Music-making instrument builder
Who they?
Australian-born, but London-based multi-instrumentalist Lia Mice works in installations, composition and instrument design, saying that she uses “new technologies to explore relationships between the musical instrument and embodied performance”. She also recently enlisted a troupe of musicians to remix her 2018 experimental electronic album ‘The Sampler As A Time Machine’.
Why Lia Mice?
The likes of A’Bear, Loraine James and Lizzy Laurance have flexed their reworking muscles on ‘The Sampler As A Time Machine Remixed’. In fact, Mice has played alongside all the artists found on the album over the past few years. “Some I met through my experimental club night Electrolights AV,” she explains, “which has been a real treasure trove for me in terms of discovering artists who are creating extremely unique production methods and live shows.” All proceeds from the album will go to the Accessible Musical Instrument Collection, the world’s first collection of accessible instruments.
Tell us more…
Mice is partially blind and is a champion of accessibility, having created a number of her own instruments for disabled musicians. These include a one-handed violin that uses a throat microphone to alter pitch, the ChandeLIA, a “hacked chandelier” that emits sounds through percussion and pitch shifts by being swung and Reeltime, a custom four-track that’s tapeless and was born after frustrations performing with physical tape. She also supported Object and Ezra Miller (not that one) at their sell-out show in Islington Assembly. With something always on the go, we’re looking forward to seeing what Mice does next.
‘The Sampler As A Time Machine Remixed’ is out on Optimo Music
