HOME / TIMETABLE / EXHIBITIONS + WORKSHOPS / LIVE AT COOS / INFORMATION / ARCHIVE

COOS / Colour Out of Space
International Festival of
Experimental Sound and Art

Colour Out of Space is a festival of experimental music and its crossover into other artforms. Since 2006 it has played host to some of the most visionary musicians, sound artists and filmmakers of the last forty years.

COOS is held in Brighton's Sallis Benney Theatre, with daytime performances, screenings, workshops, sonic pop-ups and more running throughout the city. COOS 9 is coming....soon.

COOS at SUPERNORMAL 2 - 4th August 2024

It’s heating up nicely and we’re more than excited to be heading back to Braziers Park for this years DIY experimental arts and music get together. Over the SUPERNORMAL Weekend we’ll be presenting three incredible performances:

ELAINE MITCHENER / NEIL CHARLES
Two British jazz performers, furiously collaborative in their nature and also two-thirds of The Rolling Calf trio, grace Supernormal for a special edition of the Charles-Mitchener duo setup. Titled ‘SPEAK[ING] OUT’, Charles’ double bass improvisations and electronic textures will form the soundbed for Mitchener’s radical vocal interpretations of political texts and poems. Prominent among these will be extracts from ‘Speak Out’ – writings from the Brixton Black Women’s Group, which existed from 1973-85, collected in book form for the first time and published by Verso Books in 2023.

FISH EL FISH
This alias conceals the solitary presence of Syed Kamran Ali, a critter from the undergrowth of the UK-and-outward weirdtronics scene, one time member of The Hunter Gracchus and the solo mind behind Harappian Night Recordings. Now, after many years of absence, Syed is BACK as Fish El Fish and flying out the traps with a debut album, ‘Dog Wearing Dracula Fangs’ - its eight tracks a dense throng of manipulated dream voices, electronics and chance-meetings between synth’n’tape. Adhuman, who released it, speak of psychedelia, exotica and fusion – all in earshot once lateral thinking is applied.

KAREN CONSTANCE & DUNCAN HARRISON
Two real big hitters of South Coast Strangeness put their heads together in bespoke, perhaps even EXCLUSIVE manner, brought to Supernormal by COOS. Karen Constance (Blood Stereo, Wino Lodge und so weiter) and Duncan Harrison (Plurals ++) are both up from Brighton for the weekend for a collaboartion that could take in processed electronics, field recordings, spoken word abstractions and all round audio-visual dream logic. Maybe more.

All details over at the Supernormal site

COOS at SUPERNORMAL 12 - 14th August 2022

Come and join us, deep in the woods of beautiful Braziers Park, for the Colour Out of Space stage at this year's fantastic Supernormal festival. There'll be ecstatic sonic treats across the weekend, as well as screenings, workshops and installations.

https://www.supernormalfestival.co.uk/

PLAGUE TIME TELEVISION

Ever wondered how the lockdowns affected some of your favourite soundmakers from around the world? You’re in luck – COOS’s pandemic era broadcasts 'Plague Time Television' are available to stream below, offering a peek into the creative strategies in a shut-down world of over 150 sound/image manipulators..

Episode One
Neil Campbell & Sticker Foster & Richard Youngs + DDAA + Rick Potts + Moniek Darge + Charlie Drahiem + Natalia Beylis + Teignmouth Electron + Usurper + Sophie Cooper & Jake Blanchard + Glands of External Secretion + Ian Murphy + Plastic Hooligans + Lief Elggren + Fritz Welch + Tom & Milly Roberts + Robert Ridley-Shackleton + More. View Here.

Episode Two
Bruce Russell, Ludo Mich, Kuupuu, BBBlood, Renato Grieco, Floris van Hoof, The Dan, Rakel & Klara Fröberg Experience, Jonnie Prey, Hannah Ellul, Luke Poot, Jérôme Noetinger & Liz Racz (pictured), Wol, Core of the Coalman/Kneeling Coats, DJ Foreign Extra featuring Adam Bohman, All Ords, Dylan Nyoukis, Food People & Adam Butcher, Fielding Hope & Silja Strøm, Manny Pads, Chie Mukai, {AN} EeL, Ash Reid, Nicolas Nicholas Langley, Lucian Tielens, Blue Spectrum, Marja-leena Sillanpää and Maths Balance Volumes. View Here

Episode Three
Forrest Friends, Ezio Piermattei & Chiara Fiori, Embla Quickbeam, Liz Albee, The Piss Superstition, Yoni SIlver, Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson, Dog Lady, Shane Mcdonell, I'D M Theftable, Bob Desaulniers, The Nevari Butchers, Sami Pekkola (above), Posset, F.Ampism, Bren't Lewiis ensemble, Anla Courtis, The Bohman Brothers, Andie Brown, Slohhh Listener, Roy Claire Potter & Kieron Piercy, Reijo Pami and Porest. View Here

Episode Four
Amon Dude, Evil Moisture, Doreen Kutzke, Cloth, Aqua Dentata, Chick White, Lala Lu & Skull Mask, Witcyst, Ute Wassermann, Steve Beresford & Blanca Regina (top), Peter Fengler, Gussett Giblett, Feghoots, Alex Drool. Stewart Greenwood, This is Yvonne Lovejoy, Gen Ken Montgomery, Muyasser Kurdi, Mitchell Brown, Papal Bull, Sharkiface, Licker, Michael Zuclicki. Alice Kemp, Brandstifter, Herb Diamante. View Here

