variety of musical arenas and media, frequently crossing borders into other artforms.
In 1983, as a percussionist and instrument inventor he was founder [with long time collaborator Guy Evans] of sonic sculpture and participatory music making collective Echo City, going on to produce pioneering performances, based on a manifesto of providing access to music making for all, that won acclaim in the UK, North America, the Far East and Europe.
He has worked as a 'hired gun' at various points in his career. In the 80's he spent two years as electric guitarist and percussionist for electronica's enfant terrible Fad Gadget, he played with an incarnation of Van Der Graaf Generator in the 90's and in 2004 he performed with Damo Susuki of Can.
Following his time in Fad Gadget, he collaborated with the band's drummer Nick Cash to record and release a series of acclaimed records via their studio project Unmen.
On the London free improvised music scene, he performs on electric guitar in a number of contexts including Ya Basta whose line-up includes Alan Wilkinson and an exciting collaboration, 'Something Secret' with Carol Grimes.
Since 1998 he has worked with London based choir The Shout [Time Out Classical Performers of the Year in 2001] in a role which might be described as 'percussionist' [although the term belies the unusual instrumentation he brings to the task]. From this relationship has stemmed a number of performances with Shout composer Richard Chew, including Unearth at the MAC in Birmingham in 2004.
Since 1983, Giles has worked in the field of Learning Disabled Arts, both as a facilitator and as a published academic. He most recently worked for Europe's premier learning disabled arts project Heart'n'Soul as a music facilitator and artistic director.
Giles writes and composes music for radio, TV and film, including BBC Radio 4's award winning 'The Tin Drum'; a score for Stan's Café's 2002 silent movie 'Framed' and most recently the music and sound design for BBC1 documentary series 'Dangerous Passions'. His work is also to be found in 'Sex and The City', Malcolm In The Middle', 'Lost', 'Desperate Housewives' and 'The Blue Planet'. In the autumn of 2004, with Susie Honeyman, he composed for a Jerwood commission to accompany Annabel Elgar's photographic installation 'Black Flag' at the Wapping Project. He has also branched out into production, at the invitation of Ginny Clee, to produce two songs on her 2004 album 'Hold On Tight'.
He also works regularly in the field of multimedia with digital text artist John Cayley and, in addition to numerous web based projects, examples of this work have been installed at Platform [2001], 'P0es1s' at the Kulturforum in Berlin [2004] and at Gallery 1926 in Chicago [2004].
Since 2001 he has developed a multimedia performance project, 'The Exchange', an event for a live musician and telephone callers, which he most recently presented as a commission for Modern Art Oxford in 2003.
Most recent work includes a sound art and choral piece for Stans Café Theatre at the 2006 Creative Partnership's National Conference; a sound installation with Melanie Pappenheim for the Artists In The City sound work in Reading, and a 30 minute dance score for former Merce Cunningham collaborator Emma Diamond. In October 2007 the culmination of a two year production project with Carol Grimes, 'Something Secret', was released to critical acclaim.
Future work includes a commission for Sarum Chamber Orchestra to be performed in March 2008.
