Hidden Music

What does the skyline of New York sound like? How can you make a composition from your sleep patterns or blood cells? Music can be made from anything we find around us.

From our names or birth dates to our cells, from atoms to stars. Composer and guitarist Milton Mermikides presents the fascinating origins and history of data sonification - the translation of information or patterns into sound and music - as well as a selection of his own compositions derived from sleep cycles, viruses, paintings, exoplanetary moons, traffic patterns and other ‘non-musical’ data. In addition, a string trio of the Ensemble Montage will demonstrate how these data sound and perform a new composition based on ‘the hidden music’ of Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival. Discover how music can reveal the patterns in the natural world, and give us both a theoretical and aesthetic appreciation of everything around us.

Milton Mermikides is a composer, guitarist, and academic in a wide range of musical styles and has collaborated with artists as diverse as Pat Martino, John Williams, Tod Machover, Tim Minchin, The Swingle Singers, Steve Winwood and Brian Eno. He is a lecturer in Music at the University of Surrey, and a Professor of Jazz Guitar at the Royal College of Music.

Ensemble Montage is a group of young classical musicians playing chamber music in different settings and partnerships with other artists.