Sat, Oct 26 - Sun, Nov 3, 2024
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA)
Distractfold return as ensemble in residence at Stanford University. We’ll be workshopping and premiering six exciting new works by Stanford graduate composers! Join us for the hang!
Concert FREE and open to the public, date TBC.
Thorayya Kaddoura ثريّا قدّورة, “Soufounan Banaha Nouh” (1925-26)
Fixed media
Kareem Samara كريم سمارة - Live audiovisual set 
Soosan Lolavar سوسن لولااور + Colin Alexander - Live set
Zeynep Toraman, Castle Terraces in Barry Lyndon (2023)
Co-commission with Ensemble Contrechamps, for electric guitar, clarinet, violin, cello & electronics, performed by Distractfold Ensemble (Rocío Bolaños, Daniel Brew, Linda Jankowska, Sergio Serra Lopez). Film by Burak Çevik. UK premiere
Sam Salem أسامة سالم, Waves of crashing blackness (2024) -For piano, electronics & fixed audiovisual media, performed by Mark Knoop. World premiere
BINT بنت  - Live audiovisual set

TAK Ensemble and Distractfold
Friday, March 29, 2024
Join us for a joint evening of exciting music with exciting people as TAK ensemble make their Manchester debut!
TAK:
Mouthpiece 28 — Erin Gee
the moon sank. the wet grass — Golnaz Shariatzadeh
For jaimie branch — Tyshawn Sorey
Ballad of the Water of the Sea — Ashkan Behzadi
Distractfold:
The Cloud Factory — Hanna Hartman
A Thing Made Whole (Coda) by Andrew Greenwald

Distractfold - Manchester University Residency
Thu, Dec 7, 2023 - Fri, Apr 26, 2024
Distractfold continue their annual residence working with composition students at Manchester University. This year they explore the exciting combination of clarinets and e-guitar across 2 hands-on, intensive workshops.

Thursday, May 23, 2024
Kaufman Music Centre, Merkin Hall, NYC
Pianist-composer Conrad Tao invites UK-based new-music collective Distractfold to make their NYC debut with the world premiere of Andrew Greenwald’s A Thing Made Whole VIII and music by Jürg Frey, Hanna Hartman and Mauricio Pauly. 
Programme:
JÜRG FREY – Extended Circular Music No. 2 / Conrad Tao, piano
HANNA HARTMAN – The Cloud Factory / Distractfold
ANDREW GREENWALD – A Thing Made Whole VIII (World Premiere) / Distractfold
MAURICIO PAULY – Charred Edifice Shining / Distractfold
ANDREW GREENWALD – A Thing Made Whole V / Distractfold with Conrad Tao


Distractfold at Another Sky Festival - Cafe Oto
29/09, 30/09 and 01/10
Another Sky is a new London festival celebrating experimental music from the SWANA (South West Asia & North Africa) region and diaspora. Our artists, whose backgrounds span Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine & Türkiye, elide genre and category to bring beats, improv, ambient soundscapes, pieces composed for classical and non-western instruments, moving image, voice, machine-learning technologies and more.
Visit our website for the full programme: https://anotherskyfestival.com/
To purchase solidarity tickets – to help fund discounted tickets for those who need them – please visit https://anotherskyfestival.com/
Another Sky is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, PRS for Music Foundation Open Fund, The Marchus Trust and the Hinrichsen Foundation


66 International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn
Riot Ensemble
21/09
Maja Bosnić, Best of Fibres
Karol Nepelski, ZONA
Bára Gísladóttir, Animals of your Pasture 
 Sky Macklay, Plucky
Clara Iannotta, They left us grief-trees wailing at the wall 




Wed, Sep 6, 20237:30 PM - Thu, Sep 7, 2023 10:00 PM
Distractfold members: Rocío Bolaños - clarinets / Daniel Brew - electric guitar / Alice Purton - cello
Friends: Celeste Betancur - live coding and electronics / Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi - live electronics / Mike Mulshine - Vocals, keys, piano and live electronics. / Sean loaf O Dalaigh - contact mics and objects
PROGRAMME
Part 1
- All of it by Mike Mulshine. For cello, clarinet, guitar, piano and voice.
- Shimmering, insistent by Sean loaf O Dalaigh. For solo cello.
- Ánimas by Celeste Betancur. For violin, cello, clarinet, and live electronics.
- Just Like Blueberries by Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi. For electric guitar and live electronics.
Part 2
- Anonymous Room by Lemon Gou. For everyone.


Distractfold and Anna Korsun, GMEA residency
11/04-15/04
During a week of residency at GMEA (Centre National de Création Musicale, Albi - France), Distractfold will be working alongside composer Anna Korsun to rehearse and record a portrait album of her works: Sottilissime for singing string trio, Tollers Zeller for soprano and electric guitar, and Of Birds— a brand new work for violin, viola, cello, clarinet and electric guitar.​​​​​​​








Distractfold @ Cafe Oto
26/02
Distractfold return to Cafe Oto to present a brand new work by Anna Korsun alongside host of exciting new additions to the groups rep!


Distractfold Residency @ Stanford University, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA)
06/02-12/02
Distractfold performs new works by Stanford graduate composers Celeste Betancur, Seán Ó Dálaigh, Lemon Guo, Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, Mike Mulshine.




