Classification

Artist

Artist

Lee Patterson

Lee Patterson is a British musician, sound artist and maker of experimental musical instruments. He lives and works in Prestwich, Manchester.

 

By using sound recording as a form of ear training, Patterson (b.1971) creates the amplified devices and processes with which he performs. Whether working live with amplification or recording within an environment, he has pioneered a range of methods to produce or uncover complex sounds in unexpected places. From chalk to springs, from burning nuts to aquatic plants and insects, he eavesdrops upon and makes a novelty out of playing objects and situations otherwise considered mute.

Patterson has collaborated with some of today’s most respected experimental musicians and filmmakers, such as: Mika Vainio, Jennifer Walshe, Vanessa Rossetto, David Toop, Rhodri Davies and John Butcher, Greg Pope, Benedict Drew, Luke Fowler, Lucio Capece, Rie Nakajima, Angharad Davies, Phil Durrant, Keith Rowe, John Tilbury, Xavier Charles and Tetsuya Umeda. His works have featured on television in the UK, BBC Radio, Resonance FM and on radio stations worldwide.

… His self-directed research using contact microphones and hydrophones has revealed how many things in the world around us act as sites for energy transferal and as such can be considered as musical instruments in-situ. From singing bridges and sonorous railings to synthesising chalk and the chirping, whistling chorus of ponds, he proposes a new, weird music, albeit one hidden within the fabric of our everyday existence.