Open Union is an experimental music duo made up of composer-performers Peter Bell (modular synthesiser) and Patrick Ellis (electric guitar) based between Birmingham and London.

Described by the treasured composer Howard Skempton as being, ‘sometimes subtle and unstable; sometimes rich and dense’, the duo aims to build up strong collaborative relationships to create new verbal and text based works. Their current collaborators are Christine Cornwell, Wilson Leywantono, May Chi and Paolo Griffin, with a new piece by Seán Clancy currently in the works.

The duo have performed across the UK at events such as Ealing Extranormal, AMOK, Don't Mind Control, Birmingham Modular Organisation and CODA Festival. In 2025, they supported Passepartout Duo at Centrala Space, Birmingham as part of their UK Tour, and in 2023, undertook a mini tour of The Netherlands as part of the Sounding Here concert series, where they performed at Splendor in Amsterdam and Batavierhuis in Rotterdam.

In July 2025, they will be co-hosting a portrait concert of the works by Paolo Griffin with saxophonist David Zucchi at the Hundred Years Gallery.

Theresa Coffey is a trumpeter and doctoral research fellow at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She loves playing with mixed ensembles and is always looking for collaborators interested in expanding or mixing genres. She's particularly interested in electroacoustic and interdisciplinary work for trumpet and extended musical media. 

As an orchestral player, Theresa has worked as a substitute with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Whiting Park Festival Orchestra, Elmhurst Symphony, and the Northwest Indiana, Southwest Michigan, and West Michigan Symphony Orchestras. She has performed with the Oslo Philharmonic, Norwegian National Opera, and Oslofjord Kammerfilharmoni.

*** UPDATE May 2025. Good news. The SC contractual terms have now been corrected, and our music will no longer be used for AI training. NOTE April 2025: It just came to my attention that, unless we do a separate contract, all our uploaded music in SC can be freely used for AI training. This is written down in the legal section, under the licensing paragraphs. What can (should) we do to change that? *** 

*** Note Dec 2024: Alas, AI generated content that is not disclosed as such is now being posted at an alarming rate, sometimes multiple tracks in a single day from fake artists that even write down fake introductions, saying how much they love music that comes from the heart. Please avoid reposting these deceptions, it only adds to the confusion.  And it encourages the algorithms to give them preference. ***

*** NOTE June 2024: Generative AI is becoming amazingly powerful. Nothing against it. Just to avoid the confusion and embarrassment of finding ourselves praising and encouraging mindless algorithms, I believe it would be nice for us to always disclose its usage in our tracks. What do you think?  ***

Hello, welcome to my page.

I've been making music since 1972. At the time, with Pedro Castro, we created the alternative rock band Petrus Castrus. 

The music I'm placing here is mostly from the home recordings of my ongoing projects and ideas. I created a few playlists (Inéditos) according to language (PO - Portuguese; EN - English; SP - Spanish; FR - French; IT - Italian), and also for concept albums (Três Jardins). There are two long tracks (Mediterrâneo and Isaías) for full concept albums. A playlist called Synergies gathers the collaboration projects with other musicians in the fantastic SoundCloud community.

Petrus Castrus edited records can be found on Spotify and Soundcloud. See the Facebook Petrus Castrus page for more details, including comments about the recordings uploaded here. 

We are both amateur musicians, i.e. music lovers. As for me, I'm just an electrical engineer with a master in AI that really loves creating music and use it to share ideas. That is why all tracks include lyrics or texts.

By the way I'm not interested in third-party offers to boost the number of plays. I like it as it is, and I've always declined such offers. Thanks anyway. 

I don't repost much, just some tracks that I find outstanding and with very few plays, so I can help them to get better known. I believe that repost parsimony also makes life easier for those who follow me.

Enjoy!

james mcIlwrath is an experimental irish composer/performer based in birmingham.

posting bits and pieces, i do other things too

Hi everyone!

My name is Michael Herter, but many people know me as Sibviolin.
I’m a professional musician, composer, and violinist.

In my portfolio, you'll find a diverse collection of music for your videos, just like in an audio music library. My work spans multiple genres, including classical, jazz, pop, rock, electronic, hip-hop, and more.

All my music is available for high-quality download (WAV, 44.1–48kHz, 16–24bit) directly from SoundCloud.

If you enjoy my music, feel free to share my profile with your friends and colleagues. Your support means the world to me!

And if you'd like to show appreciation, a cup of coffee would be truly appreciated. :)

Joe Snape (1989) mixes conventional and homemade instruments with light, text and video to make unusual and emotive performances. His work has been presented at places like The Kitchen (New York), Café Oto (London), and Wonder Site (Tokyo), and also at places like the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) and Aldeburgh Music. The Quietus calls Joe’s music ‘goofy, melancholy, irreverent fun – very, very singularly itself.’ Fluid Radio thinks it’s ‘joyous and beautiful’, and one time in The Guardian Nico Muhly called it ‘organized, disorganized fun’. In front of a small audience, AACM trombonist George Lewis described Joe’s work as ‘some seriously unartful sh*t,’ and everybody agreed. Joe is a former UK Young Artist, has been nominated for the Arts Foundation’s Creative Producer fellowship, and has helped commission new work from over twenty young artists and composers on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a recipient of the 2021-22 Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Award for Artists in Composition and was a 2020-21 composer-in-residence at the beautiful Sage Gateshead.

Followers of Joe Snape