ORNIS is a collaboration between the Potsdam based flautist / composer Sabine Vogel and audiovisual artist Kathy Hinde from Bristol. In 2008 Mats Lindström, director of EMS, Stockholm commissioned a work by Kathy Hinde and Sabine Vogel for the Norberg Festival in Sweden. From this, they formed the duo ORNIS. They create installations, performances, and audio visual compositions that are often concerned with memory, resonance, and the changing states of matter.

Their most recent work ‘Scattering Layer’ was premiered in Berlin as part of the Kontraklang series in April 2018 ,

The ‘Scattering Layer’ is a layer in the ocean that is very densely populated with small marine animals and can often be mistaken as the ocean bed. Working with a combination of flutes, objects, live electronics, field recordings and video, ORNIS takes the audience on an immersive audio-visual journey inspired by the natural world. At Kontraklang, the concert space functions as an extended stage through which Hinde and Vogel move to interact with dispersed sets of objects and instruments. The movement of water, the flocking patterns of birds, and swarms of buzzing insects merge both visually and sonically into layered textures, blending with acoustic sounds with samples and electronics. 

Video of extracts from Scattering Layer

Ornis has performed at the following Festivals and venues: ISEA 2010 (DE);  Norberg (SE); Audiograft, Oxford (UK); intersonanzen, Potsdam (DE); Brighton Fringe (UK); Kontraklang Berlin (DE); Steim, Amsterdam (NL). Bristol (UK); 
A performance by ORNIS in an empty swimming pool, Bristol, August 2012, hosted by ArtspaceLifespace. Sabine Vogel plays flutes and electronics with video by Kathy Hinde projected onto melting sheets of ice.

The following video was created for the online advent calendar “Sounding December” in 2010.

Sabine and Kathy are currently developing new performances and challenging the way in which they present their work so it crosses over into installation / performance.

During a residency at Steim, Amsterdam, ORNIS explored the possibilities of projecting images onto ice and glass, and also using these materials to generate sounds. Here is a video from an Ornis performance at Steim in August 2010