Music / News
Bristol composer Dan Jones wins his fourth Ivor Novello Award
A composer from Bristol was one of the winners at the Ivors Classical Awards for a sonic accompaniment to an interactive water ritual on the banks of a Manchester river.
Dan Jones won the Sound Art award for Each Tiny Drop, composed for Risham Syed’s interactive artwork that opened Manchester International Festival.
The Ivors Classical Awards, which took place at the BFI Southbank in London on Tuesday evening, celebrates the most outstanding new classical music and sound art by British, Irish or UK resident composers.
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Each Tiny Drop filled Mayfield Park with a ritual in which participants took water drawn from the River Soan in Pakistan and poured it into the River Medlock.
Jones’ music and sound were produced by a 70-speaker surround sound system, with the structure of the music shaped by how visitors to the newly-created park chose to move or linger in any given place.
The kinetic artworks in Each Tiny Drop were by Savinder Bual, whose installation featuring interactive instrumental reeds was at the Bristol Beacon in 2023, with the installation directed by Pervasive Media Studio resident Angie Bual, creative director and joint CEO of Blagdon-based Trigger.
Dan Jones won his fourth Ivo Novello Award at the Ivors Classical Awards in London on Tuesday evening – photo: Hogan Media / Shutterstock
This latest Ivor Novello Award is Jones’ fourth having previously won gongs in the film and television categories, as well as winning a BAFTA and being nominated for an Emmy.
The composer and sound designer works in film, television, theatre and large-scale public events.
Television credits include World on Fire, The Outlaws and The Life of Mammals; and film scores include On Chesil Beach, Lady Macbeth and Louis Theroux’s documentary feature My Scientology Movie.
In 2003, he composed the music for Luke Jerram’s Sky Orchestra which saw speakers placed in hot air balloons which floated across Bristol, and in 2022 he was head of music and sound for the Commonwealth Games ceremonies.
Main photo: Hogan Media / Shutterstock
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