Distractfold is a group of performers, composers and curators all acting out of shared love, passion and interest in the music and culture of our times. Coming from different continents, backgrounds and having received a diverse education, together they create a nexus of ideas and influences which all contribute towards the ensemble’s unique voice and identity. They perform acoustic, mixed and electroacoustic music of their peers, alongside music of the more established composers with whom they have formed close collaborations and friendships. In 2014 Distractfold became the first ever UK ensemble to be awarded the Kranichstein Prize for Interpretation at the 47th International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt. In 2016 they returned to Darmstadt presenting two programmes of music at the Centralstation and curated a CD featuring remixes and reworking based on the festival’s 70-year archives. In 2016-17 concert season they focused on curating and producing the 2017 Cut and Splice Festival, which took place in Manchester for the first time since the festival's inception.
Distractfold has been able to invite numerous composers to join them in Manchester for performances at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation - such as Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Hanna Hartman, Weston Olencki, Marek Poliks, Sabrina Schroeder and Lori Freedman to name a few - and have given UK and world premieres of works from composers such as Pierluigi Billone, Santiago Díez-Fischer, Michelle Lou and Andrew Greenwald. Distractfold has also hosted guest performances from artists such as the Mivos Quartet, the Noise Upstairs, Wet Ink Ensemble and Lê Quan Ninh. Alongside their work in Manchester, Distractfold perform regularly in festivals and concert series at home and abroad. Last season saw appearances at Bludenzer Tage Zeitgemäßer Musik in Austria where we presented two concerts including the world premiere of an evening-length piece by Sam Salem commissioned by the festival; Musica In Prossimità in Pinerolo, Italy; Global Adapter in Berlin and the New Music Manchester Festival in Manchester, UK. Passionate about developing new ideas and creative potential among young composers, Distractfold has participated in reading sessions and workshops nationally and abroad. Some of these collaborative projects include workshops at Huddersfield University, Brunel University, Royal Northern College of Music and Ithaca College. In 2016 Distractfold was invited as one of the resident ensembles for the Harvard Group for New Music where they subsequently returned in 2018. In 2017 they were an ensemble in residence at Stanford University, CA. In Feb 2021 they will be in ‘virtual’ residence live from Manchester with composition students from Columbia University, NY.


Commissioned by Zubin Kanga with the support of a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship and Royal Holloway, University of London. 
Performed by Distractfold Ensemble at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester on 18.7.23.
 Videography by ThirdMan Productions. Recorded by Sam Weaver.
October 25th!
RNCM - Royal Northern College of Music
SAM SALEM - SHADOWS
DISTRACTFOLD + MARK KNOOP + Musicians from the BBC Philharmonic orchestra.
Feat. Megan Steinberg and Bofan Ma from PRiSM and Drake Music Artists-in-Residence, Elle Chante and Luke Moore

MONTHLY DIATRIBE SEP '22 -DUBLIN DIGITAL RADIO
Listen to the first track of our new album 'red angle' released in October!


We are looking for 2 performers who identify as Disabled, d/Deaf or neurodivergent to help develop and perform a new 10 – 12 minute piece with PRiSM’s Lucy Hale Doctoral Composer Megan Steinberg and contemporary music ensemble Distractfold at Future Music #4 festival in October 2022. The residency is aiming to be as accessible to all performers as possible, putting accessibility at the start of the process.
LONDON TRIPTYCH - SAM SALEM + DISTRACTFOLD
Track One - No One Can Pass Away
released November 16, 2021 
Bandcamp
all rights reserved​​​​​​​



Buy the entire album on Bandcamp HERE
Download includes PDF booklet designed by Eurico Sá Fernandes and Wooryun Song released November 16, 2021 

Composition: Sam Salem 
Performers: Rocío Bolaños, Linda Jankowska, Alice 
Purton & Emma Richards 
Recording: Gary Hadfield & Sam Salem, Blueprint Studios, Manchester, August 2018 

Editing & Production: Sam Salem, London 2020-21 
Mastering: Richard Scott 
Graphic Design: Eurico Sá Fernandes and Wooryun Song 
This artefact is a release by dFolds.
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In July 2021, Distractfold held a virtual residency with Columbia Composers live from the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester. Postponed due to COVID from their 2019-2020 concert season, this adapted online residency saw the rehearsal and audio/video recording of 5 new works composed by: BillDougherty, Sam Yulsman, Bethany Young, Nina Fukuoka and Uri Kochavi.
Special thanks to Diana Marcela Rodriguez and Jessie Cox for all their tireless work and willingness to see this project realised!
The New Unusual is a series of 11 short solo works commissioned in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and recorded in the homes of Distractfold performers between December 2020 - January 2021. Building upon their podcast series, Conversations from Quarantine, The New Unusual seeks to bring together composers, musicians and audiences from around the globe at precisely the moment that COVID-19 keeps us furthest apart. The New Unusual composers are:
Performed by Daniel Brew, Alice Purton, Rocío Bolaños and Linda Jankowska.
With the projects global reach presenting an exciting range of internationally recognised composers, including from the UK, Europe, the US, the Global South and the Middle East, Distractfold are excited to present this musical socio-cultural document of the time that we are living in and the conditions under which musicians and composers are currently working.
We’re incredibly proud of this project and grateful for the work of all our collaborators and everyone involved! Special thanks to the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation for making this possible.
Visit www.distractfold.co.uk for more!