Ghikas-Bolaños-Roth @ Boat-ting
09/01
Free Improv at BAR&CO, Temple Pier Embankment


December 20th - Distractfold + Ligeti Quartet @ The Fire Station
BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show returns to the Fire Station with a specially recorded event featuring several new music acts: the renowned Ligeti Quartet, and the cutting edge ensemble Distractfold, plus solo piano works with electronics played by Kate Ledger, and the world premiere of a BBC commissioned work for 4 turntables written and performed by Mariam Rezaei.
The show recorded on this evening will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show on Saturday 7th January 2023 at 22.00.



November 30th - Distractfold + Weston Olencki @Iklectik
Distractfold presents the three world premieres of new solo works by Zeynep Toraman, Santiago Diez-Fischer, and Sam Salem, alongside Berlin-based trombonist and composer, Weston Olencki. + UK premiere of The Cloud Factory by Hanna Hartman.





November 27th - Mantis Festival
University of Manchester
November 20th & 21st - Riot Ensemble
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

red angle
https://distractfoldensemble.bandcamp.com​​​​​​​
performed and produced | Rocío Bolaños & Daniel Brew
recorded | Conservatoire de Pantin, Paris
mastered | Richard Scott
artwork | Ryan Griggs
supported | Help Musicians UK
'We make decissions all the time. We think about possible futures. We ask ourselves what might happen if we do this or that. But luckily, we have uncertainty's grace of never knowing exactly what's about to happen. Like a red angle on a blank sheet of paper we are doors which open up to endless possibilities. More so, we are a product of endless possibilities. We are uncertainties that dialogue. Red Angle is simply that. A snapshot in time of the potentiality of three lives which dialogue.'
- Santiago Díez-Fischer
A recording project between myself, Santiago Díez-Fischer and Daniel Brew which has been in the pipeline for the last 3 years will finally see the light thanks to the generous support of Help Musicians UK! Without them this would not have been possible. Thank you! Super excited!
The album is called “red angle” and features 3 new works entitled, if at first it sounded like rain… (for bass clarinet, guitar and tape), if objects are not solid… (for bass clarinet and electronics), and if an enigma came into the room… (for guitar and amplified objects). Besides the unfamiliar instrumentation, the compositional thread which ties these works together is one symbolising a unity between art and humanity. Inspired by the work of Canadian poet, Anne Carson, the titles of these works put their emphasis on the word “if” and how this relates to the potential within human actions, more specifically expressed musically through exploring the potential within each action a performer takes on their instrument. Through defining and restricting ourselves to different sets of parameters specific to each musical work the album embraces a collaborative approach to composition exploring a seemingly unlimited sonic potential from which completed musical works inherently communicate something personal to those involved and unique to the times in which we live.


Conversation in the Cloud
solo bass clarinet and AI 
 A live multimedia composition for one human musician and one AI musician. The conversations of both musicians start at the intersection of reality and virtuality via music. Then, both musicians will push their limits through improvisation based on each other's music during the live performance. Finally, the two worlds gradually blend as the conversation deepens. The AI musician is a comprehensive system that applies multiple machine learning techniques to enhance its machine musicianship, such as deep neural networks and human body pose estimation. The combination of live multimedia and the performances of two musicians thus creates a multidimensional musical conversation - Hongshuo Fan


July 25th - Distractfold @ Cafe Oto
Distractfold present performances of a selection of works from their 2021 commissioning project, The New Unusual, alongside new pieces by Hunjoo Jung and Bára Gísladóttir.

October 25th - Future Music #4 Festival 
Distractfold, RNCM PRiSM and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Distractfold is excited to be in residence at the Royal Northern College of Music from February - October 2022. They will be working on 2 new student works with Megan Steinberg and Daniel Kidane as well as presenting a new work by Sam Salem to be performed together with members of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Mark Knoop.

May 17th - Distractfold @ Unerhörte Musik
Andrew Greenwald - A Thing Made Whole VI
Ute Wassermann - Go Between
Sivan Cohen Elias - multicounterspeachless
Sam Salem - THIS IS FINE
Hunjoo Jung - Talk_To/abouT/wiTh_My…
Alexandra Hallen - 4 musicians with heart beat sensors and VR headsets.




April 12th and 13th
Distractfold Swiss Tour + reConvert
Ackermannshof AG Theaterstrasse 4, 4051 Basel, Switzerland 
Kunstraum Walcheturm Kanonengasse 20, 8004 Zürich, Switzerland 

March 12th - Classic Escalation of Commitment @ Iklectik
 A real-time composition for bass clarinet and fixed audio. A derivative of the Unrealtime project, the work utilises techniques of real-time audio collage in the form of a video-score for controlled improvisation.
March 5th - Musical Futures: Distractfold @ Tung Auditorium
Musical Features is an annual series of concerts and events that explore the future of music-making, digital creativity, and new ways to perform, experience, and interact with music. Distractfold will be performing an exciting mix of solo and ensemble works including 2 world premieres.


November 11th - Premiere of Classic Escalation of Commitment @ Free Range
A real-time composition for bass clarinet and fixed audio by Panos Ghikas, followed by other solo works and a duo of free improvisation featuring drums and electronics, along with bass clarinet. 
October 30th - Switch~ Ensemble 
@ SinusTON Festival
Magdeburg, Germany
EP - Louis D'Heudieres + Rocío Bolaños
coming up soon!
September 3rd - ReConvert + Distractfold 
Copenhagen, Denmark
Little teaser of "Rage Against Reply Guy" by Bára Gísladóttir
Distractfold, RDAM, Copenhagen