Reviews
Twittering Machines at Sonica, Tramway, Glasgow, November 2019
“Arguably the most incredible work of the evening is from UK artist Kathy Hinde, whose Twittering Machines is like a twenty-first century zoetrope. … It’s a brilliant study of the dissemination of language in our increasingly tech-savvy planet.” **** The List review by Lorna Irvine
Twittering Machines at Mutek, Montreal, August 2019
“Bristol-based electroacoustic artist Kathy Hinde captivated the room… Hinde’s impulse to place a pair of singing bowls on a turntable was a particular revelation, a pair of tiny overhanging microphones picking up all the Doppler glory of their dance as Hinde periodically bowed, struck and rubbed mallets around their outer rims to coax glowing tones out of the bells, the audience entranced as the song developed a danceable rhythm.” Exclaim review by Tom Beedham
Aeolian, collaboration with Maja Ratkje, Andreas Borregaard abnd Red Note Ensemble, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2018
” …never have i seen and heard such a kaleidoscopic panoply of bizarre and exotic musical instruments used in a way that cancels out completely the idea of novelty. …the most beautiful, exquisitely-designed and executed ballet of action and sound, like a tender exquisite lullaby, perfect before heading off to bed.” Review by 5against4.com
Luminous Birds at Govanhill Baths, Glasgow, produced by Cryptic 2016
“There is something poignant about the delicacy of Hinde’s flock of origami birds… Lights rush in perfect harmony with the wash of sound creating a unified sensorial experience.” The Times ****
Phase Transition at Sonica, Govanhill Baths, Glasgow 2017
“Hinde’s work is full of intellectual heft and ecological concern without ever coming over as cold or inaccessible. Phase Transitions was the standout installation at this year’s Sonica festival; the arresting presentation of turntables and infrared lamps amid the starkness of the empty swimming pool required multiple viewings to fully comprehend the gravity of the piece. … It works – quite magnificently so – creating an awareness of space and emptiness like nothing else at Sonica.” The Quietus review by Colm McAuliffe
Tipping Point at Sonica, CCA, Glasgow 2015
“…there is much to be gained from allowing your attention to slip away and be carried off into abstract reflections, held aloft by the delicate, measured interplay of glass, water and electronics.” Total Theatre, Michael Begg
Tipping Point at Sonica, Kings Place, London 2016
“It’s like no sound I’ve heard before. Pure, ghostly tones creep up and down the scale, sliding from one delicate harmony to the next. It could almost be music from outer space, or snatches of song heard a mile under the sea. In fact it’s produced by audio feedback from shifting water levels in glass vessels that look alarmingly like medical equipment. Kathy Hinde’s “Tipping Point” was one of the most arresting installations at Sonica” Financial Times, Hannah Nepil
“The sound is much like a glass harmonica playing gentle glissandi… What was intended as sonic art is actually a beautiful new instrument.” The Wire, Leo Chadburn
Singularity Soundtrack for video by Solveig Settemsdal, at Sonica, CCA, Glasgow 2017
“…you get these unspeakably elegant and shimmering scintillas of fractal patterns and fluid strings hovering between liquid and matter.” The Quietus review by Colm McAuliffe
Piano Migrations, at Sonica, Scottish Music Centre, Glasgow 2012
“The best work of the festival, however, was an unassuming installation in the foyer of the Scottish Music Centre. In Kathy Hinde’s Piano Migrations, a piano becomes a bird cage (or should that be a Cage bird)…. A simple illusion but an absolutely mesmerising one.” The Artsdesk review by Igor Toronyilalic.
Piano Migrations, at Arnolfini, Bristol, 2010
“… the standout experience is an audiovisual installation by Kathy Hinde: an ingenious music box, in which video of flittering birds on six electricity lines becomes an ever-changing score, their come-and-go presence triggering cracks and clicks in the guts of a piano mechanism. It’s somehow completely alive, and you could relax in its company for hours.” Venue Magazine
Below the Blanket at Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, produced by Cryptic, August 2019
“Strongest of all are the works by Kathy Hinde, a regular Cryptic collaborator, which blend sound and vision so that you can hardly see the joins. Water-filled tubes set hanging gongs gently chiming in her Water Balance, while a flock of accordion bellows wheeze messages from their precarious perches in a tree in her Chirp & Drift. But her closing coup de théâtre – to say more would spoil the show’s beguiling final surprise – seems troubled in its use of recorded birdsong. Is this all we’ll be left with?” Artsdesk review by David Kettle
Below the Blanket at Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, produced by Cryptic, August 2019
“The experience begins with Deep Listening Soundscapes and Water Balance by Kathy Hinde … at times feels more like a smoothed object than an art installation – well-oiled parts perfectly merging to conjure a trancelike state in the observer.
Metallic pipes burst from the undergrowth, echoing supernatural sounds recorded from beneath the mysterious peat bogs of the Flow Country. Around the corner, a majestic interpretation of traditional Japanese water features finds fountains filling pipes that, when full, tip to hit cymbals which ring endlessly into the pollen-thick air. Away from the pond, a winding, vegetal path is cloaked in an enigmatic, otherworldly soundscape that summons the spirit of the wind from the north. The sonic effect is overwhelming as the beautiful plant-life ripples in the breeze.
…the tail end of the trip matures into a wondrous, emotional finish. Kathy Hinde’s surreal Chirp & Drift sees salvaged accordions hanging from a tree like mysterious birds, expanding and contracting to create a powerful soundtrack that echoes over the landscape.
Down the path by the Gardens’ beautiful, ornate greenhouses, I’m handed a ‘sonic umbrella’ for Hinde’s perfect, ingeniously simple Skylark Walk. The umbrella is equipped with a high-quality speaker that plays a stunning, birdsong-infused minimalist composition that reaches toward pure ecstasy. “ London Student review by James Witherspoon.
Piccard in Space, Opera by Will Gregory, Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London 2011
“Kathy Hinde’s video is brilliant and often beautiful” The Guardian, Guy Dammann