Visionary Award

Sarah Angliss

It was science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke who noted advanced technology was indistinguishable from magic. But Sarah Angliss’ music has always included healthy doses of both.

Because Angliss is no ordinary musician. The Ivors’ citation for this supremely apt award describes her as “a startling and multi-faceted creative technologist and composer” and she has long woven robotics and electronic innovation into her unique compositions.

She was classically trained, specialising in baroque and renaissance music, but also studied electroacoustic engineering and robotics, and both sides of her education inform her art. So she performs with both humans and machines, and often blurs the lines between sound design and music.

This approach has seen her get involved in countless ground-breaking projects. While she cut her teeth playing live in folk clubs, she has also built the ‘Ealing Feeder’, a “robotic polyphonic carillon” that creates incredible, other-worldly sounds, and pioneered her own processing techniques.

Certainly, if bold ideas were hard currency, Angliss would be the richest musician on earth. Her inventive approach has seen her in huge demand for live performances and soundtrack appearances alike.

And, whether it’s her score for Eugene O’Neill’s expressionist play The Hairy Ape, her astounding electroacoustic work on the soundtrack to Romola Garai’s horror movie Amulet, or the unnerving soundscapes she crafted for the stage show of The Twilight Zone, her work and singular vision never fail to leave a lasting impression.

With one foot in the classicism of the past and the other in the technology-dominated future, Angliss never fails to live in the present, meaning her every move is followed closely by classical and avant-garde pop fans alike.

Because, whatever your stance on technology, no one would ever want to rage against Sarah Angliss’ magical machines.