Following a grant from PRS Foundation's Women Make Music in order to create the 8-channel sound installation 'babblesnatch', Leona was awarded the Support Grant prize for its 2-channel version in The Karl Sczuka Prize 2023 for Works of Radio Art.  Selected from an open international call-out three awards are made annually for the best productions of radio art using musical material and structures in an acoustic performance.

The genesis of 'babblesnatch' happened during the Covid pandemic lockdown as Leona and her mentor composer/researcher Dr Caroline Wilkins had long-distance discussions about the rush on-line and the torrent of digital information forced to substitute for so much previously gained from live events and gatherings. Everyone virtually listened to and watched each other even more than previously, creating an overwhelming digital infostorm.  'babblesnatch' invites Listeners to use their imagination and consider what it might be like to experience the usually non-audible digital voices and moods continually enveloping us.

The 8-channel installation has been presented twice, premiering in Bridgwater, Somerset, and then moving to Newport, Gwent.

The text for the work was a performance script embedded in an earlier published academic paper by Caroline and adapted by Leona during lockdown to create the recording script. 

Voices: Caroline Wilkins and Leona Jones.
samples mix 5' 24" of 26' 16"

babblesnatch     (extract)

Original cue: "The name Karlheinz Stockhausen may not be instantly familiar to everyone, but this pioneering German composer has been credited with 'literally changing the sound of music and the way we listen to it' - a fact clearly recognised by The Beatles, who were one of the first to adopt his experimental techniques and included his image among the great and the good on the cover of their Sgt Pepper LP. 

The frequently controversial composer amassed a remarkable body of work in his lifetime, much of it produced in Cologne, where his pioneering use of the recording studio inspired generations of musicians to discover new sound worlds of their own. It could well be argued that there isn't a single corner of contemporary music where his influence can't be detected.

Next month marks the tenth anniversary of his death, yet as a recent sold-out performance at London's Barbican demonstrated, his music has lost none of its ability to delight, inspire and confound. And it was a special occasion indeed, as two of Stockhausen's close confidents came together one last time to perform 'Stimmung', a work that still sounds like nothing else, almost fifty years later..."

Stockhausen At The Barbican - Report for BBC Radio 4 - 08.12.17

Leona works with words, her own and found recordings, and utilises spaces both personal and public  &#13;
Definitions are questioned &#13;
Unnoticed boundaries highlighted and crossed&#13;
Repetitions and assumptions becoming jumping off points&#13;
Allowing trajectories away from print and page into installation / audio / digital / performance and visual arts&#13;
Practice and theory meld(mould)ing space physicality locationcontext to fire words with new meaning&#13;
Fluidity not fixing&#13;
It's all about happening&#13;
It’s all about WordsSoundsSpaces&#13;


babblesnatch (extract)

WordsSoundsSpaces

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