Episode Five
Beyt Al Tapes, Hearty White, LDSN, Elaine Mitchener, Mutant Beatnicks, Blood Stereo, Ecka Mordecai, Dora Doll, Iain Paxon & Ida, Grohs, Sippy Cup, Willie Stewart, Vlubä, The Bim Prongs, Plastic Containers of Nothing, Olivia Furey, Barry Esson, Odie Ji Ghast, Ed Shipsey, Modern Medicine, Khnaisser/Khnaisser/Robertson/Robertson/Sturm, Loner Club, Christian Butler-Zanetti, Michael Kemp, Sandy Milroy, Scott-Buccleuch/Sigmarsson/Sharpley, Chlorine, Dave Miko, Bleep Shapes, The Teleporters, Allanah Stewart, Zven Baslev, Cody Brant & Frances Young. View Here

COLOUR OUT OF SPACE (8):
26 - 28th April 2019: Looking back

Thankyou to everyone who made COOS (8) one of our favourite years yet. Who was there and what went on - the big scroll down menu of all artists and events is just a click away.

COOS (8) featured: Glands Of External Secretion (USA) + Red Brut (NL) + Robert Ridley-Shackleton (UK) + Wild Rani (UK) + Charles Mitchener Duo (UK) + Ezio Piermattei (IT) + Ash Reid (UK) + Plastic Hooligans (UK) + Duncan Harrison (UK) + Ryoko Akama (JP) + Alice Kemp (UK) + Ian Helliwell (UK) + Julian Weaver (UK) + Plastic Containers Of Nothing (UK) + Bill Nace & Twig Harper (USA) + White Death (UK) + Pat Thomas (UK) & Adam Bohman (UK) & Sami Pekkola (FI) & Yoni Silver (IL) + The Elks (DK) + Beyt Al Tapes (BE) + AF Ursin (BE) + Ernie K Fegg (UK) + Tom White & Stuart Chalmers (UK) + Hiru Marsvin (UK) + Dai Coelacanth (UK) + Harappian Night Recordings (UK) + Joincey (UK) + Chie Mukai (JP) & Richard Youngs (UK) + Alvarius B (USA) + Papal Bull (UK) + Stewart Greenwood (UK) + Anne Gillis (FR) + Graham Lambkin (UK) & Áine O'Dwyer (IE) + Jérôme Noetinger (FR) + The Dan, Rakel and Klara Fröberg Experience (SW) + Olivier Brisson (FR) + Natalia Beylis (IE) + Tomutonttu (FI) + Lovely Honkey (UK) + Ed Baxter (UK) + Cathy Soreny (UK) + The Burbling Mind (UK)

Meanwhile...outside of the main performance space two new festival strands got the daytimes underway; Resonance FM's Ed Baxter launched The Free University of COOS at Phoenix Brighton– a day of talks offering a crash course in current thinking around sound, music and noise. While around town, the Sonic-Arts Trail featured site-specific wonders in Brighton landmarks including The Pepperpot (opened for the first time in a decade) with Ian Helliwell, little known folly The Tarner Tower with Alice Kemp, and London Rd’s bustling Open Market, which fell silent as Ryoko Akama's minimal, kinetic sound sculptures gathered momentum (above).

Two exhibitions ran throughout; ONCA hosted Unia Loimussa (Dreams inside a Blaze) - the first ever UK exhibition from visual artist, musician and all round Finnish DIY creative lynchpin Jan Anderzen (below). In Jubilee Library, Ian Murphy's What Was Music? featured twelve sound-collages created by local schoolchildren using samples sent from artists around the world. Listen to all recordings and read more from both exhibitions here



Ash Reid & Ali Robertson (below) were in residence at Phoenix Brighton over the weekend with ‘In The Future You’ll Be Able To Get All The Expensive Designer Wallpaper That Your Heart Desires For Free: Live from Lubberland’ - a radio series for and from the future. Working with audience members and COOS artists, it was recorded daily and broadcast nightly through Resonance Extra. Visit all three Lubberland excursions.

Insights from (nearly) all events can be found in Matt Dalby's audio diaries.
Live sets from COOS (8), originally streamed to ease you through lockdown, are here.

We hope to see you for COOS (9) soon!

Still confused? From the archives: A Resonance FM - COOS primer from sound artist Ilia Rogatchevski featuring music and interviews with Steve Beresford, Johannes Bergmark, Birgit Ulher, Stewart Lee, Tania Chen, Matt Krefting, Claire Potter and Kent Tankred, recorded at COOS (7)

Join us on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram

Contact: info@colouroutofspace.org

Music enquiries: dylan_nyoukis@hotmail.com

COOS is steered by Chocolate Monk - one of the longest running, independent experimental archives / inprints anywhere. Unravel the knot in your head.

Thankyou to our funders and supporters for making COOS (8) possible:

.. .

HOME / TIMETABLE / EXHIBITIONS + WORKSHOPS / LIVE AT COOS / INFORMATION / ARCHIVE