Press: Scotsman New Found Sound Artist Of the Week - Sonia Killmann February 2022
Short Summary
I am a saxophone player, electronic musician, and audiovisual artist whose practice is deeply influenced by interdisciplinary work and collaborative processes. More recently I have been exploring the relationship between sound and environment and have been inspired by Pauline Oliveros' ideas of collective listening and sonic meditation. Being a Cryptic Artist, I work primarily as an electronic and multi-media composer and strive to create immersive experiences for audiences. Over recent years I have collaborated with poets such as Imogen Stirling, theatre companies such as Vanishing Point and Scottish Ballet dancers Constant Vigier and Jamiel Laurence. My work is based on improvisational processes from which I create live audiovisual shows, sound art and scores. In 2024 I spent two weeks at the Electronic Music Studios (EMS) in Stockholm, a residency in Cove Park with Laura Mannelli and am going on a tour of Scotland with Vanishing Point and Imogen Stirling to present Love The Sinner as the musician on stage.
Detailed Artist Bio
Sonia Killmann is an international composer and multi-media artist. As a saxophone player, electronic musician, and audiovisual artist, Sonia has performed across the UK and Europe and has recently been nominated for Best Electronic Artist 2022 at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards. Their works are largely inspired by composers such as Pauline Oliveros, Colin Stetson and Alvin Lucier and explore the relationship between sound and environment through audiovisual soundscapes. Sonia has been collaborating with dancers, theatre makers and visual artists from France, Germany and Belgium after graduating with a master's in composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where Sonia studied with Dr Linda Buckley. The composer also works closely with Cryptic Glasgow as a Cryptic Artist. Sonia’s work ranges from creating ambient electronic music to classical music using acoustic instruments or electroacoustic compositions.
Improvisational processes heavily influence Sonia's music and that leads to audiovisual shows either as a solo performer or with collaborators. Their most recent collaboration took place at Sameheads in Berlin in 2024 where Sonia performed with electronic musician Antonia Kattou from Cyprus. In March 2024 the composer completed a residency at EMS in Stockholm to implicate modular synthesis in her practice and translate her work into spatial audio.
Aside from being a solo artist, Sonia is also a versatile composer who flourishes during collaborative processes. Since 2022, Sonia has collaborated on an interdisciplinary level with dancers and theatre makers. In May 2023, they worked with Imogen Stirling and Vanishing Point on their show "Love The Sinner" as the musician on stage. Later, they also composed the music for Imogen's show "The Boulders We Carry", which premiered at the Scottish Mental Health Festival in October that same year.
Sonia is also interested in the conjunction of movement and sound and has worked with Ballet dancers, such as Yasmine Naghdi and Constant Vigier, with whom Sonia worked on One Dance UK and BBC Dance Passion 2022 and created the Fringe Show "Bamboozled" (2022). Simultaneously, the composer also worked with dancer and choreographer Jamie Laurence on his "Read Only Memory" ballet for Rubicon Dance Company, which premiered in September 2022 in Newport.
Being fluent in French, German and English, Sonia has collaborated with artists around Europe and premiered a second Edinburgh Fringe Festival show "Là-haut" in 2023 at the French Institute. The show was made possible through the receipt of the Queer To Stay artist bursary from the Shaper Caper dance company in Dundee.
In Sonia’s ambient duo Failed System Test, the composer uses coded visuals and Ableton Live to create an immersive experience through melodic saxophone playing and live digital processing of multiple mediums together with Aidan Lochrin.
Aside from creating visuals for live performances, Sonia also creates visuals for other sonic material and has collaborated with the Royal Northern Sinfonia on a classical concert at Sage Gateshead in November 2021 and March 2022. In March 2022, they performed alongside Annabelle Playe on Ad Astra with audio-reactive visuals in Cryptic's Sonica 2022 festival.
In addition, Sonia also teaches electronic music techniques and live visual coding to make electronic and audiovisual music more accessible. In January 2022 Sonia went on an artist's residency to teach workshops in visual coding and digital music making in Yekaterinburg (Russia) as part of a collaboration with the Pushkin Museum, British Council and Cryptic Glasgow. Sonia also programs concerts and volunteers with the sound art organisation Sound Thought which helps promote the work of local and emerging artists.
