More information
Now Playing! is our summer programme for children and families making noise in the libraries with international artists and musicians.
Inspired by this year's Summer Reading Challenge theme of 'Read to the Beat', exploring the connection between stories and songs, the programme invites children, young people and their families to discover the library through sound, song and music.
We designed the programme with artists who bring playful and experimental approaches into their art and music-making practices and who have created new ways to share these ideas to young people.
Working with Liverpool artists Charlie Peacock, Mali Draper and Niloo Sharifi as well as bringing international artists Rie Nakajima and Pierre Berthet to the library, Now Playing combines listening, recording, remixing, making and experimenting to see (and hear) the library in new ways.
Artists Charlie and Peacock and Mali Draper bring DIY instrument making and sound recording, adding effects and making your own musical compositions. They also worked with librarians from each library so that they could develop their own experimental, creative sessions with sound and music.
Niloo Sharifi was invited to host two song lyric writing workshops with children in Netherton, listening to music for inspiration and trying out different writing exercises to write our own songs.
Booking
More information on dates and times here.
Workshops with Charlie, Mali, Rie and Pierre are £3. Pop in to the library to secure your spot.
The librarians will also be leading a series of workshops developed with Charlie and Mali, experimenting with the sounds of the library. Find out more information and book your place here.
About the artists
Mali Draper is a sound artist who is interested in how sound can reshape our sense of time, place, and attention. Through play and curiosity, she explores how different sound technologies invite us to move and listen in different ways.
Charlie Peacock makes experimental instruments, bringing together his background as a multi instrumentalist with a strong urge to tinker. He transforms scraps, broken pieces and found objects into artefacts that play music in unexpected ways.
Niloo Sharifi is a musician, writer, filmmaker and fine artist who works fluidly across mediums. nil00's music, digital media and art pushes the boundaries of traditional storytelling.
Motor Music
Make your own sound making machine with Rie Nakajima and Pierre Berthet
Rie and Pierre have devised a workshop your own moving-sounding object out of found materials - metal, wood, shells, plastic and small household items.
Combining elements of their sculptural and sound practices, we'll make our own scultptural pieces together to play, improvise, watch and listen, collaborating once we've made them to create sound and musical experiments.
Everyone is encouraged to bring your own household items to play with, incorporating them into your own motor-driven object to take home and experiment with further!
Designed for ages 8 - 15. Parents are welcome to join and assist (and play!).
Tickets £3 per child. Pop into Library to book your spot.
Rie and Pierre's workshops are produced in collaboration with Howling House, a boutique audio mastering and experimental composition studio run by Lola de la Mata and Andrew Larrabee in Crosby.
Rie and Pierre will perform at Bridewell Gallery on Wednesday 5th August alongside composer Rachael Gibson. Curated by Lola de la Mata and Jon Davies (Kepla), the event will showcase Rie & Pierre’s ongoing collaboration ‘Dead Plants & Living Objects,’ creating sculptures and activating everyday objects “so that their acoustic shadows dance around.”
Event starts at 7pm. Tickets are available here.
Rie Nakajima is a sculptor based in London. She creates sounds using a combination of motorised devices and everyday objects in installations and performances. Her art is between sculpture and music with improvisation at the heart of it.
Pierre Berthet is a musician based in Belgium. He builds sculptural sound objects and installations made from steel, plastic, water, motors, vacuum cleaners and other items and has presented them in exhibitions and performances across music venues, festival, galleries and outdoors.