Ruby Colley | Composer | Sound Artist
“Fabulous, Compelling & very new.”
Sounding the overlooked | Spaces | People | Nature.
Ruby’s work spans across genres from classical, to folk, sound art and even film. Her interests have developed into building a relationship between the audible world and her creative practice. Focusing on the overlooked elements of nature & humanity, this feeds into her performance, composition & audio-visual work.
Her album ‘Overheard’, 2022 draws upon field recordings and weaves in instrumentation & electronics. The album seeks to unravel the connections between human presence & nature in response to the climate crisis. Single Springs Eternal examines the sounds of the dawn chorus in Ruby’s Garden, during the Spring Lockdown 2020.
Her EP ‘Underheard’ 2023, continues the Human experience of the climate catastrophe, along with memory, loss and our place within nature itself.
“Works the kind of spell that puts you in suspension, outside time ★★★★”
Her commission, Edgeland- taken from the environmentalist Marion Shoard who coined the term defined as the interfacial interzone between urban and rural, is an audio/visual work that explores the people (including Ruby’s neurodivergent brother) & places within an Edgeland near her home.
She has written for Film, and collaborated with Theatre and Dance, and played with acts such as Sam Lee, Owen Pallette, The Unthanks, Cosmo Sheldrake, Zoe Keating and the late Sinead O’Connor & John Martyn. She was artist in residence for the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Belfast, (2008) and also realeased the EP ‘Sussex Sessions’ with the esteemed Isobel Anderson in 2014.
“The sound artist Ruby Colley, whose brother is non-speaking, has created a touching reminder that people can express themselves in other ways”
Hello Halo is a new new vocal work performed with Exaudi Ensemble, a leading vocal ensemble for new music.
This composition has been developed alongside Ruby’s brother, Paul Colley, who is neurodivergent & non-speaking.
Despite being termed "non-speaking," Paul uses a rich repertoire of sounds & gestures. This composition transcribes these communication methods, using live voice and recordings of Paul, to make a vocal map of Pauls life & relationships. It is an intimate examination of communication, both subtle and nuanced, and asks questions of what it means to be human.
Listen: Single - Hello Halo
With Exaudi Ensemble
Listen: Single - Sacred Ground
With Riot Ensemble
Inspired by a sound walk in the grounds of church during a thunder storm, Sacred Ground draws upon the sounds of the surrounding space and the building itself to create a soundscape that seeks to communicate the space between human structure, nature and instrumentation. This arrangement of Sacred Ground was recorded with Riot Ensemble as part of the New Streams project in partnership with PRS for Music.
Photos by Georgina Piper